The boss of “Legends of Tomorrow” Keto Shimizu talks about how she opposed the death of Sarah Lance in the third season of the drama “Arrow Universe”. Despite numerous shake-ups this year, in October of this year the Arrow Universe turns 10 years old, and the premiere of the Arrow took place back in 2012. Throughout the entire time The CW Arrow universe has managed to bring to life several DC comics characters from several favorite superheroes. and villains. While “Arrow” was starting out, the franchise expanded with several Arrowverse spin-offs, such as “Flash”, “Legends of Tomorrow”, “Supergirl”, “Batwoman” and many others.
One of the most popular characters in the entire Arrow Universe is Sarah Lance, who has been an integral part of Legends of Tomorrow for all 7 seasons. While Sarah became the captain of the Waverider, the beloved heroine Katie Lotz was originally part of another team. In the second season of Arrow, Lotz appeared in the series, revealing that Laurel’s younger sister Lance was actually alive the whole time. Although Sarah may not be in the comics, she played a big role in Laurel’s “Black Canary” storyline, acting as a Canary, a member of the League of Assassins. However, at the beginning of the third season of Arrow, Sarah was suddenly killed, which led Laurel to take the final step towards becoming a Black Canary.
Sarah soon came back to life to help host Legends of Tomorrow, which became one of the longest-running Arrow Universe series on the CW. One of the writers of “Arrow” was Keto Shimizu, who later became the co-showrunner of “Legends of Tomorrow” together with Phil Klemmer. In answering questions on the @CampaignLegends Twitter page, Shimizu was asked about writing Sarah’s arch over several seasons, including her time in Arrow. Shimizu admitted that the difficult chapter for her as a writer was that she had to deal with the storyline of Sarah’s death because she was against it. She admitted that she didn’t want to write it, sharing the following:
“I loudly declared my opposition, but in the end we had no other choice but to do it.”
Sarah’s death was one of the most horrific events that happened in the flight of the Arrow. During the premiere of the third season of “Arrow”, Sarah’s killer was a mystery, since the Canary was only seen shot through with arrows before she fell from the roof, and Laurel found her lifeless body. However, when “Legends of Tomorrow” was announced as a spin-off only a season later, “Arrow” wasted no time in bringing back the fallen Canary, as Laurel placed her in the Lazarus Pit and regained her soul thanks to John Constantine. After that, Rip Hunter quickly hired Sarah to become a legend, and the rest is history.
Despite Sarah’s long legacy in Legends of Tomorrow, it’s completely understandable why Shimizu was against killing the character. Sarah could hand over the mantle of the Canary to Laurel and leave the show before starring in Legends of Tomorrow. While many characters died in the Arrow Universe, Sarah’s death was one of the most shocking, and if there were plans to make a by-product, she could just be left off-screen without being so brutally murdered. Despite Arrow’s questionable decision, Sarah got a longer life thanks to Legends of Tomorrow before its cancellation, and the Arrow universe can always bring her back in the future.
