Green Arrow & The Canaries Pickup Rumors Untrue (For Now)

In the world of Journalism 2020, people don’t always check the sources or the networks for confirmation before running with a rumor, and worse, sometimes they report such things as fact when they are not.

Today, word came from an “insider” online that the Green Arrow & The Canaries spinoff starring Kat McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy already had a production office and already is picked up as a series for The CW’s 2020-2021 TV season. This despite Arrow Executive Producer Beth Schwartz tweeting this morning that “we won’t know until May” if the show is picked up.

What Beth said is accurate. It is unlikely that The CW will make a decision on Green Arrow & The Canaries before then, pending how the network’s other pilots — which include updates The Lost Boys and Kung Fu, and a prequel spinoff of The 100, among other things — turn out. At the moment, the only “sure thing” additions to The CW schedule include Superman & Lois as well as the Jared Padalecki starring update of Walker Texas Ranger. There is a possibility of early news coming in with a potential writers’ strike looming, but that’s no guarantee.

In any event, Beth Schwartz also addressed these rumors on Twitter tonight, saying she wished it was true that the show was already picked up. But no, right now, it is not.

When an official pickup announcement comes for Green Arrow & The Canaries, there will be press releases, and a reputable source such as Variety, TVLine, or The Hollywood Reporter will probably be posting it even before we will be here at GATV. We are hopeful that it goes, but we do warn not to celebrate just yet. Right now, the only “official exclusive scoop” you’ll be seeing is a possibly good guess of something that will happen eventually, giving the original poster an excuse to brag about being first, even if the original report no basis in reality. See all of the “_______ appearing in Crisis on Infinite Earths!” articles last summer as a perfect example, where some ended up happening, but others (Lynda Carter? Michael Rosenbaum?) got people all excited for something that never ended up happening.