The CW is ending two of its longest-running series, this season, but fans of Arrow and The 100 were handed a glimmer of hope about the two potential spinoffs.
The CW President and CEO Mark Pedowitz said Thursday that both projects were still “very much alive.”
“They are very much in active discussions to see what we can do,” he said on a call to discuss the network’s fall and 2021 schedule. “I’ve had many discussions with Warner Bros, we have a strategy involved — hopefully we can pull it off.”
This comes two days after the CW handed straight-to-series orders to dramas Kung Fu, starring Olivia Liang, and The Republic Of Sarah, headlined by Stella Baker.
Arrow, which ended in January, ran for eight seasons, while The 100, which ran for six seasons, is kicking off its final season on May 20.
The 100 prequel, which is currently untitled, will start as a backdoor pilot in the seventh and final season of The CW drama.
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The prequel comes from The 100 developer/executive producer/showrunner Jason Rothenberg. Set 97 years before the events of the original series, it starts with the end of the world — a nuclear apocalypse that wipes out most of Earth’s human population — and follows a band of survivors on the ground as they learn to cope in a dangerous world while fighting to create a new and better society from the ashes of what came before.
Iola Evans (Carnival Row), Adain Bradley (Riverdale) and Leo Howard (Why Women Kill) will star.
Rothenberg will executive produce with The 100 EP Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo of Alloy for The 100 producers, Alloy Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. TV and CBS Television Studios.
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Meanwhile, Arrow’s planted spinoff aired in the January 21 episode of The CW series.
The episode starred Katherine McNamara, Katie Cassidy and Juliana Harkavy and was titled “Green Arrow and the Canaries”. It was set in 2040 in Star City and Mia Queen (McNamara) had everything she could have ever wanted. However, when Laurel (Cassidy) and Dinah (Harkavy) suddenly shoedw up in her life again, things took a shocking turn and her perfect world is upended.
Tara Miele directed the episode written by Arrow showrunner Beth Schwartz and co-creator/executive producer Marc Guggenheim, executive producer Jill Blankenship and co-executive producer Oscar Balderrama. The project hails from Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros Television.
McNamara had in a recurring role as Mia Smoak in the seventh season of Arrow and was promoted to series regular for the current eighth and final season. She is a street fighter-turned rebel leader who turned out to be Green Arrow Oliver Queen’s daughter. Cassidy played Laurel Lances, the Black Canary, in the first four seasons of Arrow and was a special guest in Season 5 before moving over to The Flash. She returned for Season 6 of Arrow as Laurel’s doppelgänger Black Siren. Harkavy portrayed Dinah Drake, otherwise known as the Black Canary, in the fifth season of the show and was promoted to series regular for Seasons 6 and 7.
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