Sometimes, the real behind-the-scenes drama doesn’t come out about a show until years after it’s done. As a prime example of this, actress Katie Cassidy is opening up about her abrupt exit from Arrow in 2016 when her character, Laurel Lance/Black Canary, was killed off near the end of season 4. According to Cassidy, she only learned about her fate on the series days before shooting Laurel’s death scene.
Via Deadline, Cassidy appeared on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum and revealed that she was informed about her exit from the show while she was traveling to a comic convention to promote Arrow. Then she had to pretend that she didn’t know that Laurel would be the character getting the ax while speaking to fans at the event.
“I was angry at first,” recalled Cassidy. “And I was emotional because I was sad, and I was angry because I was so happy.” She also noted that she “had to eat some humble pie when they killed me off that show,” before adding that “it was really hard.”
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Cassidy was one of the original cast members on Arrow, and Black Canary was traditionally the love interest of the leading character, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (as played by Suits LA‘s Stephen Amell). Regardless, that relationship was ditched on the show in favor of Oliver’s romance with Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards). Cassidy didn’t come right out and say she was killed off because Laurel had become expendable, but she’s definitely thought about the reasons why.
“I think it was a couple of things,” said Cassidy. “I have theories. I think it was political. It’s a lot.” She also said that she told the show’s producers that “‘I feel like I’ve always been given the short end of the stick and I have to go,” before adding that she didn’t yell about it. “I just cried because I was sad.”
However, the story has a happy ending for Cassidy. She was invited back to make a guest appearance on The Flash as Black Siren, an alternate universe version of Laurel who became a villain on her world. From there, she was reintroduced as a recurring cast member on Arrow before she was formally brought back as a series regular until the end of the show’s eight season run.
Cassidy noted that Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim told her “I think we may have made a mistake,” while offering her a return engagement on the series. Cassidy was also slated to be one of the main cast members for the proposed Green Arrow and the Canaries spinoff, which ultimately did not go forward.