Why Katie Cassidy should join Legends of Tomorrow season 6 (and how it could happen)

Green Arrow and the Canaries may not have been picked up but that doesn’t mean we should see the last of Katie Cassidy’s Black Canary. No, Laurel Lance must join DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 6.

The CW broke fans’ hearts when it announced that planned Arrow spin-off Green Arrow and the Canaries would not be moving ahead. The show’s backdoor pilot episode was the most-watched of Arrow‘s final season and it received overwhelmingly positive reviews. Unfortunately, the pandemic threw a wrench in its plans so the network ultimately decided against picking it up (after shopping it to HBO Max as well).

The decision not to move ahead with the spin-off leaves multiple questions that need answered but it also means that we may have seen the last of Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance/Black Canary, Juliana Harkavy’s Dinah Drake/Black Canary and Kat McNamara’s Mia Queen/Green Arrow. Of the three of those, it’s Cassidy who has been a part of the Arrowverse for the longest, kicking things off with Arrow back in 2012 as its leading lady – for that reason alone, she deserves the chance to have her character’s story continue.

But we’ll get to that later, because the truth is that there are many questions leftover – questions that could be answered on one or two episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

How Legends of Tomorrow could wrap up Green Arrow and the Canaries

The thing that would have set Green Arrow and the Canaries apart from the previous Arrowverse shows would have been its setting 20 years in the future. That would have made it hard for the show to interact with other Arrowverse properties but, given its plot, that wouldn’t have necessarily been an issue. The one show it would have been linked with, however, is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow – for many reasons.

Legends has always been the Arrowverse’s wild card. The underrated series is an outlandishly brilliant offering that features an array of colorful characters. Its biggest sense of adventure, however, comes from the fact that it’s a time-travel centric show, with the titular crew of outcasts and misfits navigating the timestream as they mess up history (for the better, of course).

With that in mind, Gideon could easily draw their attention to a time aberration in Star City 2040, resulting in them heading there and crossing paths with Laurel, Dinah and Mia. The crew’s captain, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), is well aware of the fact that Laurel is there (she did drop her off there) and she also showed up at one point to chat to Mia. She’s also worked closely with Dinah before too, so a reunion between the four could work very well.

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With that in mind, it would actually be pretty easy to wrap up the planned spin-off’s story regardless of whether the Legends are directly involved in helping Mia and the Canaries save William. Perhaps that already happened off-screen and some other threat brings the Legends to 2040, leading to one huge team-up between the two groups of heroes.

Whatever goes down there, it would be enough to answer the overarching questions that the backdoor pilot left and, perhaps, even give both of the Canaries a chance to join the White Canary on the Waverider – especially as Mia will have become Star City’s new hero. Dinah still has the mystery about her backstory to solve as nobody understands how she even ended up in 2040 (something the Legends could help her figure out), so if Juliana Harkavy wanted to return, she could just as easily join Katie Cassidy in bringing the Canaries back to screens in Legends of Tomorrow full-time. Speaking of Cassidy…

Why Laurel Lance should join Legends of Tomorrow season 6

Katie Cassidy’s name has been closely associated with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow since the show began. Following the death of the original Laurel Lance on Arrow, Arrowverse fans championed for her to be brought back on Legends because Sara’s determination to get justice for Laurel had us all wanting to see the sisters reunited.

Though she did make a number of guest appearances on the show, Cassidy rejoined Arrow as Earth-2 Laurel/Black Siren. A character originally introduced on The Flash, the villain underwent a redemption arc before becoming the Black Canary of Earth-2 and she then played a pivotal role in helping Oliver Queen prepare for Crisis On Infinite Earths.

Having been so closely associated with the show for so long, now is the right time to finally bring Cassidy on-board (the Waverider, that is).

How Katie Cassidy could join Legends of Tomorrow season 6

Now, Sara has had something of a strange relationship with this Laurel – and that’s what would make it all the more exciting if the former Black Siren were to join the captain of the Waverider on Legends of Tomorrow. The two of them have fully acknowledged the fact that they’re not sisters (even though, biologically, they are). Sara is obviously aware of the fact that nobody could replace the original Laurel while Earth-2 Laurel showed no signs of wanting to get to know her.

Though their relationship has mellowed since Laurel became the new Black Canary (and Sara dropped her off in the future), the pair still aren’t exactly besties. There is, however, real story potential for them. Rather late into her stint on Arrow, Laurel revealed that she had a sister on Earth-2 who was, at one point in time, pregnant. She never went into detail about whether that sister was Earth-2’s version of Sara (or a completely different Lance sister). However, following the destruction of Earth-2, her sister was killed – leaving that Laurel feeling the exact same pain that Sara felt when the original Laurel was killed on Earth-1.

Both Sara and Laurel have experienced similar pain over the loss of their respective sisters and maybe, just maybe, they could be the key to helping each other cope with that loss. And that just seems like too rich a story opportunity to waste.

Of course, Legends of Tomorrow season 6 will undoubtedly be as wacky as previous offerings, but the show isn’t afraid to tackle emotional storytelling when it wants to.

As for how Laurel would fit into Legends, the truth is that it would be a rather seamless transition for her. Being a former villain, she’s an expert in covert and undercover missions (remember the black wig?) and she’s also a trained hand-to-combat specialist (who actually bested both Sara and Dinah in one fight). And as for the comedy factor, well, there is nobody – and I mean nobody – as sassy in the Arrowverse as Earth-2’s Laurel Lance, as the former Black Siren has produced some of the greatest one-liners we’ve seen in the Arrowverse. Could you imagine her snarky response to aliens being their main threat this season?

Cassidy is the first leading lady of the Arrowverse and, had Green Arrow and the Canaries moved forward, she would have been its longest-serving actor. It goes without saying that she shouldn’t be robbed of such an opportunity – especially when her character would be right at home in the wacky world of Legends of Tomorrow. There are, after all, rumors of one long-standing Arrowverse vet departing the show after season 7, so it would make sense to bring in another.

It’s time to let the Black Canary Cry once more!

Would you like to see Katie Cassidy join DC’s Legends of Tomorrow season 6? Were you hoping to see Green Arrow and the Canaries get picked up? Let us know in the comments below!