It just made the most creative sense for us, going forward, despite the fact that we absolutely love Katie. 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, and I totally respect that. The Green Arrow has had so many different interpretations, and Black Canary has had so many different interpretations, over the years, that we never felt beholden to one particular interpretation. But at the same time, we’ve always made no bones about the fact that we are telling our own version of the Green Arrow mythos. That, to some people, is considered canonical and iconic, and we respect that. In the comics, Dinah Lance and Oliver Queen, depending on which version of the character you like, are in a romance together, in various iterations. And we recognize that that upsets a lot of fans, particularly the comic book fans. So, the shipping thing was not an element. One of the things we knew people would think was, “In the season where Oliver and Felicity get engaged and Laurel dies, that’s clearly making a choice about who’s going to end up with who.” And truth be told, we told the Laurel-Oliver romance story in Season 1 … and we never really thought about going back to it. We’re not to the shipping, and we’re not to the internet controversy … But we’ve never made decisions on the show, creatively, because of the internet. By the way, we knew that it would enrage a lot of people. We started off this year with the promise of a death, and when we worked our way through our various different creative choices, we realized that the thing that will give us the most pop, going into the end of the season and into next season, unfortunately would be Laurel.
It’s always a show where every character, arguably except for the Arrow, is fair game. Guggenheim: Obviously, “Arrow” is always a show that’s evolving. This group interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. Below, the producers explain how they came to this decision, and Cassidy recalls her emotions while filming her final scenes, and what she hopes her character’s legacy will be. After it seemed like doctors had managed to stabilize Laurel at the hospital, she shared a heartfelt scene with the other members of Team Arrow, and confided something in Oliver (Stephen Amell), before she began coding and ultimately died. Warning: This post contains spoilers for “ Arrow” Season 4, Episode 18, titled “Eleven-Fifty-Nine.” Do not read on unless you’ve watched the April 6 episode.Īfter almost an entire season of build-up, tonight’s “Arrow” finally revealed which team member dies and ends up in the grave that was introduced in the Season 4 premiere: Laurel Lance ( Katie Cassidy), aka Black Canary - a character that many comic book fans likely thought was safe, given Black Canary’s iconic status in the DC Comics universe.Įxecutive producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle, along with Cassidy and her co-star Paul Blackthorne (who plays Laurel’s father, Quentin Lance), sat down with reporters earlier this week to discuss the shocking events of the episode, which saw a newly escaped Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), stab Laurel as payback for her father’s earlier betrayal.