The CW’s Arrowverse released a pilot for an exciting DC show six years ago, but it’s a series we never got to see. The end of Superman & Lois marked the conclusion of the Arrowverse in 2024. However, the franchise once dominated the CW’s lineup. Its DC shows were some of the network’s best offerings throughout the 2010s. And it all started with the success of Arrow and The Flash, which paved the way for projects like Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and Batwoman to expand the universe further.
Arrow nearly led to the creation of another series, too, laying the groundwork for its story in Season 8. Unfortunately, while the show had great potential, it never came to be. It’s a bummer, as it’s a project that many fans of the Arrowverse wanted to see. Yet given where the franchise went after Arrow‘s final season, it makes sense that the project never came to fruition — even with a promising backdoor pilot to jump off of.
Six Years Ago, Arrow Aired a Backdoor Pilot for a Series About Oliver’s Daughter
The events of Arrow Season 8 were heavily impacted by the Arrowverse’s ambitious Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, which upended the franchise as we knew it. However, it left the door open to explore new stories in the aftermath. And that’s precisely what the penultimate installment of Arrow attempted to do. Specifically, Season 8, Episode 9, “Green Arrow and the Canaries” revealed what became of Mia Smoak, Laurel Lance, and Dinah Drake after the merging of Earths into Earth-Prime. The episode also set the stage for the trio to embark on their own adventures, though this never actually happened.
When “Green Arrow and the Canaries” first aired on January 21, 2020, the episode was intended as a backdoor pilot for a spinoff of Arrow. The new series would be centered on Mia, who would uphold her father’s legacy after his death. This would allow the Green Arrow title to continue within the Arrowverse, and it would give the franchise a new female-led show that focused on two well-loved characters alongside Mia: Laurel and Dinah. The prospect of this led to excitement, even as the backdoor pilot was met with mixed reviews on sites like IMDb. It didn’t matter in the end, though. Due largely to external circumstances, the planned Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff was eventually axed.
Why Green Arrow and the Canaries Never Happened
Although “Green Arrow and the Canaries” was meant to kick off a full-fledged series, the CW canceled its spinoff plans a year after the backdoor pilot aired. When Deadline reported the news, it didn’t dig too deeply into the reason for the decision. However, the widespread production challenges and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to play a role. Per SlashFilm, writer Marc Guggenheim cited it as a major factor in a now-deleted X post. And it wasn’t the only project to meet such a fate because of COVID-19’s unexpected impact on Hollywood.
Of course, the CW also saw plenty of upheaval in the years following the pandemic, which didn’t help matters. If there was any chance of the network reconsidering its stance on the Arrowverse spinoff, it disappeared when it started to deprioritize its DC lineup. The CW began wrapping up the rest of its Arrowverse shows in the following years, with Black Lightning and Supergirl taking their final bows shortly after Arrow. In hindsight, the network’s Green Arrow and the Canaries‘ decision was a sign of the coming shift. And while its fate remains disappointing, it might be better off that things didn’t go as planned.
The Arrowverse Pilot’s Fate Signaled a Shift in the CW’s Priorities
Although the Arrowverse wouldn’t fully wind down for a few more years, the decision to not move forward with Green Arrow and the Canaries signaled the looming shift in priorities for the network. Had there been more concrete plans to keep building the Arrowverse, it’s possible the spinoff would have found a way to happen eventually. But between multiple Arrowverse series ending and Nexstar’s purchase of the CW in 2022, it simply wasn’t meant to be. After Nexstar’s acquisition, the remaining Arrowverse titles began to say their goodbyes. And perhaps it’s for the best that Green Arrows and the Canaries didn’t get wrapped up in all of this. If it had gone forward, it might have ended prematurely instead — or filmed and never saw the light of day, which would have been even more disappointing.
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