Arrow's Katherine McNamara Talks Filling Stephen Amell's Shoes After Crisis on Infinite Earths

There's a lot of attention directed at Stephen Amell, the Arrow lead whose character (Oliver Queen) is fated to sacrifice himself in "Crisis on Infinite Earths." As the crossover draws closer, though, and Oliver's death seems more and more inevitable, Katherine McNamara -- who plays his daughter, Mia Smoak -- is starting to feel the pressure to step up and take on the role of the Green Arrow. In a teaser for tonight's episode, Oliver says that there are no more stories to tell with the Green Arrow, but we know that isn't true: immediately after "Crisis on Infinite Earths," McNamara will appear in an episode of Arrow designed to set up a spinoff that she will headline alongside longtime Arrow actors Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy.

Oliver will become the first superhero in the Arrowverse -- indeed, the first series lead in a comic book show -- to do something that so many comic book characters have done over the years: pass the mantle to the next generation. And McNamara knows exactly how much pressure that comes with.

"It's a responsibility -- and it's one that I don't take lightly, but it's one that I'm very excited to get to carry a little bit," McNamara told ComicBook.com. "Working with Stephen, this season, has been so wonderful because I've gotten to watch him do just that and I've gotten to watch how he handled this responsibility and this legacy. And it's been great to follow in his footsteps, in a sense."

Of course, it's the Arrowverse, and even those near the heart of the action were kept in the dark about some things. According to McNamara, she did not know the specifics about "Crisis" until late in the game.

"I didn't exactly know where we were headed, but I knew there would be something and I sort of love that aspect of it because that's real, that's life," McNamara said. "You put your best efforts forward. You do the best you can, but the consequences and the ramifications don't always work out the way you planned, but that doesn't discount the good intentions that people have...and that doesn't discount the heroic and good things that people do and put forward in the world. You can't control the outcome, but you can control what you do and the choices that you make, and how you react in those situations. And that's, honestly, that's something I love about Arrow, is that these heroes aren't perfect. Their choices aren't black and white. They don't always do the right thing, but they always do what they feel is best, and they do what they feel they have to do to make the choices to form the future they want to create. They do what's best for their team and for the people that they love, and to fight for what they feel is justice. And that's the best that any of us can do."

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday's episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a "special episode" of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis. The week after "Crisis" concludes, the next episode of Arrow, titled "Green Arrow and the Canaries," will serve as a backdoor pilot for McNamara's series.