Flash & Arrow Spin-off Casts Ciara Renée as Hawkgirl

Musical theater actress Ciara Renee, known for her roles in the stage productions of Pippin and Big Fish, will be flying to a screen near you soon in an as yet-unnamed Flash and Arrow spin-off from comics television mastermind Greg Berlanti. Taking the role of classic DC heroine Hawkgirl, Renee joins Brandon Routh as The Atom, Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold, Dominic Purcell as Heat Wave, Victor Garber as Dr. Martin Stein, and Caity Lotz (who played The Canary inArrowup until her character died in the most recent season) in an unnamed role.

Though production details on the show are currently sparse, Berlanti has described it as being focused primarily on team-ups, telling EW: "It honors all of the great team up movies, whether it's Ocean's Eleven or whether it's the superhero books," invoking classic western film The Magnificent Seven to give viewers a taste of what to expect.

Hawkgirl is one of DC's earliest female heroes -- first introduced in 1940 -- and she is no stranger to TV, having appeared both in a minor capacity in Smallville and as part of the main cast on hit animated team-up series Justice League, in which she was an alien spy...and also the reincarnation of an Egyptian deity.

This newest version of Hawkgirl, a.k.a. Kendra Saunders, will be playing on that reincarnation angle, and will find the character discovering that she has been reincarnated through the centuries, with a warrior persona awakening and wings sprouting from her back when she is provoked.

Ciara Renee has recently made news as Esmeralda in a workshop production of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame at New Jersey's Papermill Playhouse and California's La Jolla Playhouse. A vastly different role from the more warrior-driven spirit of Hawkgirl, Renee seems ready to spread her wings and fly as she explores new horizons.