Arrow’s dead character could return in comic homage

So that death on Arrow was pretty shocking, no? But don’t shed too many tears as the comic books actually hold a perfectly great loophole to bring them back.

On the DC Comics website Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim explained the unexpected final episode of a beloved character and why death won’t necessarily be the final appearance.

“We recognize that upsets a lot of fans, particularly the comic book fans. In the comics, Dinah Lance and Oliver Queen are in a romance together. To some people, that is considered canonical and iconic. We respect that, but at the same time we’ve always made no bones about the fact that we’re telling our own version of the Green Arrow mythos. Green Arrow and Black Canary have had so many different interpretations over the years that we never felt beholden to one particular interpretation. This is our interpretation, like it or not, and I recognize that there are plenty of people up and down my Twitter feed who do not like it. I totally respect that.

But it made the most creative sense for us going forward, despite the fact that we love Katie. We absolutely love her. That part, not getting the chance to work with Katie day in and day out is tempered by the fact that [the show] now lives in a universe where there’s resurrection, parallel earths, time travel and flashbacks. We have all these different ways of keeping Katie in the Arrowverse family. In fact, you will see her in an episode of Flash, playing the Earth-2 version of Laurel Lance. Katie is also reprising her role as Laurel of Earth-1 in Vixen Season 2. Death does not mean goodbye on any of these shows.”

Death doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Katie Cassidy though. Confirmed by Entertainment Weekly, Cassidy will show up as the Earth 2 Laurel Lance and her identity Black Siren on the May 17 episode of The Flash.

What’s always been interesting about the Arrow version of the Green Arrow/Black Canary relationship is this was never the woman Oliver was destined to be with in the first place. In the comics, Dinah Lance was carrying on her mother’s identity of the Black Canary as a member of Earth 2’s Justice Society of America. After the tragic death of her husband during a Justice League/Justice Society team-up, Dinah decided the pain would be too great to be reminded of him and left her home of Earth-2, join the JLA and eventually become Green Arrow’s longtime girlfriend.

So now with the first appearance of Earth 2’s Laurel Lance, this could actually be the version of Black Canary fans have wanted to see all along complete with metapowered Canary Cry. As always, the DC CW universe definitely looks like it will remain interesting and unpredictable.