Sara Lance

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See also: List of DC Comics characters: W § White Canary

Sara Lance
Arrowverse character
Caity Lotz as Sara Lance / White Canary in Legends of Tomorrow
First appearance
Last appearance
Created by
Portrayed by
In-universe information
Alias
  • The Canary[1]
  • Ta'ir as-Safir (طائر الصافر)[2]
  • Black Canary[3]
  • White Canary
Affiliation
  • Legends
  • Team Arrow
  • Paragons
  • League of Assassins
    (previously)
  • Justice League
Family
  • Ava Sharpe
    (wife)
  • Quentin Lance
    (father)
  • Dinah Lance
    (mother)
  • Laurel Lance
    (older sister; deceased)
Significant others
  • Oliver Queen (deceased)
  • Leonard Snart
    (deceased)
  • Nyssa al Ghul

Sara Lance, also known by her alter-ego White Canary, is a fictional character in The CW's Arrowverse franchise, first introduced in the 2012 pilot episode of the television series Arrow, and later starring in Legends of Tomorrow. The character is an original character to the television series, created by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, but incorporates character and plot elements of the DC Comics character Black Canary. Sara was portrayed by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood in the pilot episode, but subsequently by Caity Lotz.

Sara initially goes by the moniker of The Canary, a translation of her Arabic

Legends of Tomorrow
, and eventually becoming the captain of the team.

Lotz has appeared as Sara Lance and her superhero persona in crossovers on The Flash, Supergirl and Batwoman, all set within the Arrowverse. The character has also appeared in a digital comic book series.

Appearances

Arrow

Sara Lance first appears in the pilot episode of

League of Assassins
under the name Ta-er al-Sahfer, roughly translated to "Yellow Bird" or "Canary" from Arabic.

In season two, Sara returns to

Roy Harper
in taking down a drug-enhanced Slade Wilson, with help from the League of Assassins, which requires Sara to return to Nanda Parbat.

In season three, Sara is killed on a rooftop with three arrows to the chest. Some time later, it is revealed that

Ra's al Ghul.[5]
Meanwhile, Laurel takes up Sara's mantle to fight crime as the Black Canary.

In season four, Laurel resurrects Sara using the League's mystical Lazarus Pit. The process is successful, but Sara is brought back to life without a soul, making her feral and dangerous. Oliver calls his old friend

Legends along with Ray. During her time away with the Legends, Laurel is killed by Darhk and Sara is later made aware of it by Quentin when she briefly returns to present-day Star City at the end of season one of Legends of Tomorrow
, where she and Quentin mourn Laurel together.

Sara, along with Ray and the rest of the Legends, return for the season five crossover "

Jefferson Jackson/Firestorm
transforms it into harmless water and the heroes on the ground use a pain-inflicting device to force the Dominators to flee. Sara and the other heroes are honored by the new president later that night and they celebrate, before sharing a hug with Oliver and returning to the Waverider with the rest of the Legends.

Sara briefly returns in season six when she receives a call from her sister's doppelgänger, the recently reformed criminal from Earth-2

Ricardo Diaz and is in the hospital. Sara arrives and meets her deceased sister's doppelgänger, who had developed a genuine father-daughter relationship with Quentin; they refer to each other as such. Sara thanks Earth-2 Laurel for calling her; Laurel thanks her for coming. Laurel tells her that the doctors are optimistic that Quentin will make it and asks Sara if it's weird seeing her. Sara replies that it is, a little. Sara asks if she is like her Laurel, and Laurel replies that she hardly is at all, clearly disappointed with herself. The two witness Oliver being arrested for being the Green Arrow per the condition of his agreement with the FBI, in exchange for their help in the fight against Diaz and his allies. The doctor comes and informs everyone present that Quentin has died from lack of oxygen to his brain during surgery, leaving Sara, Laurel, Oliver, and the rest of Team Arrow devastated. Later, as Oliver (under the direction of the FBI) announces to the world on live TV that he is the Green Arrow, before being taken to prison, Sara and Laurel mourn together over Quentin's body.[6]

In season seven, Sara returns when Felicity summons her to convince Black Siren to stop her crime spree after her crimes and being framed for murder. After they and Dinah stop Shadow Thief. Sara helps Black Siren come to terms with Quention's death.

In season eight, Sara witnesses Oliver's sacrifice to create Earth-Prime and attends his funeral.

Legends of Tomorrow

In the spin-off series,

Laurel was killed by Damien Dhark
. Sara confronts Rip about deliberately returning her to after Laurel's death to stop her from trying to save her, but Rip tells her that Laurel's death is a fixed point in time, and attempting to change it will only get herself and her father killed.

In season two, Sara becomes

Black Flash
, who has been hunting him all season.

In season three of Legends, Sara continues to lead the Waverider crew as they track down and repair anachronisms throughout time, working in an antagonistic partnership with Rip Hunter's new bureaucratic organization, the Time Bureau. In the four-part crossover "

Ava Sharpe
. Ava and Sara begin dating in subsequent episodes, but break up after Sara is temporarily possessed by Mallus through the death totem and reasons that, given her history with death and destruction, she poses a danger to Ava.

Despite this setback, they soon get back together, with the two shown to be in a stable relationship by the time of the Legends removing Paul Revere from the height of Beatlemania. Season four of Legends focuses on Sara leading the team to track down magical "fugitives" of mythology from around the timestream, with the support of Ava and the Time Bureau. In season five, after the Time Bureau is no more, Ava is co-captain of the Waverider and helps the team track down the "encores", evil criminals returned from hell to different points on the timeline. In season six, Sara is abducted by aliens, later revealed to be employed by Bishop, a scientist from the 22nd century and Ava's creator, who wants Sara to work with him in an attempt to restart the human race with alien-human hybrids. After being fatally poisoned by an alien, Bishop clones Sara and transfers her dying mind into her new body that is spliced with alien DNA granting Sara regenerative abilities. Although horrified by what Bishop has done to her and no longer sure of who she is, Mick convinces her that she is still herself. After escaping the alien world with Mick and Gary, Sara returns to Earth and proposes to Ava who gladly accepts. The two eventually wed in 1925, during an alien invasion caused by Bishop which the Legends eventually manage to stop. However, before the Legends able to leave 1925, an unknown second Waverider destroyed the original Waverider.

During season seven, Sara is stranded in 1925 with the rest of the Legends. While trying to get back to 2021, they learn that the second Waverider was commanded by Bishop along with an evil version of Gideon, who later deploys robot versions of themselves to eliminate the Legends. Sara and the Legends try to get to Gwyn Davies in New York, the person who invented time travel, in order to help them get back home. At the end of season seven, it is revealed that Sara is pregnant with Ava's baby. When she returned to the Waverider, she was arrested by the Time Police alongside her team for breaking the timeline.

Creation and development

Jacqueline MacInnes Wood was cast as Sara Lance in March 2012.[7] However due to scheduling conflicts the role was recast.[8] Caity Lotz was announced to be playing Arrow's version of Black Canary during July 2013. During the same month it was revealed that her character is Sara, who had survived the Queen's Gambit shipwreck.[9][10]

According to Arrow producer Andrew Kreisberg, Sara was originally meant to be

Isabel Rochev instead. After the switch was made, Sara was made into the Canary.[11]

After the character's death during the shows third season, it was announced in February 2015 that Caity Lotz would become a cast member on Legends of Tomorrow,[12] though it was not until May that they revealed she would continue to play Sara instead of a new character.[13]

Originally known for her martial arts prowess, in July 2019 it was announced that Sara would develop a superpower during the

fifth season of Legends of Tomorrow,[14] later revealed to be precognition.[15]

Other versions

  • An alternate version of Sara is mentioned on Earth-X where the Nazis won World War II and proceed to conquer the rest of their world. Like her Earth-1 counterpart she was bisexual; when her father, an SS Sturmbannführer, discovered this he killed her.[16]
  • In the episode "Starling City", it is referred that Earth-2's Laurel Lance has a sister.[17] It is unclear whether this is actually Sara's doppelganger, though Laurel does mention in the episode "Green Arrow & The Canaries" that like Sara she slept with Earth-2's Oliver.[18]
  • In the crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", on Earth-16 (a world like Earth-1, but with no fantastical elements), Oliver Queen became the Green Arrow, but Sara Lance actually did die on the Queen's Gambit and thus never became the White Canary.[19]
  • During the "
    Armageddon
    " event, it is mentioned that Sara (and other Legends, including Ray and Nate) was murdered by Damien Darhk and a Reverse-Flash version of Barry Allen in the Reverse-Flashpoint timeline created by Eobard Thawne.

Reception

The revelation in the season two episode, "Heir to the Demon", that Sara is bisexual and has been in a relationship with Nyssa al Ghul was positively received by critics as it made her the first character from either Marvel or DC to be explicitly shown as bisexual in either the movies or TV shows.[20][21] IGN's Jesse Schedeen praised the relationship between Sara and Wentworth Miller's character Leonard Snart (dubbed by fans as "Captain Canary"), as well as the chemistry between Lotz and Miller, describing the "faint romantic tension that existed between [them] since the first episode" as containing more weight than many of the other relationships on the show.[22]

In other media

  • Sara Lance also features in the tie-in novel Arrow: Fatal Legacies which was released in January 2018. The novel focuses on events between the fifth-season finale and sixth-season premiere of Arrow[23] and is co-authored by Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim and author James R. Tuck.[24]
  • White Canary is a playable character in the mobile-exclusive edition of Injustice 2, with her Legends of Tomorrow attire available as an alternate skin for Black Canary.[25]

References

  1. ^ Marc Guggenheim (October 2015). "No. Always 'The Canary'". Tumblr. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2020.
  2. League of Assassins". Arrow. Season 2. Episode 5. November 6, 2013. Event occurs at 31:34. The CW
    . Where I was, they have you choose a new name. I chose Ta-er al-Sahfer. It's Arabic for 'canary'.
  3. Fury Rogue". The Flash. Season 4. Episode 19. April 24, 2018. The CW
    . And Earth-1's Laurel Lance She died. She was the second Black Canary after her sister, who also died and came back, but as White Canary, cause...
  4. ^ "Pilot". Arrow. Season 1. Episode 1. October 10, 2012. The CW.
  5. ^ Stone, Sam (September 1, 2019). "Arrow: Who Really Killed Sara Lance?". CBR. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
  6. Life Sentence". Arrow. Season 6. Episode 23. May 17, 2018. The CW
    .
  7. ^ Byrne, Craig (March 27, 2012). "Jacqueline MacInnes Wood To Play Sarah Lance In The CW's Arrow Pilot". KsiteTV. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  8. ^ "Every Character Recast In The Arrowverse (& Why The Actors Left)". /Film. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  9. ^ Abrams, Natalie. "Exclusive: Arrow Boss Sets the Record Straight on Black Canary Casting". TV Guide. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  10. ^ Prudom, Laura (July 30, 2013). "Black Canary On 'Arrow': CW President Mark Pedowitz Shares More On The Superhero's Origin Story". HuffPost. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
  11. ^ Moore, Trent (April 17, 2014). "Arrow producer explains shocking final scene (+ who ALMOST played Ravager)". blastr. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  12. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (February 27, 2015). "Arrow/Flash Superhero Team-Up Spinoff In Works At CW; Brandon Routh, Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller, Caity Lotz Star". Deadline. Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  13. ^ Rowand, Jack. "DC's Legends of Tomorrow reveals Caity Lotz's character". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on May 16, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  14. ^ Agard, Chancellor (July 17, 2019). "DC's Legends of Tomorrow star Caity Lotz reveals Sara gets a superpower in season 5". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 23, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2019.
  15. ^ "Is Legends Of Tomorrow's Game-Changing Sara Twist Actually Going To Stick?". CinemaBlend. May 6, 2020. Archived from the original on May 13, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
  16. ^ "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3". The Flash. Season 4. Episode 8. November 28, 2017. The CW.
  17. ^ "Starling City". Arrow. Season 8. Episode 1. October 15, 2019. The CW.
  18. ^ "Green Arrow & the Canaries". Arrow. Season 8. Episode 9. January 21, 2020. The CW.
  19. ^ "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One". Supergirl. Season 5. Episode 9. December 8, 2019. The CW.
  20. ^ Rude, Mey (February 6, 2014). "Black Canary is a Totally Bisexual Superhero on 'Arrow', Kissed A Hot Lady On TV Last Night". AutoStraddle. Archived from the original on December 27, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  21. ^ Abrams, Natalie. "Arrow Producers Talk LGBT Storyline, Ra's al Ghul and Reveal Deleted Scene". TVGuide. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2016.
  22. ^ Schedeen, Jesse (May 13, 2016). "DC's Legends of Tomorrow: 'Destiny' Review". IGN. Archived from the original on April 12, 2017. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
  23. ^ Wickline, Dan (August 12, 2017). "Marc Guggenheim To Write Novel Connecting Arrow Seasons 5 and 6". Archived from the original on February 22, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2017.
  24. ^ "Arrow: Fatal Legacies". Penguin Random House Retail. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
  25. ^ InjusticeOnline (March 15, 2019). "Multiverse White Canary Arena Season For Injustice 2 Mobile". InjusticeOnline. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2020.
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