The Flash (The CW)

*For other uses of "The Flash", see The Flash (disambiguation).*
*For the superhero with the same name, see Barry Allen (Earth-1).*

## *The Flash*

* Logo
* Title card

"*To understand what I'm about to tell you, you need to do something first. You need to believe in the impossible. Can you do that? Good. You see that red blur? That's me. That too! There I am again. My name is Barry Allen. I am the fastest man alive. My story is pretty simple: my whole life, I have been running...*"
—Barry Allen[src]
***The Flash*** is an American TV series, a modern re-imagining of the DC Comics superhero, The Flash. The series premiered on October 7, 2014, airing at 8 pm. Grant Gustin portrays Barry Allen/The Flash in the eponymous lead role.
Originally, the twentieth episode of *Arrow'*s second season, "Seeing Red", was going to act as a backdoor pilot and if it was popular enough the series would be green-lit. However, after executives from The CW saw "The Scientist" and "Three Ghosts", Barry's premiere episodes on *Arrow*, they made the call to order the series straight to pilot. On May 8, 2014, *The Flash* was picked up to series. On October 21, 2014, The Flash was green-lighted for a full season by the CW, extending from 13 episodes to 23.
*The Flash* was renewed for a second season on January 11, 2015.
On March 11, 2016, The CW renewed *The Flash* for a third season.
*The Flash* was renewed for a fourth season on January 8, 2017.
On April 2, 2018, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered in the 2018–19 season.
*The Flash* was renewed for a sixth season on January 31, 2019, which premiered during the 2019-2020 season.
*The Flash* was renewed for a seventh season on January 7, 2020.
The *Flash* was renewed for an eighth season on February 3, 2021.
The *Flash* was renewed for a ninth season on March 22, 2022. On August 1, 2022, The CW announced that Season 9 would be the series' final season. It premiered on February 8, 2023.

## Introduction

In Season 1, the intro features a voice-over of Barry Allen where he briefly describes the hardships that he faced in the past. Barry states that he will use his new powers to fight crime and find the one who killed his mother to bring justice for his father.
In Season 2, Barry states how he must now use his powers to stop the new threats that have been brought into the world after finding his mother's murderer.
Season 3 featured two different intros. The first half sees Barry facing the ultimate consequence from when he went back in time to save his mother, which in turn created a new timeline, leaving him facing threats from that timeline who are manifesting powers in the 'real' world. The second version was introduced in "Borrowing Problems from the Future" and tells us Barry attempts to save Iris from being killed by Savitar right after he witnessed her death in the future.
Season 4 mentions the new threats Team Flash have created after they brought Barry out of the Speed Force.
Season 5 mentions Nora West-Allen traveling back to the past to meet Barry and the new threats created from that.
The "*Blood and Truth*" half of Season 6 had no intro at all. But the second half was different; it had music playing, but no dialogue given during the introduction and showed a montage of each main character and the series as a whole.

### Season 1

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, I use my speed to fight crime and find others like me. And one day, I'll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father. I am The Flash.*
### Season 2

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. I hunted down the man who killed my mother. But in doing so, I opened up our world to new threats, and I am the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."*
### Season 3

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. After defeating Zoom and saving the multiverse, I ran back in time and created the alternate timeline Flashpoint. I restored the timeline to how it was, only to find things weren't as I left them. I brought new threats to our world, and I'm the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."*
#### Midseason variant

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. In an attempt to stop the evil speedster Savitar, I was accidentally thrust into the future, and I saw him murder the woman I love. But I won't let that happen. I'm going to do everything in my power to change the future, and I'm the only one fast enough to keep her alive. I am The Flash."*
### Season 4

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. But I became lost in time. It took everything in my friends’ power to bring me back. And in doing so, our world was opened up to new threats, and I'm the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."*
### Season 5

*"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. But when my daughter came back from the future to help, she changed the present, and now our world is more dangerous than ever and I'm the only one fast enough to save it. I am the Flash."*
## Cast

### Main cast

* Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash and Barry Allen/Savitar (seasons 3, 7 and 9)
* Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen
* Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow, Killer Frost/Frost/Hellfrost (seasons 3—9) and Khione (seasons 8—9)
* T.J.Williams as Barry Allen/The Flash
* Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne/Malcolm Gilmore/Cobalt Blue (season 1; special guest seasons 2—3 and 8-9)
* Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe/Mecha-Vibe (seasons 1—7)
* Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (seasons 1—2 and 4—6; special appearance seasons 7—8; special guest seasons 8—9), Harrison Wells (seasons 1 and 7; special guest season 9) Harrison "Harry" Wells (seasons 2—7), Harrison "H. R." Wells (seasons 3 and 7), Harrison Sherloque Wells (seasons 5—7) and Harrison Nash Wells/Pariah (seasons 6—7)
* Jesse L. Martin as Joe West (seasons 1—8; special guest season 9)
* Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West/Kid Flash (seasons 2—4; special guest seasons 5—6 and 9)
* 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 Cecile Horton (seasons 5—9; guest season 1; recurring seasons 3—4)
* Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West-Allen/XS (season 5; special appearance season 4; special guest season 7—9)
* Chris Klein as Orlin Dwyer/Cicada (season 5)
* LaMonica 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—9; recurring season 6)
* Brandon McKnight as Chester P. Runk (seasons 7—9; guest season 6)
* Jon Cor as Mark Blaine/Chillblaine (season 9; recurring seasons 7—8)

## Trivia

* In an interview, Grant Gustin revealed that in order to prepare for the role of Barry Allen, he read certain *Flash* comics to get a feel for the character. He originally went back to the beginning of *The Flash* comics, and started reading some of the older stuff, but realized it'd be impossible for him to read *all* of the character's source material. When he got into the New 52 series, he narrowed his focus to those comics, as he felt those were most similar to the TV series. However, he also stated that what's done in the show is unlike the comics, as "a lot of the characters are very different than they are in the comics, but they have the same heart".
* *The Flash* has had one supplemental comic book series, *The Flash: Season Zero*, one supplemental internet blog, *The Chronicles of Cisco*, and two supplemental web series, *Chronicles of Cisco* and *Stretched Scene*. In addition, *The Flash* has also had several supplementary books.
* Grant Gustin had confirmed that elements of the "The Trial of The Flash" comic, where Barry is incarcerated for manslaughter when he accidentally kills Eobard Thawne, would be used in the future after the appearance of Barry in a prison outfit appeared in season 1, hinting at the eventual adaptation of the story with Clifford DeVoe in season 4. However, he falsely indicated it would probably get its own season.
* Grant Gustin is the only cast member to have appeared in every episode of the series.
	+ Below is a list of the episodes that marked the first time the original series regulars did not appear:
		- Rick Cosnett - "Fallout"
		- Tom Cavanagh - "Flashpoint" (although he appeared through archive footage near the end, meaning "Paradox" was the first episode to not feature him in any capacity)
		- Jesse L. Martin - "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3"
		- Carlos Valdes - "News Flash"
		- Danielle Panabaker - "A Girl Named Sue"
		- Candice Patton - "Rayo de Luz" (although she appeared through archive footage near the beginning, meaning "Enemy At the Gates" was the first episode to not feature her in any capacity)
* The only actors who have appeared in every season of *The Flash* (so far) at least one time are; Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Jesse L. Martin, Tom Cavanagh, Patrick Sabongui, David Ramsey and John Wesley Shipp.
* The only actors who have been part of the main cast in every season of *The Flash* are; Grant Gustin, Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker.
* *The Flash* has the fourth highest number of series regulars in the Arrowverse with 18.
	+ *DC's Legends of Tomorrow* has the most with 23, *Arrow* has 21, *Batwoman* and *Superman & Lois* both have 12, and *Black Lightning* has 9.
	+ *The Flash* is tied with *Batwoman* in the number of remaining series regulars from its first season, with 4 out of 7 original cast members remaining regulars (*Batwoman* has 4 of 8). *Supergirl* has 3 out of 6, and *DC's Legends of Tomorrow* has 2 out of 10.
* Season 6 is the first season to not have an opening monologue in any episode in addition to introducing a new opening sequence.
* From the sixth to eighth season, a clip of Joseph West was used as one of the clips of Joe West during the opening sequence.
* The first eight seasons were presented in matted widescreen format. But in the ninth season, it is presented in letterbox format.

## Gallery

### Logos

Season 1Seasons 2-presentSeason 3 (briefly)
### Title cards

The Flash title card.pngOfficial title card for seasons 1–3Flash vs. Arrow title card.pngTitle card variant from "Flash vs. Arrow" and "Legends of Today"Fast Enough title card.pngTitle card variant from "Fast Enough"Running to Stand Still title card.pngTitle card variant from "Running to Stand Still" and "The Present"Invasion! (The Flash) title card.pngTitle card variant from "Invasion!"The Flash seasons 4-5 title card.pngOfficial title card for Seasons 4–6.Crisis on Earth-X title card.pngTitle card variant from "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3"We Are The Flash title card.pngTitle card variant from "We Are The Flash"Nora title card.pngTitle card variant from "Nora" and "Godspeed". Also seen as the end title card variant in "Legacy"Elseworlds, Part 1 title card.pngTitle card variant from "Elseworlds, Part 1"End title card variant from "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 1". Also seen as the title card variant in "The Last Temptation of Barry Allen, Pt. 2"Title card variant from "Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three"Official title card for the second half of Season 6–present.
### Promotional images

Barry Allen as The Flash - first look.pngFirst look at Grant Gustin as The Flash.Barry Allen as the Flash full-body promo.pngBarry Allen as the Flash, fully suited.The Flash coming soon poster.png*The Flash* promotional poster.Flash series logo.png*The Flash* iconThe Flash promotional title card.pngPromotional title card.Flash concept.pngThe Flash promo poster - Discover what makes a hero.pngSeason 1 poster.Season 2 poster.Season 3 poster.Season 4 poster.Season 5 poster.Season 6 poster.Season 7 poster.Season 8 poster.The Flash season 9 poster - The Final Run.pngSeason 9 poster.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "'Flash,' 'Arrow' EP Andrew Kreisberg Fired Amid Harassment Allegations" - Variety
2. ↑ Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) - Twitter
3. ↑ "UPDATE: CW Eyes ‘Flash’ Series With ‘Arrow’s Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg & David Nutter" - Deadline
4. ↑ "The Flash To Get His Own Pilot Episode, Separate From Arrow" - FlashTVNews
5. ↑ "It’s Official: The Flash Is Picked Up To Series!" - FlashTVNews
6. ↑ "The Flash Gets A Full Season Order!" - FlashTVNews
7. ↑ "The CW Renews Arrow, Supernatural, The 100, Reign, Jane and 3 Others" - TVLine
8. ↑ "The CW Renews The Flash, Vampire Diaries, The 100, Reign (!) and 7 Others" - TVLine
9. ↑ "'Riverdale,' 'Flash,' 'Supernatural' Among 10 CW Renewals" – The Hollywood Reporter
10. ↑ "The CW Renews ‘Arrow’, ‘Charmed’, ‘Supergirl’, ‘The Flash’ & 6 More for 2019-2020" - RenewCancelTV
11. ↑ "The CW renews The Flash, Riverdale, Supergirl, Legacies, Nancy Drew, and 8 other series" - Entertainment Weekly
12. ↑ "'Walker,' 'Flash,' 'Riverdale' Among 12 CW Shows to Score Early Renewals" - Variety
13. ↑ "The CW Renews 7 Series: ‘The Flash’, ‘Kung Fu’, 'All American', 'Nancy Drew’, ‘Superman & Lois’, ‘Walker’ & ‘Riverdale’" - Deadline
14. ↑ "‘The Flash’ To End With Season 9 On the CW, Final Episode Count Revealed" - Deadline
15. ↑ The Flash Season 9: All You Need To Know About The Show | DailyResearchplot.com
16. ↑ https://collider.com/the-flash-season-9-trailer/
17. ↑ "‘The Flash’: David Ramsey, Keiynan Lonsdale and Sendhil Ramamurthy Return To Reprise Roles In 9th & Final Season" - Deadline
18. ↑ "‘The Flash’ spoilers: How did Grant Gustin research Barry Allen role?" - Matt and Jess TV
19. ↑ "‘The Flash’ Season 2 Spoilers: Barry In Jail? Caitlin Snow Starts Killer Frost Transformation" - Fashion & Style
20. ↑ "The Flash Season 2 Spoilers: Grant Gustin teases what’s next as Carlos Valdes talks Cisco" - Unreality TV

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