Katherine McNamara’s Mia Queen is heading to Central City and “The Flash.”
On Tuesday, “Arrow” alum McNamara guest stars in the fifth installment of “The Flash’s” Armageddon special, once again reprising her role as the grown-up Mia, daughter to Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak. This time around, future Mia visits modern day Central City, not to help Team Flash defeat Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash or deal with Despero, but on a mission to save a loved one. And her return to the Arrowverse via “The Flash” has a lot to do with something that happened on “Arrow.”
“When we left Mia, not only had her brother [William] just been grabbed by some [unknown] villain, but we got to see the fact that she’s finally connected with her father enough to begin to understand why he made the decisions that he did and why he made the choices that he did,” McNamara said, recapping her character’s last appearance. “And she understood finally what the conflict and the struggle and the responsibility of being the Green Arrow truly means. And then it was suddenly thrust upon her before she was ready, and truly, before she felt as though she was worthy.”
So, while Mia has been doing her best to fill the Hood’s shoes (arrow bag?) William has “been missing for two years,” McNamara said. Without her brother’s influence, Mia is following old patterns.
“In a lot of ways, yes, because she spent two years sort of being obsessed with finding her brother and obsessed with getting him back and righting this failure,” McNamara said. “And you know, she, just like her father will not fail this city, and she will do whatever it takes to get [William] back. And that’s been the biggest struggle … [it’s] pushed her to the edge and to her limit and made her vulnerable in a way to certain other forces which we get to see in this episode.”
Mia’s storyline certainly sounds separate from Team Flash, who are trying to prevent Armageddon by defeating Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanaugh) who has been mucking up the timeline, but McNamara confirms she will run into, as she calls them, “Uncle Barry” and “Aunt Iris.” There are a few others Mia will interact with as well.
“There’s a lot of forces in this episode, both physical and metaphysical, and I can certainly say that, as with the Arrowverse, it is a tangled web we weave of different things and different forces and storylines that all intersect,” she told TheWrap. “But it really was a huge gift and really an honor to get to go work with everyone from Tom Cavanaugh to Neal McDonough, to everyone else in this episode, who we’ve seen throughout this … Armageddon event as it were.”
For the actress, too, returning to the role was something she treasured.
“I was really grateful and I had a wonderful Zoom call with Eric Wallace, who’s the showrunner over there. And he immediately was so excited by the prospect of bringing Mia back,” McNamara said. “They were so enthusiastic about bringing in as many parts of Mia and her story and things that were unresolved and just trying to fit as many Easter eggs in as possible. And it was such a wonderful process. But also, going back to set, putting on the suit again, I sort of looked in the mirror and went, ‘Oh, wait, this is what I’ve been missing for the last couple years that we’ve been going through this pandemic. This has been the missing piece of my heart and soul– was being on set and diving into these characters and really getting to play out a story that I care about so very much, which Mia Queen certainly is.”
And she hopes her work resonates with the Arrowverse audience.
“I had such a ball and I was so so grateful to be able to come back and play and really bring Mia to life in a way that hopefully honors that legacy of the Green Arrow,” she said.
“The Flash” Armageddon wraps up tonight, beginning at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
