E Online – All good things must come to an end, even—and especially—television shows. And in the 2019-2020 TV season, quite a few favorites are signing off.

Will it be for good? That remains to be seen in today’s climate of revival and reboot fever, but it’s for now. To celebrate the end of an era, E! News assembled the stars who are saying “see you later!” to their beloved characters and for a candid look at the past, present and future of their hit shows. After eight seasons on TV, Arrow is saying goodbye.

Arrow launched numerous spinoffs and along the way series star Katie Cassidy was killed off, revived, and bounced around shows. She’s now preparing for another possible spinoff about a trio of butt-kicking women, Laurel Lance (Cassidy), Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) and Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara).

Now, Cassidy is honoring the show that ushered in a new era for The CW and superheroes on TV.

My favorite behind-the-scenes memory is…
“One in particular that sticks out. Well, there’s two. First of all, the first time I ever put on the Black Canary jacket, I cried. I’m not going to lie. I was so excited,” Cassidy said.

And then there was the time she was in the middle of an intense and tearful scene, one she tried to remain in the zone for, but on a turnaround she looked at her phone.

“I looked at my phone and I had text messages from John Barrowman. I was like, ‘Oh, OK. This is interesting.’ So, I looked at them. [Laughs.] He basically went into my trailer and, like, pulled down his pants and sent a picture of him, like, sitting on my couch, not entirely naked, obviously…I saw his bum…And then he went over to the refrigerator and took another picture, a selfie of him and his bum, and I just started cracking up. It also was really good, I needed the release, I needed to laugh a little because it was a really intense serious scene,” Cassidy recalled with a laugh. “I also showed [Stephen Amell] who the scene was with and he was like, ‘Oh, god! I don’t want to see that.’ … John Barrowman over all brought so much joy and laughter and so much fun. There were so many fun times when he was around. I loved that. I thought the whole thing was freakin’ hilarious. It was awesome.”

The moment I realized the show was a hit was…
“When I read the pilot before I auditioned.” Cassidy said she after reading the script and meeting with Marc Guggenheim, Greg Berlanti and David Nutter she was on board, noting she really wanted to do an action role. “I’m all for strong women having their own story and they pitched it to me. I remember calling my agent after reading the pilot and said, ‘This is going to be a hit. I don’t want to read any other scripts. I have to play this role. I was born to play this role. This is me.'”

“After we shot the pilot, David Nutter, he took me and Stephen aside, and he said those exact words, ‘The two of you, you were born to play Oliver Queen and you were born to play Laurel Lance. Just immediately, you are these people.’ I thought that was pretty cool I even remember saying to Stephen when we were at Comic-Con the first year, I basically said, ‘Don’t f—k this up. This is going to be a big show and a part of something special.’ And it really has been. I’m so, so fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to be a part of it…It’s almost a decade, it’s eight years, but as it continues.”

The prop/wardrobe item I’ve always wanted to take home…
“Oh, I got to take home that Black Canary jacket,” Cassidy said. After her character was killed off in season four (Cassidy said she didn’t want to leave but took one for the team and said she understood the storytelling choices for killing off Laurel Lance), she asked Guggenheim if she could take home her character’s mask and jacket. Arrow fans know she was brought back on The Flash play a Black Canary doppelgänger from an alternate Earth, Black Siren, and has since rejoined Arrow as a series regular.

To real the rest click on the link at the top.