The potential “Arrow” spinoff about the Canaries is officially dead at CW, Variety has learned.
Plans for the show were first announced in September 2019, six months after it was announced that “Arrow” would end after its eighth season. A backdoor pilot aired in January 2020 as part of “Arrow” Season 8, titled “Green Arrow & The Canaries.” The episode took place two decades after the end of the original show and starred Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak, Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance, and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake.
Cassidy began with “Arrow” in the show’s pilot, though she was killed off in Season 4 before returned in Season 6. McNamara first joined “Arrow” in its seventh season. Harkavy had been with “Arrow” since Season 5 and has also appeared in multiple “Arrow”-verse shows.
Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Beth Schwartz, Marc Guggenheim, Jill Blankenship and Oscar Balderrama were all executive producers on the project, with Schwartz, Guggenheim, Blankenship and Balderrama co-writing the episode. Berlanti Productions produced in association with Warner Bros. Television.
But DC fans need not fret, as there are a number of new superhero shows currently in the works at CW. Among those is a “Wonder Girl” series and another based on the DC character Naomi. Blankenship is co-writing the “Naomi” project along with Ava DuVernay. The network is also prepping a “Black Lightning” spinoff built around the character “Painkiller,” which will get its own backdoor pilot during the fourth and final season of “Black Lightning.”
The CW has found great success with its superhero lineup, which currently includes “The Flash,” “Supergirl,” “Legends of Tomorrow,” “Batwoman” and the upcoming “Superman & Lois.