The upcoming Arrowverse spin-off Green Arrow and the Canaries will not be taking place in the present after all, but in 2040; as revealed by one of the show’s producers, the female-led team-up series is heading to the future. In Arrow season 7, viewers were introduced to Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak’s (Emily Bett Rickards) grown-up daughter Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) in 2040. Throughout the flashforwards, Mia had a primary role in the storyline that involved the future version of Star City at its worst. With her half-brother William (Ben Lewis) and the rest of Future Team Arrow, they were the protectors of Star City by following their parents’ footsteps. In the ongoing Arrow season 8, Mia, William, and Connor (Joseph David-Jones) were mysteriously taken from 2040 to 2019 where they met the present Team Arrow.
With Mia playing a bigger role this season, the character is being prepared for a spin-off. The CW announced that Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz was developing a female team-up show featuring Mia banding together with the two Black Canaries. Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy will be reprising their roles as Laurel Lance (Earth-2) and Dinah Drake respectively. The spin-off, whose title was revealed to be Green Arrow and the Canaries in October, will have a backdoor pilot planted into the final season through the ninth episode. The biggest question that has floated around, since the announcement, is whether or not the show will be set in the present time or take the story to the future. With only a handful of episodes remaining before the Arrow series finale on January 28, the timeline mystery has been solved.
According to Marc Guggenheim, one of the spin-off’s producers, Green Arrow and the Canaries will be played out in 2040. In response to a fan inquiring about Oliver’s absence in the backdoor pilot, Guggenheim revealed that the episode takes place in the future as does the off-shoot series. This would make Green Arrow and the Canaries the first Arrowverse series to be centered in the future, unlike the other ongoing shows.
Despite Mia being in 2019 currently, it was unknown whether or not she would ever go back to the future after season 8. With Guggenheim’s statement, it does seem to confirm that at some point, Mia will return back to her timeline. If it happens on-or-off screen is yet to be determined. With J.J. Diggle (Charlie Barnett) appearing in the backdoor pilot, it explains, even more, why the ninth episode will be set in 2040.
Despite Legends of Tomorrow occasionally doing episodes in the future, this will be a new precedent for Greg Berlanti’s DC TV franchise to have a show set many years later away from the current timeline of the other shows. The final season is getting ready to bid farewell to the present Green Arrow with Crisis on Infinite Earths that will supposedly see Oliver’s destined death. However Mia gets back to 2040, viewers can look forward to Green Arrow and the Canaries happening in the 2040 timeline.
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Source: Marc Guggenheim
