It’s TV news again, but where Green Arrow is concerned, we have no boundaries. Deadline reports that Gossip Girl star Katie Cassidy has been cast as Dinah “Laurel” Lance in the CW’s pilot for the comic book adaptation Arrow.
According to the original cast breakdowns, her character is “28 years old, smart sexy, Laurel is a legal aid attorney determined to use her life as a one-woman war against the 1% following the death of her younger sister Sara. A sister, who as luck would have it, just so happened to have died aboard Oliver’s yacht”. In the comic book source, Lance also has the alter-ego of Black Canary, Arrow’s soul-mate and ally.
Cassidy is best known for her television appearances, and was most recently seen on the big screen in Fox’s Monte Carlo opposite Selena Gomez and Leighton Meester. In our review for that film, we singled-put Cassidy’s performance as “stealing scenes away from her more recognisable co-stars and completely injecting a sense of random into events”.
Lance was previously played by Rachel Skarsten in the short-lived 2002 TV series Birds of Prey, which recast her as a teenager. Smallville fans will recognise the Black Canary character from Alaina Huffman’s recurring character introduced in the seventh season of the show, and various animated appearances.
Arrow is a modern retelling of the legendary comics character and hails from Green Lantern duo Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, who will executive produce and pen the project alongside Fringe co-EP Andrew Kreisberg, with whom they worked on Eli Stone.
You forgot Alain Huffman, she was Black Canary since 2007 in Smallville. She was really good, look forward to new Black Canary.
*Smacks head* Thanks! Will update. There’s also the animated version I guess too!