While at Dragon Con, I had the opportunity to participate in a press conference with Arrow’s Katie Cassidy, a.k.a. Laurel Lance, a.k.a. [the current] Black Canary. The great thing about Dragon Con is that the stars aren’t really there to promote things the way they are at, say, SDCC, and I loved the more conversational aspect of this and the other interview experience that I had (more on that later).

Katie began by talking about the drastic difference in the physicality of her role between the first two seasons of Arrow and what happened in season three. “You saw [Laurel] go from being a drug addict…being a disaster every day. Which as an actor is challenging and I love that. But it was really nice…a really good arc for me to come out the other side. You know, get sober. […] So, I spent a lot of time, and still do, dedicating my hiatus to training. When I first started, it was like five days a week and I was training three hours a day. But not just straight up…weights and cardio. It would be like a mixture of things. An hour of weights and then it would be like an hour of kickboxing and then an hour of yoga. So, it wasn’t like […] And there were breaks in between, but I don’t know, I feel like I wanted to make the character, for me, as a professional actor, as legitimate as possible.”

That legitimacy apparently even works its way into her stunts – she does as many of them as they’ll let her, although she noted that “Obviously, they aren’t going to let me jump off a building…it would be fun for sure…but they let me do as much as they can.” Apparently she only stops for insurance reasons, which is just more proof of the dedication she has to this role.

She also made a point to praise her stunt double. “She is fantastic and I always say, when I watch her, she’s really good morphing herself with the actor. She’s also doubled Caity Lotz before and Caity Lotz and I have different mannerisms, we are two different people. When she doubles Caity Lotz she does a really good job in forming and morphing into that and when she [doubles me], same thing.”
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Our Fall TV preview extravaganza was just a small taste of the Arrow intel we’ve collected.

Like Oliver, we aimed higher and are bringing you even more scoop from showrunners Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle about the ex-vigilante’s “bumpy” attempts to get back in Dig’s good graces, Laurel’s struggle to fit in on the team and much more.

Love is in the air for Oliver and Felicity as well as many of the show’s other crimefighters, but at least one person won’t be getting romanced in Season 4, Mericle reveals in our character-by-character spoiler guide.

The EP also shares what some recurring fan faves will be up to when The CW series returns on Wednesday, Oct. 7, while Guggenheim previews new enemy Damien Darhk’s badass qualities.

LAUREL
Having “fully arrived as Black Canary” when the new season opens, Laurel will be focused on her work (at night and during the day), and not so much her personal life. Mericle tells us there’s no plan to introduce a love interest for the unlucky-in-love gal. “I think there’s some virtue in having a female character on the show who’s not necessarily involved with a man,” the EP explains. “She has a lot of business to deal with in terms of her sister [Sara] and also finding a new relationship with Oliver now that Felicity is in the picture…. It’s more [about] her finding her place on the team.”

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A new TVLine spoiler report dishes about the main baddie in season 4 of Arrow, revealing that he is not going to “hide in the shadows” like many villains in the past have done.

The report reveals that Darhk will be making an appearance in the premiere itself and this will be at a public gathering. The more interesting but is the fact that Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) will be present. Nothing has been revealed about Darhk actually warming up to some combat with Lance, but it is highly likely that the two might have some form of confrontation.

Showrunner Marc Guggenheim spoke about the nature of this villain to TVLine. “He’s very different from our previous Big Bads in that he’s not hiding in the shadows,” Guggenheim said. “But at the same time, he doesn’t have a public persona.”

Guggenheim went on to confirm Darhk’s appearance in the premiere. “He shows up at a very public meeting that Lance is present at,” he said. “If Darhk wants to show up somewhere, he’s certainly going to!”

 

Season 4 will premiere on Oct. 7 on The CW.

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Black Canary (Katie Cassidy)

The gloves are a nod to the comic book character’s legendary fishnets. Mani updated Caity Lotz’s Canary getup for Cassidy so that “if Laurel didn’t have the holsters and the mask, she could just be a girl walking down the street.” A badass one, at that. “She had to earn it,” Mani notes of Laurel’s well-deserved transition to superhero in Season 3. “This was not handed to her on a silver platter. She worked very, very hard for it.”Adds the actress: “The best word to describe how I feel when suited up is empowered. Wearing the costume is not only a physical transformation but also an emotional one. A character’s wardrobe is an important part of the process for me.”

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After last season and there old lair being found by the cops a new lair was needed for season 4. And EW has the first look at it. You can see a bike there is that Black Canary’s new one there were talking about at Comic-Con?

Oliver Queen’s super suit isn’t the only new addition to Team Arrow this season.

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#50Scoops50Days: Keep up with the latest in fall TV news
EW has scored an exclusive first look at Arrow’s concept art for the new lair, affectionately known in the writers’ room as the Arrow Bunker.

“In designing the new lair, we had to think in terms of the much larger group that Oliver [Stephen Amell] has now surrounded himself with and how Team Arrow is a much bigger enterprise,” says executive producer Marc Guggenheim, who declined to provide the actual location of the new lair within Star City.

“One of the fun things about this lair is that as opposed to one big space, where everyone would congregate, it’s now a much larger space divided up into smaller spaces,” he continues. “There is an area for Felicity [Emily Bett Rickards] to work, there is an area for Oliver to work out, and there is a garage. There are many different places we’ll continue to discover over the course of the season that give you a sense that this thing is a bit bigger than we got used to in the first three years.”

Credit: ew.com

Marc Guggeinheim talked to TV Guide Magazine this month and gave away some scoop on what is to come in season 4 for Laural.

What’s ahead for Laurel aka Black Canary?
We can confirm that the leader-clad Ms. Lance is a full-fledged member of the team coming into Season 4.
“For the longest time, Oliver was opposed to Laurel being Black Canary, but in the finale, he finally acknowledged that she was a legitimate part of the team”, Guggenheim says. This acceptance positions her to “be a lot more involved in the stories”, including an interesting situation with her father, as well as “one big development for her” that the producer can’t talk about yet.

Wherefore art thou, Nyssa?
Guggenheim only tease that “we’re certainly hoping to have more scenes between Laurel and Nyssa again.”