Katie Cassidy has been through the ringer during five seasons of The CW’s flagship DC Universe series Arrow, and now she’s making things difficult for Team Arrow as the villain Black Siren, a station that Stephen Amell thinks may lead to redemption. After seemingly being groomed to take on the role of Black Canary when the series first premiere, Cassidy’s Laurel Lance saw the role go to her sister Sara (Caity Lotz), who turned out not to be as dead as previously thought. To her credit, though, Laurel did eventually assume the role (albeit briefly), following in her sister’s footsteps and turning Black Canary into a legacy character that would later be assumed by Dinah Drake (Juliana Harkavy) in the wake of Laurel’s death at the hands of Damien Darhk.


Though Laurel’s death has proven more permanent than any of her sister’s various demises, Cassidy has assumed another prominent role in the series as Laurel’s metahuman Earth-2 doppelganger, who isn’t nearly as interested in justice as her deceased counterpart. That’s proven difficult for those closest to their dimension’s Laurel – Oliver and Quentin Lance, namely – who have struggled when seeing a completely different person behind that familiar face. As such, it’s no surprise to hear that Oliver is holding out hope something of the Laurel he knew remains constant, regardless of dimensional split.


Speaking during a recent Arrow set visit that Screen Rant attended, Amell spoke about the character of Black Siren, and where he thinks Oliver lands on whether or not inter-dimensional baddie has any shot at being redeemed. Amell said about Oliver and Siren’s relationship:

“It hasn’t really changed since where we last saw them. Oliver and she didn’t really interact toward the last part of [season 5] even though she was a critical part of Chase’s team. But it’s more where we left it in [season 5, episode 10] which is we’re not throwing her in prison; we’re going to keep her close and we’re going to see if there’s any bit of Laurel in there — let’s try to find it. I think that [Oliver] still feels that way despite the fact that she’s doing some pretty gnarly stuff this year.”

For Arrow to find a way to rehabilitate Black Siren would be quite a feat, considering, as Amell said, she’s done some “gnarly stuff.” But if Oliver’s current relationship with Slade Wilson is any indication, he’s willing to be patient and open should an enemy look to change their ways. There’s not been any indication that this Earth-2 Laurel is interested in taking the hero route, but it’s a long season that’s not even half over so far.


With evil doppelgangers playing such a huge part in the upcoming Crisis on Earth-X crossover, it will be interesting to see if Oliver changes his tune once he’s had a chance to see what Overgirl and the other evil versions of his fellow superheroes are capable of.