Dinah Laurel Lance is a fictional character in The CW's Arrowverse franchise based on the DC Comics character of the same name, created by writer-artist team of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino, and adapted by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg for Arrow in 2012. Katie Cassidy portrays the several multiverse versions of the character within the Arrowverse, all of whom are mostly referred to by their middle name, "Laurel", unlike the comics.
The first version of Laurel is introduced in the pilot episode of Arrow as a legal aid attorney and Oliver Queen's ex-girlfriend, who later becomes a vigilante and takes up the mantle of Black Canary in subsequent seasons of Arrow until her death in season four. The character also appears in spin-off shows The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow as well web series Vixen, which are all set in the same shared fictional universe.
In 2016, the penultimate episode of The Flash season two introduces an antagonist doppelgänger of Laurel Lance from the parallel universe Earth-2, who is known as Black Siren. The character subsequently recurs in Arrow season five and becomes one of the main characters from season six onward. This version of Laurel is gradually redeemed in the following seasons of Arrow and eventually assumes the heroic 'Black Canary' moniker, like her late Earth-1 counterpart.
Following the events of the sixth annual Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Earth-2 Laurel is revived in the rebooted universe called Earth-Prime. The penultimate episode of Arrows final season served as a pilot for a potential spin-off series Green Arrow and the Canaries set in 2040 in the new timeline, co-starring Cassidy as the character. However, the series was not picked up.
Storylines Laurel Lance (Earth-1)
Dinah Laurel Lance is first introduced in the pilot episode of Arrow as a legal-aid attorney working for a legal assistance group called CNRI (City Necessary Resources Initiative) in Starling City. Her father Quentin Lance is a detective and her younger sister Sara Lance and ex-boyfriend Oliver Queen are both presumed dead, while having a secret fling during the sinking of Queen's Gambit five years ago. Over season one's course, Laurel pursues a relationship with Tommy Merlyn, and often works with "The Hood", unaware that the vigilante is actually Oliver who has returned. Laurel initially blames Oliver for Sara's death but after her breakup with Tommy, she briefly resumes her relationship with Oliver. Tommy's death during the events of 'The Undertaking' eventually causes Oliver and Laurel to part ways.
In season two of Arrow, Laurel becomes an Assistant District Attorney, but also struggles with Tommy's death, leading her to fight her own battles with alcoholism and use of prescription drugs. She learns that her sister Sara is alive. She also learns that Oliver is the vigilante known as "The Arrow", and her sister is also a vigilante, whom she eventually names "The Canary". In the next season, Laurel witnesses Sara's murder and resolves to become a vigilante to find her sister's killer and to help people as Sara did. This leads her to begin combat training with Ted Grant, and later Nyssa al Ghul. Initially impersonating "The Canary", Laurel eventually assumes her own mantle as the "Black Canary" and joins Oliver's crusade. As Black Canary, she uses a side-handle baton as her trademark weapon, and later uses an updated version of her sister's sonic "Canary Cry" device designed by Cisco Ramon.
In season four of Arrow, Laurel is shown to be actively operating as the Black Canary, alongside John Diggle and Thea Queen, as a member of "Team Arrow". Laurel and Thea convince Oliver, who had retired with Felicity Smoak in the previous season, to return to the city (now renamed Star City) and join the team again, which leads to Oliver adopting the moniker "Green Arrow". Soon Laurel learns about the Lazarus Pit's power and attempts Sara's resurrection, which succeeds with John Constantine's help. Laurel soon convinces Sara to join Rip Hunter's team later known as the Legends; Sara does so, adopting the moniker "White Canary". Laurel subsequently works with Team Arrow as Black Canary for several missions. During one of their missions, she is mortally wounded by H.I.V.E. leader Damien Darhk and later dies in the hospital surrounded by the team and confessing to Oliver that she still loves him. At her funeral, Oliver reveals Black Canary's real identity to the public to stop Evelyn Sharp's impersonation from inadvertently labeling the Black Canary as a criminal. Laurel's death is avenged when Oliver kills Darhk.
In later seasons of Arrow, the Black Canary mantle is passed on to Dinah Drake by Oliver, while Laurel's Earth-2 doppelgänger, who is initially evil and goes by the moniker "Black Siren", eventually assumes Laurel's civilian identity on Earth-1 and gradually redeems herself to take on the "Black Canary" mantle too. In season six, Earth-1 Laurel is seen in Oliver's hallucination when he is drugged with Vertigo, accusing him of her death. In season seven, archive footage of Laurel as Black Canary is seen in Emerald Archer, a documentary about Oliver's vigilante activities. In season eight, Earth-1 Laurel appears as a speed force illusion in Arrow's episode of Crisis on Infinite Earths, where she mourns Sara's death alongside Diggle. After the events of Crisis, in the new Earth-Prime, Laurel is said to have married Tommy Merlyn, who survived the events of the first season in this new universe, although Laurel herself still later died.
Laurel Lance (Earth-2)
Black Siren is introduced in The Flash season two's twenty-second episode "Invincible" as a criminal and member of Zoom's metahuman army. Her scream is a metahuman power that she uses to take down buildings on Zoom's order, but is stopped by Barry Allen / The Flash's team and imprisoned at S.T.A.R. Labs. Black Siren later re-appears in season five of Arrow. Initially posing as Earth-1 Laurel, she is revealed to be working for Prometheus. But her true identity is soon discovered by Felicity, and she, along with Team Arrow, imprison E2 Laurel at A.R.G.U.S. She later assists Prometheus again in kidnapping and taking the Team on Lian Yu. In the next season of Arrow, Black Siren works with criminals Cayden James and Ricardo Diaz, and becomes a recurring menace for Team Arrow. On James's order, she kills Dinah Drake's (the 3rd Black Canary's) partner and ex-lover Vincent Sobel, leaving Dinah angry and vengeful. Morally conflicted Earth-2 Laurel is persuaded and supported by her late Earth-1 counterpart's father Quentin Lance who remains optimistic about her redemption. She eventually goes public with a cover story of being abducted for "two years" making people believe that she is Earth-1 Laurel. In the season finale, Laurel is devastated when Quentin is shot and killed by Diaz while trying to save her.
In season seven of Arrow, Laurel takes on her Earth-1 counterpart's position as District Attorney and becomes an ally of Team Arrow. She gains Felicity's trust and the duo start a crusade to kill Diaz, but both eventually overcome their vengeance. Laurel later learns from Ben Turner that Diaz was murdered in prison by Oliver's half-sister Emiko Queen, who tries to discredit Laurel by exposing her criminal past. She briefly relapses into her Black Siren persona but Felicity, Dinah and Sara manage to stop and convince her. Laurel then goes back to Earth-2 in pursuit of full redemption and takes Earth-1 Laurel's Black Canary costume with her, given to her by Felicity. She later returns briefly to help the team battle Emiko and the Ninth Circle, now operating as the "Black Canary" of Earth-2. A brief flashforward set in 2040 shows a much-older Laurel working with a female vigilante group known as the "Canary Network", while helping a resistance movement against Galaxy One.
In the final season of Arrow, Laurel encounters Oliver on Earth-2, where she is shown to be actively working as Black Canary alongside Earth-2 Adrian Chase / The Hood. She is also reunited with John Diggle and the group works together to stop "The Undertaking", orchestrated by Tommy Merlyn / Dark Archer of this Earth. As Earth-2 is destroyed by antimatter, Laurel escapes with Oliver and Diggle to Earth-1 where she learns that Oliver is working for a cosmic being called The Monitor, to save the multiverse from a forthcoming crisis. Laurel assists Oliver and Team Arrow for subsequent missions, leading them to places like Hong Kong, Russia and Lian Yu, where they encountering several past and future enemies in time-altering settings designed by Novu, leading to "Crisis on Infinite Earths".
Rebooted universe, future timeline Following the events of "Crisis on Infinite Earths", Laurel learns about Oliver's death and his role in rebooting the universe as the Spectre, resulting in a new universe in which several people including Quentin and Tommy, never died. She attends Oliver's funeral and learns from Tommy that her original Earth-1 counterpart had married him in this new universe but died later. At some point after the funeral, Laurel travels to the year 2040 in this new timeline to warn Oliver's daughter Mia Queen of an impending danger, and is reunited with Dinah Drake who is revealed to have been time-displaced since Oliver's funeral.
Other versions In the Legends of Tomorrow season one episode "Star City 2046", the Legends accidentally travel to Star City in a dystopian future timeline, where Sara learns that Laurel had either abandoned Star City or died. However, this future timeline is not connected to the flash-forwards shown in Arrow season seven and eight. It is later revealed in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover that this future was on another earth in the multiverse, designated as Earth-16. A dream-state version of Laurel is seen in a simulated reality created by the Dominators in "Invasion!" (the 2016 crossover and also the 100th episode of Arrow). In this reality, Oliver and Laurel are engaged and the pair never became the Green Arrow or the Black Canary. Oliver and Sara bid farewell to Laurel before they escape from the reality. In an alternate re-written reality shown in the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Doomworld", the Black Canary (implied to be Earth-1 Laurel) was killed by Legion of Doom, along with many other heroes. The Earth-X doppelgänger of Laurel Lance, known as "Siren-X", appears in The Flash season four episode "Fury Rogue". Siren-X is a metahuman assassin with echolocation powers and an ultrasonic scream (similar to Earth-2 Laurel). She is the last surviving member of the New Reichsmen army, who were defeated and killed during the events of the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover. To avenge their deaths, Siren-X attacks Leo Snart and follows him to Earth-1 but with Barry's help, she is defeated and taken back to Earth-X to be imprisoned. Her fate is unknown since "Crisis on Infinite Earths", where Earth-X is destroyed by the antimatter wave.
Development Creation and casting
In January 2012, after The CW ordered a television pilot for a potential Green Arrow series, its executive producers Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim developed the character of Dinah "Laurel" Lance, based on the Black Canary from DC Comics. The official character breakdown pitched Laurel as "a 28 years old, smart sexy, legal aid attorney determined to use her life as a one-woman war". In February 2012, actress Katie Cassidy, who previously worked in shows like Melrose Place and Gossip Girl for The CW, was cast for the role.