Arrow’s Katie Cassidy Reveals Black Siren’s Background And Teases A Potential Meeting With Black Canary!

Since her death in Season 4, Laurel Lance of Earth One has been dearly missed by fans. Not knowing if she’d ever return, either through resurrection or flashbacks, fans were left without a favorite character.

Fortunately, we got to see Katie Cassidy return, but as Laurel’s Earth 2 counterpart, Black Siren. As Black Siren it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the actress’s return to Star City.

The CW broke news that she will become a series regular again for the upcoming sixth season of Arrow. Katie discussed what she expects of Black Siren in the upcoming season.

Along with discussing what she expects of Black Siren she talked about her return to  Arrow at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. She discussed how much she enjoys playing evil and revealed a significant amount of information on Black Siren’s backstory.

First of all, it’s awesome playing evil. It’s so much fun. I think that we’re going to be able to learn more and more about Black Siren and Black Siren’s backstory. I think there are some chances of redemption for her. I do think she’s just very damaged, and in terms of backstory what I’ve sort of done — and this may or may not line up to what the writers end up writing — but her and her father were kidnapped when she was 14 and she was forced to watch him burn to death. So her whole life — this is my backstory, sorry — her whole life she set out to find her father’s killer.

Because of the stark differences in the two Laurel’s lives, the relationship between her character and Earth-1 Laurel’s father, Quentin Lance, makes for an intense dynamic.

That’s why it’s an interesting dynamic with Paul Blackthorne and very confusing for he and I when we have scenes together because we’re so used to playing father and daughter. Now, when we go and do scenes, he’s all confused and it’s so weird having a completely different point of view. Then going through her problems with losing her father — I think there’s a lot of layers there, like an onion — we’ll be able to peel back and learn a lot more about who she is, why she is the way she is, and maybe have some empathy.


Cassidy is hoping that fans will find empathy for Black Siren. As the character comes to terms with finding a way to redeem herself.

Maybe there is a chance for her to not be so evil all the time. If they want to drag out her redemption that’s OK with me. I love playing the role. It’s so much fun. I feel free, if that makes sense, in the material. It’s fun, I really like it. I do think she’s always going to have that mystery to her. She’s a loose canon. You’ll never know what you’re going to get.

When asked about playing a “twisted” version of her original role on Arrow:

It’s almost like a completely new character. Having the same sister, having the same father, having people in her life on Earth-2, creating backstory that’s exactly opposite to what we know of Laurel. Having similarities but making it a little bit darker and specific details in situations that she’s walked through but maybe Laurel didn’t walk through. Then you still have someone who looked like Oliver on Earth-2, I think it’s exactly parallel but opposite.”

On the question if she’d like to see Black Siren meet Legends of Tomorrow’s White Canary, which could come with this year’s crossover episodes’, Cassidy was excited. She also teased a potential meeting of Black Siren and Laurel’s Black Canary:

Absolutely. I love working with Caity Lotz. I said to Marc [Guggenheim], ‘is this possible even for Earth-2 Laurel to come face to face with [Earth-1] Laurel? What’s that like?’ That’s something really interesting and cool. I hope they do it. There’s an opportunity in the crossovers for that to happen.

How do you feel about Katie Cassidy’s return to Arrow? Sound off below!

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