Arrow’s Katie Cassidy reflects on Arrowverse tenure: ‘We really, really milked that cow’

Katie Cassidy is one of the OG stars of the Arrowverse, making her debut as Laurel Lance in the first season of Arrow and sticking around as a hero, alt-universe villain, then hero again across pretty much the life of the show. She was also poised to stick around longer in the future-set Green Arrow & the Canaries spinoff, until The CW opted not to pick it up to series. 

So what does Cassidy make of her time in the Arrowverse with the benefit of a bit of hindsight? In an interview with Comic Book Movie, the actress noted she’s grateful for her tenure on The CW, how it helped her career and the friends she made along the way. But all that said, she’s happy to move on with her career — and admits they probably squeezed as much as they could out of the franchise once it was over.

“I say this in the most respectful, kind, realistic way…we really, really milked that cow. Like, c’mon. You evolve, you grow, you… I love learning and I love acting, but also, I started in features and I’m stepping back into [them],” she told the outlet. “I’m directing … I’m writing and tapping into this creative side of me that I’ve never had time to because I’ve been acting. I’ve loved acting my whole life, but I want to grow.”

Though she’s enjoying the next stage of her life and career, Cassidy hedged she’d have been happy to stick around longer if The CW had opted to pick up Green Arrow & the Canaries, mostly because she loved the crew and cast she’d been working with for so long already.

"It’s not that I wouldn’t have loved for the show to go [ahead] because I loved working with everyone, but let’s do something different! Let’s shake some sh*t up! [Laughs]. We know about the superheroes. We’ve been there. What’s next?,” she said. “There were vampires with the Twilight thing and superheroes have been cool for a decade and will forever be cool, but let’s go to aliens again or, I don’t know, monsters. Things evolve and then maybe we’ll go to space with aliens and monsters.”

Arrow and its proposed spinoff might be done, but Cassidy said she’d still be game to return to any of the other Arrowverse shows that are still ongoing (i.e. Superman & Lois, The Flash, etc.) if an opportunity presented itself. It doesn’t sound like anything she’s pursuing, but with the Arrowverse, no one is ever really gone forever.

"Yeah, it’s not to say she’s gone. I’d happily go on any of the other shows," she noted. "I love those people. They’re my family. I have so much gratitude. But at some point… it’s why they say good things don’t last forever.”