Executive producer Beth Schwartz tells ET she's 'super hopeful' the project will go to series.
The potential Arrow spinoff is still in limbo.
With the coronavirus pandemic shutting down Hollywood productions and delaying projects worldwide, the status of The CW's Green Arrow and the Canaries, which stars Katie Cassidy, Katherine McNamara and Juliana Harkavy, continues to be a question the cast and creative team don't have the answer to -- for now.
"Times are obviously very different and so we don't really know when we'll find out. We're obviously super hopeful and I'm constantly having conversations [about the spinoff]," Arrow executive producer Beth Schwartz, who is shepherding the Canaries project, tells ET. "But I do not have an answer for you unfortunately."
"I acknowledge that the fans are super excited and I know every day people keep asking me. And I wish I had an answer and I really don't," she adds. "I think the excitement helps and it makes us excited, so I definitely appreciate that."
Fans have already gotten an early glimpse at what the possible spinoff, set in 2040, would look like in the backdoor pilot that aired as the penultimate episode of Arrow's final season. Part of the reason for the Canaries spinoff, Schwartz shared, was because of the rich stories they still felt they needed to explore with the female characters of the Arrow-verse.
"The most exciting part was in season 7 of Arrow, we really had the time to explore our female characters and the relationships that they had with each other. And I remember at the time, I'm not sure who it was, if it was Emily [Bett Rickards], Katie [Cassidy] or Juliana [Harkavy], but one of them or all of them might have sent me a text saying that this is the first scene that they all had together without any of the guys," Schwartz recalls, while promoting the Arrow: The Eighth & Final Season DVD and Blu-ray release. "And I remember being very shocked by that and also being super excited about it, that in the seventh season we got to do something new and fresh."
"Then, when I watched those dailies, everything just had a different feel to it," she says. "I think that's what this spinoff is going to be, where we get to explore these female relationships between these characters that we have not really been able to do solely before."
While fans await the fate of the Canaries spinoff, there is one thing Schwartz is looking forward to exploring on a deeper level, should the series get the green light.
"As we're still working on a spinoff and we're talking about those things is, Dinah Drake's background [is something I'd like to focus on]," Schwartz reveals. "We had so many stories about her family and what her life was before. We had the great story with her and [her late boyfriend] Vinny, but there was so much more to her character, which is why, in the backdoor pilot, she talks about getting married [young] and she's a singer. There were all these things [about her we didn't know]. And Laurel's like, 'Who are you?' Because it was kind of the joke that we had amongst ourselves because we've talked about all these stories and we just didn't have a chance to get them out."
"That's what's super exciting about the possibility of a spinoff is we're going to be able to answer some of those questions and get deeper into her character," she promises.
Arrow: The Eighth & Final Season is available on Digital now, and on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, April 28.
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