Laurel Lance, a.k.a. Black Canary, was killed off during Arrow season 4, but it wasn’t the end for actor Katie Cassidy. Arrow season 1 introduced viewers to Laurel Lance, the former girlfriend of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) who reconciles with the billionaire playboy following his five-year stint on the mysterious island of Lian Yu. In season 3, Laurel follows in her deceased sister’s footsteps and becomes a vigilante in her own right, known as Black Canary, a move that eventually strengthens the bond between her and Queen.
Arrow season 4 began with a flashforward with Oliver Queen standing by a tombstone, set six months in the future. Viewers only knew that one of the main characters would die and that this death wouldn’t be undone by magic or time-travel. Eventually, the Arrow revealed it was Laurel who ended up in the grave. The sudden death sparked controversy, as it was a surprising decision to kill off Black Canary, given her major role in the comic book mythology. Cassidy as well as showrunners Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle explained why Laurel Lance was killed off.
Laurel Lance Dies In Arrow Season 4, Episode 18
Arrow season 4, episode 18, “Eleven-Fifty-Nine,” revealed that Oliver Queen and Barry Allen had been stood at Laurel’s grave in the season’s opening episode. During an attempt to stop Damien Dahrk, played by Neal McDonough, from escaping prison, Team Arrow found themselves once again powerless against the magical villain, with Laurel eventually being stabbed as a means for Dahrk to punish her father, who’d betrayed him. Despite being treated at the hospital, and even expected to make a full recovery, Laurel lost her life moments later. This sudden death sparked controversy, as Black Canary has a major role in DC Comics, and Cassidy had only just scratched the surface.
Cassidy was written out of Arrow initially because the creative team felt they had run out of substantial stories for Laurel, despite the fact that her career as the Arrowverse’s Black Canary had only just begun. Arrow’s producers deviated from Laurel’s DC Comics roots as Queen’s long-term love-interest, and while her death in season 4 proved that Arrow did still have stakes (as many characters had previously died and been resurrected), it was still a massive blow to the series. It’s clear that Arrow’s creative team much preferred to write for the a different version of Laurel Lance.
Katie Cassidy Returned To Arrow As A Different Laurel Lance
Prior to the airing of Arrow season 4, episode 18, The CW had announced that Cassidy would appear in the Arrow spinoff, The Flash, as a villainous doppelganger of Laurel Lance from Earth-2, known as Black Siren. Despite starting her Arrowverse career as a villain and a member of Zoom’s metahuman army, this version of Laurel more closely resembled her DC Comics counterpart, even exhibiting her metahuman sonic scream and experienced hand-to-hand fighting techniques. After Black Canary was scrapped from Arrow, Black Siren very quickly took her place, with Cassidy returning as a series regular for Arrow season 6. This version eventually saw redemption as Black Canary in season 7.
How Laurel Lance’s Death Impacts Arrow’s Later Seasons
Although Laurel Lance’s death in Arrow season 4 allowed a more comic-accurate version of the character to take her place, it was a confusing choice by the series as the Earth-1 version of Laurel could have evolved over time into this iteration. Killing off Laurel for shock value as part of a poorly organized and unplanned storyline turned out to be a textbook case of “fridging,” killing off a female character to advance the story of the male leads, in this case those leads were Oliver Queen and Quentin Lance, Laurel’s father. In fact, Laurel’s death was simply used to allow Queen to reconnect with his previous partner, Felicity Smoak.
During 2019’s Arrowverse crossover event, “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” several characters from a multitude of series’ including Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl are resurrected, but the Earth-1 version of Laurel stayed dead. This was due to another planned spinoff, Green Arrow and the Canaries, wanting to use Earth-2 Laurel instead of the original. Unfortunately, this series never even came to fruition. While Cassidy’s performance as Black Siren gave audiences an evolved version of Laurel Lance, killing off Black Canary during Arrow season 4 was one of the series’ biggest mistakes.
