CW Boss Explains Arrow Spinoff Cancellation, Swamp Thing Future, and More!

It's been almost a week since fans around the world let out a collective canary cry when The CW nixed plans for Green Arrow and the Canaries.

Now, the chief of the network is explaining the decision.

Mark Pedowitz chatted with The Hollywood Reporter and admitted that the big issue plaguing the spinoff was the timing of it all.

"We couldn't quite figure out a model similar to Stargirl and couldn't quite get there. We were hoping to have it start at HBO Max and take a second run on The CW, but we couldn't figure out how to do it and couldn't make it all work," he shared.

Stargirl first started its life as a DC Universe original series, before airing on The CW the next day, a model that helped the series breakout and became a solid performer for The CW.

There were rumblings that Green Arrow and the Canaries could wind up on HBO Max, but Pedowitz has now revealed that sending it to HBO Max was an option.

Unfortunately, a deal could not be struck because the pilot was well received by the Arrow fanbase and drew decent ratings, proving a desire to make the show work.

The cast would have included Arrow vets Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy, and Juliana Harkavy, taking their characters to the 2040 timeline first introduced in the parent series.

In the backdoor pilot, Laurel Lance (Cassidy) arrived in the year 2040 to recruit fellow Canary Dinah Drake (Harkavy) and new Green Arrow Mia Smoak (McNamara) to fight a new threat.

Secretly, however, Laurel was also trying to stop Mia from bringing the city to its knees, which was foretold.

It's unclear whether the project could materialize down the line, but it's dead at this moment in time.

Pedowitz also touched upon another big spinoff in the works at the network. Yep, we're talking about The 100.

The series has not been picked up or scrapped, and he cautioned that should it go to series, it would not air until at least Summer 2022.

"I'd like to see it happen. I'm comfortable with where the prequel spinoff episode we did this past season. It's not a pilot; the earliest that would happen would be probably summer 2022 if that happens. We may end up deciding that we can't put the pieces together, and it won't happen," he told the outlet.

The network also aired fellow DC Universe series, Swamp Thing, earlier this season. The series, which was scrapped by DC Universe, is unlikely to return to The CW, Pedowitz admitted to Deadline.

He did not rule out a different take on the series coming to life, but the original iteration will probably not be back.