5 reasons why The CW needs to pick up Green Arrow and The Canaries

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Arrow — “Green Arrow & The Canaries” — Image Number: AR809d_0597r.jpg — Pictured: Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance/Black Siren — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW — © 2020 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved. /

Oliver’s story may be over, but these characters’ stories aren’t

Arrow was an eight-season thrill-ride that told the story of Oliver Queen’s attempts to right the wrongs of his rich family and make Star City a safer place. He ultimately accomplished that and just so happened to save the whole damn multiverse in Crisis On Infinite Earths too. And in creating the new multiverse, he created a Star City that was free from crime… for 20 years, that is.

Oliver’s story had a start and a conclusion, but we need to remember that there are other characters whose stories weren’t wrapped up that way.

You could argue that his daughter Mia Queen completed her arc by becoming the new Green Arrow in 2040 to protect the city from the rising crime, but even then, there’s a host of new potential storylines waiting to be explored for the blossoming hero. As for the Canaries, that’s where things get really interesting.

Let’s take Laurel Lance for example. A character who has spent much of her life running towards the darkness (being a deadly supervillain from Earth-2 will do that for you), Laurel has been trying to leave Black Siren in the past and follow in the footsteps of the original Earth-1 Laurel Lance – a.k.a. the Black Canary. She really came into her own in the final season as she teamed with Oliver in multiple Green Arrow and Black Canary adventures that undoubtedly made comic book fans proud, and allowed Katie Cassidy to shine in the process.

The original Laurel’s successor, Dinah Drake, has done a great job as the second Black Canary but the show always overlooked her because of its obsession with the Team Arrow format. It was only in the backdoor pilot that she truly came to the forefront. The truth is that the reset – somehow finding herself thrown 20 years into the future with no trace of her existence in 2020 – did wonders for her, and Dinah could reach new heights as one of the protagonists of her own show as she continues to discover what happened to her.

All three of these characters – Dinah especially – have had their stories left in a place that must be continued. It would be a complete disservice to them, the actresses playing them and, indeed, the fans if The CW were to pass on the spin-off now.

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