The Flash

The Flash
Genre	Superhero, Drama, Action
Developed by	Greg Berlanti Geoff John Andrew Kreisberg
Original language	English
No. of seasons	9
No. of Episodes	177
Production
Producer(s)	J.P. Finn Emily Silver Brooke Roberts Dermott Downs Glen Winter
Running time	42-45 minutes
Production company(s)	Bonanza Productions Berlanti Productions DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network	The CW
Original release	October 7, 2014 – May 24, 2023

The Flash is an American superhero television series that aired on The CW since October 7, 2014. It is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen/The Flash, a masked superhero who has the ability to move at superhuman speeds. The series is a spin-off of Arrow, another superhero-based series existing in the same fictional universe.

This series, along with Arrow, has spawned additional spinoff series, including DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, Supergirl and Black Lightning.

On January 7, 2020, The Flash was renewed for an 18-episode seventh season, which premiered on March 2, 2021, and concluded on July 20, 2021.On February 3, 2021, The Flash was renewed for an eight season, which premiered on November 16, 2021, with a five-part crossover event named "Armageddon", and concluded on June 29, 2022. On February 3, 2022, The Flash was renewed for an ninth season, which premiered in 2023. On August 1, 2022, it was announced that it would be the series' last.

Summary

Barry Allen is a Central City police forensic scientist with a reasonably happy life, despite the childhood trauma of a mysterious red and yellow lightning killing his mother and framing his father. ... With Barry's new powers and team of scientists, he becomes "The Flash" and helps fight crime and protects Central City.

Cast

Main cast

• Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash (seasons 1-present)
• Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen (seasons 1-present)
• Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost (seasons 1-present)
• Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne (season 1, special guest seasons 2-3, 8)
• Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe (seasons 1-7)
• Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells (seasons 1-7, special guest season 8)
• Jesse L. Martin as Joe West (seasons 1-7, recurring season 8)
• Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West/Kid Flash (seasons 2–4, special guest seasons 5-6)
• Neil Sandilands as Clifford DeVoe / The Thinker (season 4)
• Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (seasons 5-6, recurring season 4)
• Danielle Nicolet as Cecille Horton (seasons 5-present, recurring seasons 3-4, guest season 1)
• Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West Allen (season 5, recurring seasons 4, 7-8)
• La Monica Garrett as Mar Novu/The Monitor (season 6, guest season 5)
• Efrat Dor as Eva McCulloch/Mirror Monarch (seasons 6-7)
• Kayla Compton as Allegra Garcia (seasons 7-present, recurring season 6)
• Brandon McKnight as Chester P. Runk (seasons 7-present, guest season 6)

Series overview

Season	No. of episodes	Originally aired		Time slot	Average ratings
		First aired	Last aired		Rating (18-49)	Viewers (millions)
1	23	October 7, 2014	May 19, 2015	Tuesdays 8/7c	1.4	3.84
2	23	October 6, 2015	May 24, 2016			3.53
3	23	October 4, 2016	May 23, 2017		1.1	2.85
4	23	October 10, 2017	May 22, 2018		0.8	2.22
5	22	October 9, 2018	May 14, 2019		0.6	1.70
6	19	October 8, 2019	May 12, 2020		0.4	1.26
7	18	March 2, 2021	July 20, 2021		0.2	0.82
8	20	November 16, 2021	June 29, 2022		0.1	1.04
9	13	February 8, 2023	May 24, 2023	Wednesdays 8c	TBA	TBA

Production

Development

On July 30, 2013, it was announced that Arrow co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, Arrow pilot director David Nutter, and DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns would develop a television series based on the Flash for The CW, and it would detail Barry Allen's origin. Kreisberg revealed after the announcement that Allen would first appear as a recurring character on Arrow in three episodes of season two—all written by Berlanti, Kreisberg and Johns—and the last of the episodes would act as a backdoor pilot for the new show. Kreisberg added that Allen would be a forensic scientist and the introduction of his superpowers, as well as the reactions to this, will be very human and grounded. Johns stated that the character of the Flash in the show would resemble his comic book counterpart, complete with his trademark red costume, and not be a poor imitation. Kreisberg elaborated: "No sweat suits or strange code names; he will be The Flash." While researching the best way to depict the Flash's lightning speed, Johns stated it would not just be the standard "blurring around".

Barry ultimately appeared twice in Arrow's second season, with the planned backdoor pilot cancelled in favor of a traditional pilot by The CW executives, who had been impressed by early cuts of Barry's first two episodes on Arrow. This allowed the creative team to flesh out Barry's story and his world on a bigger budget, as opposed to a backdoor pilot's constraint of incorporating characters from the parent show. The pilot was officially ordered on January 29, 2014, and was written by Berlanti, Kreisberg, and Johns, and directed by Nutter. On May 8, 2014, The Flash was officially picked up as a series, with an initial order of 13 episodes. Three more scripts were ordered in September 2014 following a positive response to newly completed episodes by executives, while a back ten was ordered the next month for a full 23-episode season.

With the commencement of production on the series' second season, former Arrow and Ugly Betty writer Gabrielle Stanton was promoted to executive producer and showrunner; after having served as consulting producer and writer on the first season's finale "Fast Enough". However, it was later reported that Kreisberg would be returning to sole showrunner duties at an unspecified time. That time was later proved to be at the start of 2016, "Potential Energy", when Stanton was no longer credited as being involved with the show. In May 2017, it was reported that Aaron Helbing would be departing the series. Helbing had served as a writer since the first season, and as co-showrunner, along with his brother Todd and Kreisberg, since the second.

Filming

Production on the pilot began in March 2014, with filming taking place in Vancouver, British Columbia; additional filming for the series takes place in Portland, Oregon. On how action sequences are shot for the series, compared to Arrow, Gustin said, "When [Arrow] shoot[s] action sequences, pretty much what you see is what you get and they're really doing everything. We do a lot of plate shots that are empty shots of the area we're going to be in and then they're putting us in later in post. I do a lot of the fighting. I don't have to do it full speed and then they ramp it up and a lot of people have to freeze and I keep moving. Then I have to clear frame and step back into frame. It's really tedious stuff that we have to do. On theirs, they learn fight choreography and they shoot it from the perfect angles and what you see is what you get." Production on the third season began in early July 2016.

External links

• The Flash (Arrowverse) on FANDOM
• The Flash on Wikipedia