Green Arrow and the Canaries Explored HBO Max Pickup

DC Comics fans got some long-awaited and bittersweet news earlier this month, when it was confirmed that Green Arrow and the Canaries has not been ordered to series by The CW. While the news came nearly a full year after the backdoor pilot episode aired as part of Arrow's final season in January of 2020, it still upset the fans who were eager to see the continuing stories of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy), and Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara). According to a new report from TVLine, the series did explore the possibility of finding a home on another platform -- the HBO Max streaming service. The report confirms that the HBO Max option was "thoroughly explored", which is why the confirmation of the cancellation took so long.

The spinoff would have followed Mia, Laurel, and Dinah's lives in the post-Crisis 2040s, as they try to save Star City from an imminent threat. Even before the cancellation was confirmed, producer Marc Guggenheim hinted that the series' remaining plot threads could be explored in some other capacity.

"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."

Would you have wanted to see Green Arrow and the Canaries make its way over to HBO Max? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!