Mia, who was introduced in season 7 and became a main character in the eighth and final season, is also the lead of "Arrow"s upcoming spinoff, "Green Arrow and the Canaries." The spinoff, which will be teased in "Arrow"s series finale and include heroes like Laurel Lance (Black Siren) and Dinah Drake (Blake Canary), will also feature the Arrowverse’s first all-female superhero team.
"Arrow" was McNamara's second audition after she learned that "Shadowhunters" was cancelled. She didn’t know what the part was, but there was something about it that interested her. “The sides were dummy sides, so it was a made-up character just for the audition."
"It was, like, a rookie cop who had a dark past and a bit of a dry sense of humor,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh. I’ll get to do something different. Something more structured. I’ll get to learn what cops go through.’”
After she booked the role, McNamara received a call from the series’ showrunner, Beth Schwartz, who told her that her character wasn’t a cop but was actually the daughter of Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Felicity Smoak, the show’s central romance. It was a lot of pressure. What she thought was a simple guest starring role was now Mia Smoak (a.k.a. Blackstar), Oliver and Felicity’s adult daughter from the future who was trained by supervillain Nyssa al Ghul and takes on the mantle of Green Arrow after her father’s heroic death.
After she booked the role, McNamara received a call from the series’ showrunner, Beth Schwartz, who told her that her character wasn’t a cop but was actually the daughter of Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and Felicity Smoak, the show’s central romance. It was a lot of pressure. What she thought was a simple guest starring role was now Mia Smoak (a.k.a. Blackstar), Oliver and Felicity’s adult daughter from the future who was trained by supervillain Nyssa al Ghul and takes on the mantle of Green Arrow after her father’s heroic death.
Mia, who was introduced in season 7 and became a main character in the eighth and final season, is also the lead of "Arrow"s upcoming spinoff, "Green Arrow and the Canaries." The spinoff, which will be teased in "Arrow"s series finale and include heroes like Laurel Lance (Black Siren) and Dinah Drake (Blake Canary), will also feature the Arrowverse’s first all-female superhero team.
"Arrow" was McNamara's second audition after she learned that "Shadowhunters" was cancelled. She didn’t know what the part was, but there was something about it that interested her. “The sides were dummy sides, so it was a made-up character just for the audition.
It was, like, a rookie cop who had a dark past and a bit of a dry sense of humor,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh. I’ll get to do something different. Something more structured. I’ll get to learn what cops go through.’”