The Flash will not make his debut in one of Warner Bros.’ series of films that reportedly leads to a Justice League movie. Instead, the scarlet speedster will have to settle for the small screen, beginning with an introduction from his pal Green Arrow.
Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour on Tuesday, CW announced Flash’s appearance in three episodes of “Arrow” this coming season before headlining his own spinoff series.
“We plan to introduce a recurring character [on “Arrow”] and an origin story for Dr. Barry Allen, who you know as The Flash,” said CW president Mark Pedowitz. “We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it will go well. We do want to expand upon the DC Universe. We think that there are rich characters that we can use and we thought this was a very organic way to get there.”
The lightning-quick DC hero first appeared in comics in 1940 and became a member of the Justice League of America. “Arrow” producers have hinted that other Justice League members like Wonder Woman, Batman, Aquaman and Green Lantern might appear in the show.
Appropriately titled “Flash,” the spinoff will be directed by David Nutter and written by “Arrow” co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg and series scribe Geoff Johns. Berlanti and Kreisbeg will direct “Flash,” should the series move forward, according to Pedowitz.
The new series will actually be a reboot of the Flash character. John Wesley Shipp played the hero in the short-lived CBS series “The Flash,” which ran for one season in 1990. It’s unclear how the character’s return to television will affect Warner Bros.’ reported plans for a Flash movie, but it does seem to bring us one step closer to a Justice League film.
