Sara Lance

Sara Lance
Arrowverse character
Caity Lotz as Sara Lance / White Canary in Legends of Tomorrow
First appearance	"Pilot" (Arrow, 1x01) October 10, 2012
Created by	Greg Berlanti Marc Guggenheim Andrew Kreisberg
Portrayed by	Jacqueline MacInnes Wood (2012) Caity Lotz (2013 – present)
Years	2012 – present
In-universe information
Alias	The Canary, Ta-er al-Sahfer (الطائر الأصفر), The White Canary
Family	Dinah Lance (mother) Quentin Lance (father) Laurel Lance (sister)
Affiliations	League of Assassins Team Arrow The Legends (leader)
Abilities	Master assassin, martial artist, and tactician

Sara Lance is a fictional character originally created for the television series Arrow, which is based on the DC Comics superhero Green Arrow. The character was created specifically for television by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg, but incorporates character and plot elements of the Black Canary, a DC Comics superhero. Originally portrayed by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood in Arrow's pilot, she has been portrayed by Caity Lotz since the second season. She initially fights in Arrow under the moniker of The Canary, translated from her Arabic League of Assassins name Ta-er al-Sahfer (Yellow Bird), and later adopts the codename White Canary on the Arrow spin-off Legends of Tomorrow.

Sara Lance has also appeared in a digital comic book series, and while the character was initially introduced as a recurring character on Arrow, Lotz has also appeared in the spin-off The Flash and is currently a cast member on Legends of Tomorrow.

Appearances

Sara Lance first appears in the pilot episode of Arrow as the younger sister of Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), the future Black Canary. It's shown that five years prior to the beginning of the series, she was having an affair behind her sister's back with Oliver (Stephen Amell) and was with him on his family yacht when it shipwrecked and was presumed dead. Flashbacks in season two would reveal that she actually survived the experience and was rescued by a research boat, the Amazo. When Oliver was captured by the Amazo's crew, Sara helped him escape. Eventually, along with Oliver's friend Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), they attacked the ship. When Slade betrayed them and took over both the ship and Oliver as his prisoner, Oliver and Sara confronted him on the freighter; Sara was swept away, with Oliver believed her dead once more. In fact, Sara was found by Nyssa al Ghul (Katrina Law) 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, which means "Yellow Bird" or "Canary".

In season two, Sara returns to Starling City after six years' absence as "The Canary". After having saved Oliver twice, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) realizes that the female vigilante was actually protecting Laurel and not him. Setting a trap, he manages to capture and unmask her, and Sara reveals that she's alive to her father, SCPD Detective Quentin Lance. Some time later, Sara joins Team Arrow and revisits a brief relationship with Oliver. She aids him and his colleagues Diggle (David Ramsey) and Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) in taking down a drug-enhanced Slade Wilson, with help from the League of Assassins, which requires Sara to return to Nanda Parbat. In Arrow's third season, Sara is killed while on a rooftop by being shot three times with arrows on the chest. Some time later, it was revealed that Thea (Willa Holland) killed Sara after being drugged by her father Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) as part of a plot to pit Oliver against Ra's al Ghul (Matt Nable). Meanwhile, Laurel takes up Sara's mantle to fight crime as the Black Canary. In season four, Laurel and Thea decide to resurrect her using League's mystical Lazarus Pit. The process is successful, but Sara is brought back to life without a soul, making her feral and dangerous. Oliver calls his old friend John Constantine (Matt Ryan) to assist them in restoring Sara's soul. Days later, Sara aids in rescuing Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) from the hands of Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough), before leaving town to find herself.

Sara's appearances in Arrow season four lead into the pilot of the spin-off series DC's Legends of Tomorrow, in which Sara is recruited by Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) to a time travelling assault team to take down the immortal villain Vandal Savage (Casper Crump). Before she departs, Laurel gives Sara the White Canary outfit to signify her new start. Over the course of Legends season one, Sara sets in motion the events that will lead to her own rescue by Nyssa; romances many women throughout history; and develops a flirtatious relationship with Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller). When she returns to her home time, she is devastated to learn that Laurel has died. In season two of Legends, Sara becomes captain of the Waverider following Rip's disappearance and leader of the Legends. She mercilessly hunts her sister's killer, Damien Darhk, throughout history, before accepting she cannot bring Laurel back. In the Invasion! crossover event, Sara returns to 2016 to support Oliver and the Flash (Grant Gustin) in repelling the Dominators' alien invasion, and meets the Kryptonian hero Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) from the parallel universe of Earth-38, who Sara develops a crush on. In the Legends season finale, Sara is forced to use the godlike 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 Laurel in the afterlife, who encourages her to do what's right and makes peace with her death; she chooses to render the Spear itself inert, foiling the evil plans of Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher) and allowing him to be killed by the Black Flash, who has been hunting him all season.

In season three of Legends, Sara continues to lead the Waverider crew as they track down and repair anachronisms throughout time, working in a loose partnership with Rip Hunter's bureaucratic new organization, the Time Agency. In the four-part crossover Crisis on Earth-X, Sara travels to 2017 to attend the wedding of the Flash and Iris West (Candice Patton), where she has a one-night stand with Supergirl's human sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh). Working together with assembled heroes, the team repel an invading army from the Nazi world of Earth-X.

Creation and development

Jacqueline MacInnes Wood was cast as Sara Lance in March 2012. 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.

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

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 queer in either the movies or TV shows. IGN's Jesse Schedeen praised the relationship between Sara and Wentworth Miller's character Leonard Snart, as well as the chemistry between Lotz and Miller, calling their "faint romantic tension that existed between [them] since the first episode" containing more weight than many of the other relationships on the show.