All 8 Black Canary actresses ranked from worst to best

4. Juliana Harkavy

Appeared In: Arrow, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Arrow‘s third attempt at the Black Canary character had us all face-palming at the showrunners’ bafflingly inherent desire to disrespect the Dinah Laurel Lance character – and the fact that they went and called her Dinah Drake when the official Black Canary’s mother on that show was actually called Dinah Drake-Lance pushed the boundaries of believability. However, none of that was enough to prevent Juliana Harkavy from grabbing our attention.

The actress initially portrayed Dinah as a broody rough-around-the-edges woman who had fallen too far from grace in her attempts to avenge the death of her beloved partner and lover Vincent Sobel. However, as the character attempted to rediscover the hero that she was through the path of redemption that was the Black Canary mantle, Harkavy softened that performance and made Dinah a more endearing character.

In spite of a few thinly-written storylines in Seasons 6, 7 and 8, Harkavy remained at the forefront of the show and made us want to continue championing Dinah. And her performance in the backdoor pilot of Green Arrow and The Canaries just reminded us that there is a well of untapped potential just waiting to be explored.

The CW really dropped the ball by not picking the show up, because we feel like Harkavy’s Dinah would have shone brighter than ever in it.