The Arrow spin-off Green Arrow and the Canaries answered the mystery in its backdoor pilot of the Black Canaries involvement in 2040. As the Stephen Amell-led drama is about to get its send-off, the series set the stage for its final spin-off that will continue the legacy through Mia Queen (Kat McNamara). Prior to season 8 premiering, The CW announced the plans for a female team-up series that would reunite Mia with the two Black Canaries. Though Mia was from the future, there was a lot of mystery surrounding Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) and Dinah Drake’s (Juliana Harkavy) involvement with the series. Despite having seen the two Canaries in the future, it was still uncertain if the spin-off would feature their older versions or not.
The backdoor pilot, titled after the potential series, took place after the events of the recent 5-hour crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. With the Arrowverse rebooted, it changed the course of history for the 2040 timeline. Everything that had gone down in the season 7 and 8 flashforwards had now been altered. With Mia having a different upbringing than previously, there were still the unanswered questions about Laurel and Dinah. The ninth episode, from the get-go, gets quickly into how the respective heroines are in 2040, but as their 2020 versions.
In the case of Laurel’s presence, this Black Canary is the one that essentially kicks off the spin-off. After hearing from Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) that Dinah had been located in 2040, but didn’t want to go back to the present, Laurel comes to the future to find her fellow Canary as part of her mission. When asked what brought her to 2040, Laurel explains that despite Star City being crime-free right now, it gets changed in 2041 if Bianca Bertinelli (Raigan Harris) gets murdered in three days. After Oliver’s sacrifice, Laurel is determined to make sure his hard work doesn’t get lost, hence her coming to 2040 to find Dinah and Mia.
While foreshadowing what is to come in Arrow’s upcoming series finale, Dinah’s new status is one of the bigger mysteries in the backdoor pilot. She explains that sometime after Oliver’s funeral, Dinah, while unconscious, wakes up only to find herself stuck in 2040. This is where one of the biggest Crisis on Infinite Earths changes comes into play as Dinah’s history has been majorly altered. No longer remembered as Police Captain of SCPD or operating as the Black Canary, Dinah has basically been erased from Earth-Prime’s new timeline. This caused Dinah to stay behind in 2040 where she opens a bar and sings at it.
Whether this was an accidental change or not remains to be seen. This plot point of discovering who or what brought her to 2040 will surely be explored in the spin-off, if it goes to series. The episode partially hints at someone wanting the pre-Crisis version of 2040 to be remembered. The mystery person at the end could potentially be who got Dinah sent to the new version of future Star City. The ball is now in The CW’s court as viewers will have to wait to find out if Green Arrow and the Canaries will be ordered to series.
