There’s been considerable discussion about what sort of series might take Arrow’s spot in the lineup next season, and even more about what the future of the CW’s DC universe will look like beyond that. For the most part, that future feels wide open, given that the network has done the legwork to set up everything from a Superman series to a Constantine reboot.
In a perfect world, we’d get to see all of them at some point. But the most exciting – and, frankly, obvious – idea for the next member of the Arrowverse family is actually the one that The CW has just announced.
There’s been considerable discussion about what sort of series might take Arrow’s spot in the lineup next season, and even more about what the future of the CW’s DC universe will look like beyond that. For the most part, that future feels wide open, given that the network has done the legwork to set up everything from a Superman series to a Constantine reboot.
In a perfect world, we’d get to see all of them at some point. But the most exciting – and, frankly, obvious – idea for the next member of the Arrowverse family is actually the one that The CW has just announced.
The CW has secured Arrow actresses Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy to star in a prospective spinoff series centered on the Canaries, an in-universe group of female vigilantes fighting crime in Star City. The idea of an all-female team-up series based on Arrow’s Canaries, is precisely the sort of Birds of Prey-esque spin-off that fans have been asking about for years.
And while The CW may not be able to give viewers the Birds of Prey series they so clearly want (due to the fact that the larger DCEU film universe is busy trying to launch that franchise on the big screen), this proposed Canaries series is both a more-than-acceptable substitute and a continuation of the way this franchise likes to adapt “known” comic concepts for television: taking the bones of a familiar comics tale, and turning it into something entirely new along the way.
In this case, that something still gives us the female-focused action series we’ve all been hoping and waiting for—one with a premise that no other superhero series has done to date, and one which provides a necessary perspective in a world of comic book shows that are so frequently dominated by men and male stories.
In the comics, the original Birds of Prey team consisted of Black Canary, Oracle and Huntress, but the group eventually expanded to include appearances from many other popular female heroes, including Hawkgirl, Katana, Catwoman and more.
In the Arrowverse, that line-up obviously needs some tweaking, given the roster of characters that currently exist across the network. But Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake and Mia Smoak are certainly a formidable trio, and their existing connections to both one another and the legacy of Arrow itself makes them all a natural fit for any sort of spinoff.
