{"id":245319,"date":"2026-01-22T01:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/245319\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T01:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T01:48:24","slug":"6-years-ago-today-the-arrowverse-released-a-pilot-for-a-new-dc-tv-show-you-never-got-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/245319\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Years Ago Today, the Arrowverse Released a Pilot for a New DC TV Show You Never Got To See"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CW\u2019s Arrowverse<\/a> released a pilot for an exciting DC show six years ago, but it\u2019s a series we never got to see. The end of Superman & Lois marked the conclusion of the Arrowverse in 2024<\/a>. However, the franchise once dominated the CW\u2019s lineup<\/a>. Its DC shows were some of the network\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s a bummer, as it\u2019s a project that many fans of the Arrowverse wanted to see. Yet given where the franchise went after Arrow\u2018s final season, it makes sense that the project never came to fruition \u2014 even with a promising backdoor pilot to jump off of. <\/p>\n

Six Years Ago, Arrow Aired a Backdoor Pilot for a Series About Oliver\u2019s Daughter<\/p>\n

\"Kat<\/p>\n

The events of Arrow Season 8 were heavily impacted by the Arrowverse\u2019s ambitious Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover<\/a>, which upended the franchise as we knew it. However, it left the door open to explore new stories in the aftermath. And that\u2019s precisely what the penultimate installment of Arrow attempted to do. Specifically, Season 8, Episode 9, \u201cGreen Arrow and the Canaries\u201d 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. <\/p>\n

When \u201cGreen Arrow and the Canaries\u201d 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\u2019s 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<\/a>. It didn\u2019t matter in the end, though. Due largely to external circumstances, the planned Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff was eventually axed.<\/p>\n

Why Green Arrow and the Canaries Never Happened<\/p>\n

\"Dinah<\/p>\n

Although \u201cGreen Arrow and the Canaries\u201d was meant to kick off a full-fledged series, the CW canceled its spinoff plans a year after the backdoor pilot aired. When Deadline<\/a> reported the news, it didn\u2019t 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<\/a>, writer Marc Guggenheim cited it as a major factor in a now-deleted X post. And it wasn\u2019t the only project to meet such a fate because of COVID-19\u2019s unexpected impact on Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Of course, the CW also saw plenty of upheaval in the years following the pandemic, which didn\u2019t 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\u2019s Green Arrow and the Canaries\u2018 decision was a sign of the coming shift. And while its fate remains disappointing, it might be better off that things didn\u2019t go as planned. <\/p>\n

The Arrowverse Pilot\u2019s Fate Signaled a Shift in the CW\u2019s Priorities<\/p>\n

\"Katherine<\/p>\n

Although the Arrowverse wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019s possible the spinoff would have found a way to happen eventually. But between multiple Arrowverse series ending and Nexstar\u2019s purchase of the CW in 2022, it simply wasn\u2019t meant to be. After Nexstar\u2019s acquisition, the remaining Arrowverse titles began to say their goodbyes. And perhaps it\u2019s for the best that Green Arrows and the Canaries didn\u2019t get wrapped up in all of this. If it had gone forward, it might have ended prematurely instead \u2014 or filmed and never saw the light of day, which would have been even more disappointing.<\/p>\n

Were you disappointed that Green Arrow and the Canaries didn\u2019t move forward? Leave a comment below\u00a0and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CW\u2019s Arrowverse released a pilot for an exciting DC show six years ago, but it\u2019s a series…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[114949,99609,156,143470,111,139,69,11013,437],"class_list":["post-245319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-arrow","tag-arrowverse","tag-entertainment","tag-green-arrow-and-the-canaries","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-regular-feature","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}