Was Arrow playing politics with Black Canary’s death? Katie Cassidy looks back on the crushing moment where she found out she was fired from the series.
The journey through season 4 of Arrow was a truly special one. The season kicked off with Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen on a grave, leaving fans on the edge of their seat week after week as they waited to see who would be in it. It was an experience seldom achieved in the modern streaming landscape. Which is what made it all the more crushing when it was revealed that a fan-favorite character in Katie Cassidy’s Black Canary was the one sitting inside.
It was a decision that shocked Arrow fans at the time, as many were still expecting Black Canary to end up with Oliver Queen by the end of the series. However, it seems that audiences weren’t the only ones shocked by the decision to kill the character off. Reflecting on her time on the show during her recent appearance on the Inside of You podcast, Cassidy revealed that she figured out the twist just before filming, leading to a rather emotional phone call.
“For whatever reason, my stomach just dropped. I immediately text Marc Guggenheim, who I adore. I was like, ‘Marc..I have a sick feeling in my stomach, please don’t make me wait the weekend. Please, can we get on a call tomorrow?’ He said, ‘Wow, you’re really intuitive. I’ll call you tomorrow.'”
“Marc said, ‘Listen, unfortunately, I have to tell you you’re the one that’s in the grave.’ I was angry at first, and I was emotional. I was sad and I was angry because I was so happy…I think it was a couple of things. I have a theory. I think it was political…it’s a lot.”
Katie Cassidy Reflects On Her Black Canary Journey
To clarify, it doesn’t seem as though Katie Cassidy means her character was killed off due to her personal politics. Rather, it was a confluence of factors and studio politics that lead to Black Canary’s death. However, it’s clear that her relationship with the team wasn’t soured forever, as she would return to being a series regular in Arrow season 6. And now, all these years later, it seems as though she finally understands why they chose to put her hero inside the grave.
“Quite frankly, them killing me off took every other series regular and sends these other characters spiraling in different directions and reacting. It’s storytelling and I don’t take it personally. I think they did a great job in writing for me, quite frankly, and I got a lot to play with. So for that I’m grateful.”
The sentiment of being grateful for her death is certainly not one shared by Arrow fans, especially at the time, who believed that there was so much more for Black Canary to give the series. Though regardless of ‘What If’s’, it’s good to hear that Katie Cassidy is back in high spirits about her time working on the project. Even if not every decision made sense at the time!
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