"Arrow" Season 5 will see the return of Black Canary, according to Executive Producer Wendy Mericle. There have been speculations that Felicity Smoak takes on the character instead of Laurel Lance.
Mericle revealed that Black Canary remains a mainstay character in the show. She said that the masked vigilante will always be there. However, Mericle did not outright confirm if Black Canary is in "Arrow" Season 5.
"Look, it's hard to do a show about Green Arrow without having a Black Canary. I don't know if it will happen this season or when, but... we are going to be true to origins in the DC universe, and she's always going to be there," Mericle told TV Line.
The executive producer's statement clearly contradicts the recent spoiler, revealed in the trailer for the midseason premiere of "Arrow" Season 5. The preview below titled "Who Are You," revealed that Laurel Lance's Black Canary did not return from the dead. Instead, her doppelganger and Earth 2 villain Black Siren assumed her identity.
However, Mericle's statement also somehow aligns with speculations about Black Canary's return in "Arrow" Season 5. According to Comicbook, fans have long guessed that Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) could don on the black mask and costume instead of Laurel Lance.
Likewise, Mericle seemed to hint at Felicity's vigilante persona in the interview. She teased that it is likely a new Black Canary appears by the end of "Arrow" Season 5.
Naturally, fans would assume that Felicity becomes Black Canary. After all, she undergoes a dark transformation in the midseason following Billy's death. In "Arrow" Season 5, the hacker possibly becomes a vigilante herself, in her desire to avenge her boyfriend death. Previous spoilers for the midseason revealed that Felicity vows to hunt Prometheus by herself, and doing so leads to her dark turn.
