Arrow – Katie Cassidy returning as series regular in season 6

Arrow season 6 will see Laurel Lance officially return – but there’s a catch

Warner Bros announced on Monday that Katie Cassidy, whose character Laurel Lance was shockingly killed off in season four of The CW series, is set to appear as the Black Siren (Laurel’s evil Earth-2 doppelgänger) for the last two episodes of season five before returning as a series regular in season six.

“One of the things that most excites us about Arrow is that we go where the story takes us,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim said in a statement. “Last year, the story took us to the tragic death of Laurel Lance. This year, our midseason finale reintroduced us to Laurel’s doppelgänger, Black Siren. We were so taken by Katie’s fearless interpretation of this character that we knew her story was not yet finished. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Katie back to Arrow as Black Siren, though as her appearances on Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow this season show, she never really left the family.”

Last we saw Black Siren, Oliver handed her over to ARGUS while still hopeful he could help her find her way toward redemption and becoming a hero. As we’ve seen before, not all multiverse doppelgängers are the same or can be trusted, but Black Sirens return gives Oliver the chance to help guide her in the right direction of becoming a hero as well as dealing with his own guilt over Laurel’s death at the hands of Damien Darhk (Neil McDonough).

ARROW airs WEDNESDAYS at 8/7c on THE CW