Sara Lance

Fictional character biography

Arrow

Sara Lance first appears in the pilot episode of Arrow as the younger sister of Laurel Lance. Five years prior to the beginning of the series, she was having a secret affair with her sister's boyfriend Oliver Queen and was with him on his family yacht when it shipwrecked. Everyone on board was presumed dead but flashbacks in season two reveal that, like Oliver, Sara actually survived the experience. She was rescued by a research boat, the Amazo, and when Oliver was captured by the ship's crew, Sara helped him escape. Together, along with Oliver's friend Slade Wilson, they attacked the ship. Due to Slade's love for Shado, an ally who was killed indirectly because of Oliver who was being forced to choose who to live between Sara and Shado, Slade betrayed Oliver and took the ship and Oliver as his prisoner. Oliver and Sara confronted him on the freighter and Sara was swept away in the current, causing Oliver to believe that she died once again. However, Sara was found by Nyssa al Ghul, who took her to Nanda Parbat. She and Nyssa became lovers, and Sara became a deadly fighter with the League of Assassins under the name Ta-er al-Sahfer, roughly translated to "Yellow Bird" or "Canary" from Arabic.

In season two, Sara returns to Starling City after a six-year absence as "The Canary" to protect her family. In keeping with a promise, she also befriends wayward teenager Sin and watches over her. Oliver manages to capture and unmask the Canary, revealing Sara to be alive. She eventually informs her father, SCPD Detective Quentin Lance, and looks after him and Laurel (who also later discovers she's alive and is a vigilante). Sara joins Team Arrow and revisits a brief relationship with Oliver. She aids him and his colleagues Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, and Roy Harper in taking down a drug-enhanced Slade Wilson, with help from the League of Assassins, which requires Sara to return to Nanda Parbat.

In season three, Sara is killed on a rooftop with three arrows to the chest. Some time later, it is revealed that Thea Queen killed Sara after being drugged by her father Malcolm Merlyn as part of a plot to pit Oliver against Ra's al Ghul. Meanwhile, Laurel takes up Sara's mantle to fight crime as the Black Canary.

In season four, Laurel resurrects Sara using the League's mystical Lazarus Pit. The process is successful, but Sara loses her soul, making her feral and dangerous. Oliver calls his old friend John Constantine to assist them in restoring Sara's soul. Days later, Sara aids in rescuing Ray Palmer/The Atom from the hands of Damien Darhk, before leaving town to find herself, eventually joining the Legends along with Ray. During her time away with the Legends, Laurel is killed by Darhk and Sara is later made aware of it by Quentin when she briefly returns to present-day Star City at the end of season one of Legends of Tomorrow, where she and Quentin mourn Laurel together.

Legends of Tomorrow

In the spin-off series, Legends of Tomorrow, Sara is recruited by Rip Hunter to a time travelling team of rejects aimed at defeating the immortal villain Vandal Savage. Before she departs, Laurel gives Sara the White Canary name and outfit to signify her new start. Over the course of the first season, Sara continues her battle with bloodlust and sets in motion the events that will lead to her own rescue by Nyssa. While she romances or flirts with numerous people throughout history, among them a younger Martin Stein and a closeted lesbian 1950s nurse, she develops a budding relationship with teammate Leonard Snart, who bonds with her due to their common history as killers and desire to redeem themselves. Though Sara is slow to return his feelings, Snart eventually hints at his love for her and expresses a desire to have a future with her near the end of the season after they destroy the Occulus. Snart ends up sacrificing himself to destroy the Occulus in Ray Palmer's place, and Sara kisses him for the first and final time before leaving with the rest of the team before the Vanishing Point explodes. Sara subsequently mourns Snart's death and admits that he died a hero. The Legends return to 2016 a few months after they left, where Sara learns from her father that Laurel was killed by Damien Dhark. Sara confronts Rip about deliberately returning her to after Laurel's death to stop her from trying to save her, but Rip tells her that Laurel's death is a fixed point in time, and attempting to change it will only get herself and her father killed.

In season two, Sara becomes captain of the timeship Waverider and leader of the Legends following Rip's disappearance. She mercilessly hunts Darhk throughout history before accepting that she cannot bring Laurel back due to the delicacy of time. In the "Invasion!" crossover event, Sara and the Legends return to 2016 to aid Team Arrow, Team Flash, and Earth-38's Supergirl in repelling the Dominators' alien invasion. She subsequently learns of the subtle changes in the timeline due to Barry Allen travelling back in time to save his mother from Eobard Thawne out of grief for his father's death at the hands of Zoom, subsequently creating and undoing the Flashpoint timeline which has alerted the Dominators, and scolds Barry for his carelessness, while still using her own experience losing Laurel to sympathize with Barry. In the second-season finale, Sara is forced to use the Spear of Destiny to save reality from the Legion of Doom. While tempted to rewrite her own tragic history, the Spear briefly reunites Sara with a projection of Laurel, who encourages Sara to do what is right and make peace with her death. Sara then chooses to render the Spear itself inert, foiling the plans of Thawne himself (whose death as a result of Eddie Thawne's suicide had also been undone due to Barry creating and reverting Flashpoint) and allowing him to be killed by the Black Flash, who has been hunting him all season.

Development

Development

According to Arrow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, Sara was originally meant to be Ravager but they decided to give that role to Summer Glau's character Isabel Rochev instead. After the switch was made, Sara was made into the Canary.

After the character's death during Arrow's third season, it was announced in February 2015 that Caity Lotz would become a cast member on Legends of Tomorrow, though it was not until May that they revealed she would continue to play Sara instead of a new character.

Originally known for her martial arts prowess, in July 2019 it was announced that Sara would develop a superpower during the fifth season of Legends of Tomorrow, later revealed to be precognition.

Casting

Jacqueline MacInnes Wood was cast as Sara Lance in March 2012 and appeared in the pilot episode of Arrow. However, due to scheduling conflicts the role was recast. Caity Lotz was announced to be playing Arrow's version of Black Canary during July 2013. During the same month it was revealed that her character is Sara, who had survived the Queen's Gambit shipwreck.

Reception

The revelation in the season two episode, "Heir to the Demon", that Sara is bisexual and has been in a relationship with Nyssa al Ghul was positively received by critics as it made her the first character from either Marvel or DC to be explicitly shown as bisexual in either the movies or TV shows. IGN's Jesse Schedeen praised the relationship between Sara and Wentworth Miller's character Leonard Snart (dubbed by fans as "Captain Canary"), as well as the chemistry between Lotz and Miller, describing the "faint romantic tension that existed between [them] since the first episode" as containing more weight than many of the other relationships on the show.

In other media

Sara Lance also features in the tie-in novel Arrow: Fatal Legacies which was released in January 2018. The novel focuses on events between the fifth-season finale and sixth-season premiere of Arrow and is co-authored by Arrow executive producer Marc Guggenheim and author James R. Tuck.

White Canary appears as a playable character in the mobile-exclusive edition of Injustice 2, with her Legends of Tomorrow design appearing as an alternate skin for Black Canary.