Arrow Spinoff Teased With "Green Arrow and the Canaries" Comic Book Mock-Up

The female-led Arrow spinoff planned for after the main series ends may be called Green Arrow and [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The female-led Arrow spinoff planned for after the main series ends may be called Green Arrow and the Canaries or just The Canaries, if a mock-up cover released on social media by Arrow co-creator Marc Guggenheim is to be believed. The image, which features Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) along with Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) and Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) -- but with the notable change that Mia has eschewed her "Blackstar" look for a more familiar Green Arrow costume and name. It seems likely that this is a change that will be reflected in tonight's season premiere for Arrow's final season.

An interesting observation is that Dinah and Laurel both look fairly young in the image, rather than the older versions that have been appearing in the flash-forward scenes on Arrow. That raises the possibility that Mia Smoak travels back in time to team up with the younger versions of the heroines instead -- something that couls create some continuity headaches but would likely ease the burden on the potential spinoff's makeup team, who would not have to make the actresses look older every week.

You can see the image below. It features art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Brett Breeding, and Dave McCaig.

A spinoff series is not guaranteed, but a backdoor pilot for the Canaries-centric show will be built into Arrow's final season. The backdoor pilot was announced back in September.

Before that, in August, Guggenheim teased that some of the characters from Arrow might have a future on The CW after the show's upcoming series finale.

"We're always talking about it," Guggenheim explained. "Like, those conversations are always being had. There is nothing that, you know, has gone so far down the road that we've, you know -- I wouldn't certainly not going to announce it here. But all the showrunners talk, and stuff like that comes up all the time.

"Right now, honestly, like, I think, you know, as far as Beth and the other showrunners of the shows, everyone is focused on launching their seasons, getting their season premieres finished, getting ready for the crossover. "Everything sort of post-Arrow's life, you know, we're going to have those conversations, but further down the road."

Arrow returns to The CW this fall for its eighth and final season, a ten-episode run that will bring the story of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards, who exited the series at the end of last season), John Diggle (David Ramsey), and the rest of Team Arrow to a close (unless, of course, there is a spinoff planned).

The series' end will coincide with The CW's "Crisis on Infinite Earths" mega-event, which will run for five episodes over December 2019 and January 2020, featuring episodes from Arrow, The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman. That seems particularly meaningful since in Arrow's season seven finale, The Monitor arrived to tell Oliver and Felicity that Oliver would need to join him — and that he would not survive the experience of helping The Monitor defend the multiverse in the Crisis.

Season eight of Arrow will premiere tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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