Known for her roles on Shadowhunters as Clary Fray and on the Maze Runner series as Sonya, Katherine McNamara made her debut on the CW as Mia Smoak also known as Blackstar. The CW announced, confirmed by Deadline, that McNamara has been upped to series regular for the show’s final season. This announcement comes just months after the announcement of Emily Bett Rickards, who plays Felicity Smoak, leaving the show, and the announcement of this upcoming season to be the final season of Arrow.
McNamara made her debut on the show during this past season’s flashforward scenes to the year 2040. Her character first appeared in episode eight titled “Unmasked” as the undefeated pit-fighter Blackstar. She co-starred alongside the older versions of Rene Ramirez, played by Rick Gonzalez, Dinah Drake, played by Juliana Harkavy, and Roy Harper, played by Colton Haynes as well as alongside the children of the present-day team Arrow including John Diggle’s adopted son Connor Hawke, played by Joseph David-Jones, Oliver Queen’s son William Clayton, played by Ben Lewis, and Rene Ramirez’s daughter Zoe Ramirez, played by Andrea Sixtos.
In episode thirteen “Star City Slayer”, five episodes after her debut, McNamara was revealed to be Mia Smoak, the daughter of Felicity Smoak and Oliver Queen, portrayed by Stephen Amell. Throughout the season Mia Smoak is shown fighting alongside her brother William and the other vigilantes as they work to track down where Felicity has been taken to as well as destroy the A.I. Archer, that comes to a climax in the episode “Star City 2040” following the heroes as they become the same vigilantes as their parents.
According to ComicBook.com, after being welcomed to the show by fans rumors started to develop and spread about a spin-off series following McNamara’s character as well as the other future characters. Executive producer Beth Schwartz stated, “It was definitely meant to grow the world that we had already built and to see the next generation of what Oliver and Felicity and our present-day team have worked so hard for, and sort of see what happens in the future. We love those characters and would love to see them go on in some capacity after the show’s over. We were so happy, internally, about how it came out. We kinda love our future story.”
The final season of Arrow premieres Tuesday October 15 with the episode “Starling City.”