Green Arrow and the Canaries is no longer targeting a spot on The CW’s schedule.
The network has passed over the series, which first aired as a backdoor pilot during Arrow Season 8.
The cast would have included Arrow vets Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy, taking their characters to the 2040 timeline first introduced in the parent series.
In the backdoor pilot, Laurel Lance (Cassidy) arrived in the year 2040 to recruit fellow Canary Dinah Drake (Harkavy) and new Green Arrow Mia Smoak (McNamara) to fight a new threat.
Secretly, however, Laurel was also trying to stop Mia from bringing the city to its knees, which was foretold.
The special episode boasted 890,000 viewers and a 0.3 rating, which was higher than every Arrow episode during its final season aside from a crossover episode.
It’s certainly surprising the show didn’t get the green light because, when you think about it, the response to the spinoff was largely positive.
But with COVID-19 effectively ending TV production for months, The CW is in a precarious position: It has a wealth of returning shows and not enough slots.
Many shows have landed January return dates at the network, but there are still several other shows without return dates, meaning that this decision was probably made due to the pandemic.
The network is also launching another Arrowverse show in February — Superman & Lois.
But the network is also ending Supergirl and Black Lightning, fellow Arrowverse shows, this season.
McNamara, for her part, has already moved on, and arrived on the CBS All Access adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Stand earlier this week.
Meanwhile, The CW is still considering whether to move forward with The 100 prequel, Anaconda, which also aired as a backdoor pilot earlier this season.
What are your thoughts on this news?
Hit the comments below.
Remember, you can watch Arrow online right here via TV Fanatic.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.