Katie Cassidy Reveals the Real Reason Arrow Killed Black Canary

If you ever dipped your toes into the Arrowverse (or, honestly, just had a casual scroll through nerd Twitter in the past decade), you know that the fate of Black Canary is right up there with the most controversial bits of superhero TV. Turns out, Katie Cassidy herself has quite a few thoughts on it all – the death, the not-quite death, the endless hopping between worlds, and all the rest. In a genuinely candid chat with ComingSoon, Cassidy laid the whole thing out in a way that both Arrow diehards and the somewhat confused casuals can actually relate to.

From Laurel Lance to…However Many Canaries

One thing you can definitely say for Arrow – and for Cassidy herself – is that no one ever accused them of making things predictable. She started out playing Laurel Lance, the sort of determined-but-morally upright lawyer who would later trade in her heels for a mask and a frankly questionable stick. Cue the eventual meltdown, some world-class character spiralling, and right about then she finally takes on the proper Black Canary mantle.

Here's where it goes properly bonkers, and Cassidy seems to have enjoyed every confusing minute:

• Started as Laurel Lance (the 'normal' one, if that word means anything in this universe)
• Her life nosedives, evolves into Black Canary
• Gets unceremoniously killed off – heartbreaking for the fans, solid plot fodder for everyone else
• Pops back up as her Earth-2 doppelganger in The Flash, just in case you thought you could keep the Arrowverse timelines straight

Cassidy actually credits this ever-changing carousel of Laural Lances as one of the best bits about the job. If the job had just been playing the same character on rinse and repeat for six straight years, she reckons it would have lost its shine long before the network dropped the curtain. The whole multiverse thing meant she got to experiment, mix it up, and – in her words – ‘explore different sides of her’. She honestly sounds like she was just as entertained as those of us watching from the sofa – not always a guarantee with these long-running shows.

The Infamous Arrowverse Death

Now to the bit that really set the internet comment section on fire: Black Canary’s death. Cassidy was blunt about it. She fully admits she was upset when it first landed on her script – wouldn’t you be, after all that build-up? – but as she puts it, she saw where the writers were coming from. Axing a main character, especially mid-series, tends to send everyone else spinning, and she gets that’s what the showrunners were after: ‘Killing off a major character sends everyone else’s story in new directions and creates opportunities for growth.’

Her one comfort in it all was that she didn’t end up written out for good. In proper Arrowverse fashion, they brought her back via some good old-fashioned alternate-universe magic. 'Thankfully, they eventually brought me back, and I think everyone ended up happy with how it all turned out.'

Looking Back (Without Any Rose-Tinted Nostalgia)

For anyone who thought actors dread sci-fi chaos: Cassidy couldn’t be clearer – she loved her time in the Arrowverse. She calls it a proper career highlight, and she’s pretty proud of the whole wild ride, timeline resets and all.

'I started as Laurel Lance, then she hit rock bottom and evolved into Black Canary. Then the character was killed off, and later I came back as her doppelganger from Earth-2 on The Flash. So there were multiple versions of Laurel, and I think that ultimately benefited me as an actor.'