Green Arrow & The Canaries

Lore & Background

The episode is set two decades after Oliver Queen's sacrifice in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event. It follows his daughter Mia Smoak, who graduated from college a few years ago and lives in Queen Manor, in a relationship with John Diggle Jr. (J.J.). When socialite Bianca Bertinelli is abducted, Laurel Lance and Dinah Drake recruit Mia to help rescue her, restoring Mia's pre-Crisis memories and her Green Arrow training. The plot involves a conspiracy linked to a Deathstroke-masked villain, ultimately revealed to be Bianca's ex-boyfriend Trevor, who kidnaps her due to their breakup.

Reader's Guide

The episode serves as a potential launchpad for a female-led spin-off, but the series was not picked up by The CW. It received generally positive reviews, with an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was praised for setting up mysteries and character dynamics. Its significance lies in expanding the Arrowverse's future timeline and introducing new characters, though its placement as the penultimate episode of Arrow's final season drew mixed reactions from critics. The episode also marked a season high in overnight ratings for the series.

Did You Know?

• The episode was originally intended to be titled 'Livin' in the Future' after a Bruce Springsteen song, but was changed to match the planned spin-off series name.
• It is the only episode of Arrow not to feature series star Stephen Amell.
• The episode was filmed in October 2019.
• The backdoor pilot was not picked up by The CW; Marc Guggenheim later said he would potentially resolve loose ends in a comic book.

The 2040 Rescue Mission

Set two decades after Oliver Queen gave his life to restore the multiverse, this episode finds Star City in an unusual stretch of peace. Mia Smoak, fresh out of college and residing at Queen Manor, accepts a marriage proposal from John Diggle Jr. That quiet life shatters when Bianca, the adopted daughter of socialite Helena Bertinelli, is kidnapped. Laurel Lance recruits Dinah Drake—who inexplicably woke in 2040 after attending Oliver's funeral, in a timeline that no longer remembers her existence—to help with the rescue. Laurel also uses a memory-restoring device, built by Cisco Ramon and powered by J'onn J'onzz's Martian abilities, to unlock Mia's pre-Crisis memories, including the truth that J.J. is Deathstroke and that he was responsible for Zoe's death. The trio infiltrates the Bertinelli estate, plants tracking devices, and follows leads to a downtown building equipped with metahuman dampeners. In a twist, they discover Bianca's ex-boyfriend Trevor is the masked vigilante, having abducted her over a breakup. Trevor warns them they cannot stop "her" before torching the building and killing himself. In the aftermath, Laurel and Dinah begin preparing a base to train a new generation of Canaries, while cloaked figures ambush the group and abduct William.

Behind the Scenes: A Reluctant Backdoor Pilot

The episode's origins are as layered as its plot. In September 2019, The CW confirmed it was developing a female-led Arrow spin-off headlined by Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy, with one episode of Arrow's final season doubling as a backdoor pilot. By January 2020, co-creator Marc Guggenheim revealed the practical impetus: Stephen Amell had been contracted for only nine episodes of season eight, and when the network requested a tenth, Guggenheim saw the opportunity to fold the pilot into the existing schedule. The writers originally planned to title the episode "Livin' in the Future," after the Bruce Springsteen track, continuing Arrow's long-running tradition of naming each season's penultimate episode after a Springsteen song. The studio, however, mandated the title "Green Arrow & The Canaries" to align with the proposed spin-off. Guggenheim has since called the Springsteen title the "real" one. Tara Miele directed, with the writing team including Beth Schwartz, Guggenheim, Jill Blankenship, and Oscar Balderrama.

A Female-Led Vigilante Ensemble

What makes this episode structurally unique within the Arrow run is its complete absence of series lead Stephen Amell. Instead, the narrative centers on three women—Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake, and Mia Smoak—operating as a unit of vigilantes in a world where Oliver Queen has been dead for twenty years. Dinah's presence is particularly unusual: she has awakened in 2040 after attending Oliver's funeral, and the current timeline holds no memory of who she was, making her a stranger in a city that once knew her. Mia, meanwhile, must rediscover her Green Arrow training after her pre-Crisis memories are restored by a device containing J'onn J'onzz's Martian abilities. Supporting cast members Ben Lewis as John Diggle Jr., Joseph David-Jones as Connor Hawke, and the appearance of Zoe Ramirez and William at Mia's proposal party round out the ensemble. The episode essentially reimagines the Arrow formula by placing the Canaries at the center, with the Green Arrow mantle passed to the next generation rather than resting on its original bearer.

Ratings, Reception, and the Spin-Off That Never Was

Airing on The CW on January 21, 2020, "Green Arrow & The Canaries" drew 0.89 million live viewers and posted a 0.3/2 rating share among adults 18 to 49, marking a season high for overnight viewership. Critics responded with generally favorable reviews, praising the episode's character-driven storytelling and the chemistry among the three leads. The episode was explicitly designed as a backdoor pilot for a standalone series titled Green Arrow and the Canaries, which would have followed the female-led team in their own continuing narrative within the shared Arrowverse continuity. Despite the positive reception and the groundwork laid by the episode, The CW ultimately declined to pick up the spin-off, leaving the Canaries' dedicated series unrealized. The episode remains a notable experiment in the Arrowverse—a self-contained story that tested the viability of a female-led vigilante team and planted narrative seeds, including the mysterious cloaked figures and the threat Trevor warned about, that were never fully explored on screen.