It took a lot of effort for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment to create a shared superhero universe on the big screen and now their TV show universe is already proving to be quite successful. Even though, officially, only Arrow and The Flash exist in this universe on the small screen, producers Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Marc Guggenheim have managed to introduce plenty of DC Comics’ characters, tweaking them a little, and thus playing with comic books fans’ expectations. One of those tweaked characters is Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Green Arrow’s on-again and off again girlfriend in the comics. In Arrow though, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) has dated both sisters, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Sara (Caity Lotz), Dinah Lance is their mother, and Sara is the vigilante operating under the name The Canary, after being trained by The League of Assassins.
Sara has been introduced to the show with a dramatic back story and her character had developed all through Season 2. However, she was shockingly killed off in Arrow‘s Season 3 premiere. But now we officially know why: to make room for her sister to become the actual Black Canary. The show gave us a few hints about this last season, when Sara gave her sister her black leather jacket as a gift, Laurel training with Ted “Wildcat” Grant this season, and recently CW has released the first images of Katie Cassidy in her Black Canary costume.
This will be Katie Cassidy in Arrow soon.
Notice the similarities between Laurel and former Balck Canary in Arrow, Sara?
In an interview with E! News, Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim talked about Laurel’s journey: ” It depends on how you define ‘journey.’ What Laurel is going to discover is that being a hero is more than wearing a mask and that wearing a mask and a costume does not a hero make. It’s not going to be an easy road for Laurel, no matter how quickly she suits up.”
Looking at the newly released pictures, you can definitely see the similarity to Sara’s outfit. She’s wearing Sara’s leather jacket, an eye mask and a blonde wig to hide her identity. Laurel’s choice of weapon, though, appears to be a police baton, which is a nice touch, considering her father is a police detective. I would also appreciate that she bares less cleavage than her sister, making her overall look more neat and compact.
According to TVLine, Laurel will debut as Black Canary on Arrow in episode 10, “Left behind”, which will air in January 2015, immediately after the holidays hiatus.