Green Arrow and the Canaries Backdoor Pilot Begins Production

Arrow star Katherine McNamara has revealed that today marks the start of production on the backdoor pilot episode to the female-led spinoff series which she is calling Green Arrow and the Canaries. Given that title was the one seen on a piece of promotional art already released in support of the series, it seems likely (though far from guaranteed) that if The CW opts to move forward with the spinoff, that is what the title will be. The series will star — and presumably the Arrow episode centers on — McNamara alongside longtime Arrow veterans Juliana Harkavy and Katie Cassidy-Rodgers, reprising their roles as Mia Smoak, Dinah Drake, and Laurel Lance, respectively.

It appears that the backdoor pilot will be the first episode of Arrow following the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” suggesting perhaps that the events of the Crisis will have an impact on the future, since Mia’s story has been taking place in 2040. McNamara joined Arrow in its seventh season, when the flashbacks that had been a part of the show’s structure for the first five years gave way to flash-forwards examining what Star City might look like in a generation.

“Today’s pretty special; it is the first day of shooting on the backdoor pilot, as it were, of Green Arrow and the Canaries,” McNamara told her Twitter followers in a short video, which you can see below. “It’s really exciting. I really don’t know what’s in store, but whatever it is, it’s going to be pretty badass.”

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.