Arrow Star Katherine McNamara “Heartbroken” Over Spinoff Cancellation

On Friday, The CW officially announced that they would not be moving forward with Green Arrow and the Canaries, the Arrow spinoff that aired a backdoor pilot as part of that series’ eighth and final season nearly one year ago. The series would have followed Katherine McNamara‘s Mia Queen/Green Arrow alongside Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance/Black Siren and Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake/Black Canary in the year 2040. Now, McNamara is speaking out about the news, sharing that she is “heartbroken” Mia’s journey will not continue.

On Friday, McNamara took to Twitter to share the sentiment as well as thank fans for their support for Green Arrow and the Canaries. Fans had been eagerly awaiting news on the spinoff and continued to be vocal about wanting to see the series come to live despite the nearly year-long wait for an answer.

“Needless to say, I am heartbroken… would’ve loved to go on the journey with #MiaSmoak,” McNamara wrote. “Thanks to everyone for their love and support.”

On Saturday, McNamara also paid tribute to her character as well as her various co-stars in a post expressing gratitude for “everyone who was a part of bringing her to life.”

While Friday’s news seems to be the definitive end of Green Arrow and the Canaries in terms of live-action, producer Marc Guggenheim has previously indicated that he would resolve the mysteries left by the backdoor pilot’s cliffhanger, potentially in comic book form.

“There are burning questions,” Guggenheim explained to TVLine last year. “Certainly, the backdoor pilot ended with the cliffhanger of William’s abduction. And I do think we owe answers to a lot of those moments and questions.”

“My instinct would be to try to answer those questions in the form of, like, a comic book tie-in — which is not to say that it couldn’t be done on the other shows,” Guggenheim continued. “When you’re dealing with another time period, the year 2040 in this case, the only show that could handle that or really deal with those questions is Legends [of Tomorrow]. [But that] is a tricky bit of business since the tonal mashup between Legends and Canaries is so very different. On the other hand, you’ve got Sara, who is sort of the connective glue there….”

“I look at these things as ‘quality problems,” Guggenheim concluded. “I love the fact that we now have a universe of shows that allows us to ask ourselves these questions and explore different things and answer questions from different shows, but we also have comic books as an outlet, as well.”

And as for McNamara, she recently told ComicBook.com she’s not done with Mia Smoak just yet, telling us during press for CBS All Access’s The Stand that she’s open to playing any iteration of the character, even on another Arrowverse show.

“If they ever want me in any iteration of Mia Smoak, I’m there,” McNamara said “I’m not done with her yet. So, if they will have me I will be there. But I think the pandemic just threw such a monkey wrench into everything.”

Were you sad to hear that Green Arrow and the Canaries will not be going forward at The CW? Let us know in the comments.