During the Arrow Comic-Con panel, we found out some of the guest stars coming to the show, like Bronze Tiger and Brother Blood, but today the big name was announced. It is none other than Barry Allen himself, The Flash!
At their Television Critics Association presentation, The CW president Mark Pedowitz made public the plans to bring Flash to the small screen starting with an appearance on the already hugely popular Arrow. There were quite a few mentions of Coast City during the first season so there were many, including myself, who thought that perhaps the next “big” name to come to Starling City would be Green Lantern.
Well, we were wrong. Just like we were wrong when we assumed there would be no Flash until the Flash feature film came about in 2016.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Barry Allen will roll into Starling City for three episodes before embarking on his own series. He will be introduced in episode 8, then appear in episodes 9 and 20, and then will go off and do his own thing. Writing the Flash episodes will be the crack team of executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, along with DC author and now frequent Arrow writer Geoff Johns. Episode 20 will be directed by David Nutter, who directed the series pilot last year.
The odd part about all of this is Warner Bros. and DC are not planning on having the already somewhat established TV universe have anything to do with the proposed and hopefully successful cinematic universe. I understood that decision when it was just Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow because the show does have the “no superpowers and/or metahumans” stance, but now that Flash is coming along? Granted they are saying that when Barry Allen and Oliver Queen meet up Allen won’t be Flash but still, the show about the Fastest Man Alive is getting a soft launch from one without any superpowers. Unless they cast Usain Bolt as Barry Allen, I’m calling bull. Actually, they are beginning the casting process this week so maybe it is Usain Bolt.
Another thing we (okay, maybe this was just me) were wrong about? Holding out any hope for the Wonder Woman series to ever make it to air. CW President, Mark Pedowitz, announced yesterday during the same presentation that the Wonder Woman project, Amazon, was on pause.
Excuse me as I roll my eyes in epic fashion. It’s on pause? Did anyone ever press play? Even when we last spoke about the Wonder Woman television series, it was all still speculation and rumor. This whole “pause” business is just irritating. Rip off the Band-Aid Mark, just do it already.
I get that Wonder Woman is a difficult character to try and build a franchise around. Almost every Wonder Woman fan will agree to that. The invisible jet, the different planet, the Lasso of Truth… it’s all a bit fantastic and might be too fantastic to make a TV series out of, outside of the campy 70s. However, either do it or don’t, but stop stringing us along.
Speaking of stringing along… What happened to Booster Gold? When Arrow premiered, Andrew Kriesberg was still talking up the Booster Gold series. I got my hopes up. Thought that for sure one of the men behind this great new show would want to do every thing in his power to bring one of his favorite characters to life in a live action setting. Instead we’ve heard nothing about Booster Gold and when Greg Berlanti was asked why Flash was getting a series, he said it was because Flash was one of his favorite characters growing up! Ugh, I just can’t win.
The last bit of Arrow news coming out of TCA, we now know who Caity Lotz is playing. We saw her in the Arrow season two sizzle reel, but there was no indication who her character was beyond “the origin story for Black Canary”. Well get this, Sarah Lance is still alive and she’s returning to Starling City thanks to Caity Lotz. If the Tommy/Laurel/Oliver love triangle was messy, I can’t even imagine how dysfunctional Ollie stuck between two sisters is going to be.
Despite my irritation, this is exciting news. As a DC fan it’s easy to look at the Marvel cinematic success and be jealous, but Arrow and the new Flash show (and Booster Gold and Wonder Women if they ever get made) are all part of a long and storied history of DC characters on the small screen. They are doing well, so here’s hoping they continue to do well…
By giving me a Booster Gold show.
Grizzly Bomb 