The CW Passes On ‘Green Arrow And The Canaries’
by Erik Amaya
It seems William Clayton (Ben Lewis) will remain kidnapped in 2040.
According to TVLine, The CW has finally passed on Green Arrow and the Canaries. The proposed series would have stared Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak, the daughter of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) in a future version of Star City. Though she grew up in a privileged position, the arrival of Canaries Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) from 2020 unleash memories of her pre-Crisis life and her own time as the new Green Arrow. It also reminds her that her fiance was her bitter enemy in the old reality and, well, events lead to her brother William getting kidnapped. And as for the series hook? Laurel goes to 2040 to prevent Mia from failing Star City.
Arrow used its penultimate episode as a backdoor pilot for the series back at the beginning of 2020, and though the network seemed excited to continue with the premise, a change of priorities and the COVID-19 pandemic led to the show’s status going unconfirmed. Even in May, when the network announced its Fall lineup would be delayed to 2021, Green Arrow was left conspicuously out of the mix.
Of course, the Arrowverse is in the midst of massive changes with both Supergirl and Black Lightning planning for their upcoming seasons to be their last. Additionally, next Sunday sees the debut of new Batwoman star Javicia Leslie and February sees the premiere of Superman & Lois. At one point, network president Mark Pedowitz referred to Green Arrow and Superman & Lois as the beginning of the next Arrowverse generation, but it seems that changed somewhere along the way with the network instead developing a new Wonder Girl series and the Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller.
Deciding to back away from the future-set series is not too surprising. The wait to confirm it though, is something of a surprise — especially in light of the other shows coming to a close by next fall. Pay particular attention to Wonder Girl and Painkiller as they develop. Either or both going to series will speak to the health of the Arrowverse on The CW. But even if the Arrowverse folds up in the next few years, we expect a lot of these characters to appear on HBO Max series before long.