The Flash On Arrow… Here’s The Scoop From Andrew Kreisberg & Geoff Johns!

So, here’s the deal: DC Comics character Barry Allen, better known to many as The Flash, is coming to Arrow in Season 2, opening up the world to the larger DC universe. It could lead into a Flash spin-off if all goes well.

Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti, and Andrew Kreisberg are writing the episodes to introduce Barry, which will see him coming to Starling City in episodes 8 and 9 of Season 2. We’ll see Barry Allen a third time in Arrow Season 2, in episode 20 which will be directed by pilot master David Nutter (helmer of the first episodes of Arrow and Smallville) and, we hope, lead into a show of his own.

Here are some new tidbits from Johns and Kreisberg, gleaned from a press call held this afternoon:

– Barry Allen in the Arrow universe is “just an ordinary forensic scientist working for the Central City Police Department” when we first meet him, Andrew Kreisberg tells us. “As we always do on Arrow, we try to keep things as grounded and realistic as possible, and that is the way the audience will be introduced to Barry and get to know him before his life gets a little bit faster.”

– “That’s part of the fun for the audience, for the ride, to see how we do our ‘Arrow take’ on The Flash legacy,” Kreisberg says about whether or not we’ll see his powers on Arrow. “All that said, he does need powers to become The Flash,” Geoff Johns adds. “He will be The Flash.”

– Johns compares Barry Allen’s arrival on Arrow as being like Barry’s arrival in the comics in Showcase #4, when he ushered in a Silver Age of DC super heroes. “In the same way, he’s going to usher in some new and pretty insane concepts to the Arrow world, but like Andrew said, in a very grounded way.” Characters we know from Arrow will react to the extraordinary changes to their world, hopefully in a very realistic way. “These ‘powers’ won’t be treated as commonplace on the show. They will be extraordinary events, and the world and the characters in them will react accordingly,” Kreisberg says. Barry’s presence is “in addition to Arrow.” “We’re not trying to take away anything from Arrow; we’re really trying to add to Arrow,” Kreisberg adds.

– Doing The Flash as a spin-off was an idea that came from Greg Berlanti. The Flash has always been a favorite for him, and of course has always been well loved by Johns and Kreisberg.

– Kreisberg sees “something very relatable” about Barry Allen. “He got his powers by accident. He isn’t a God, he isn’t an alien, he wasn’t seeking this out… it sort of came to him, and his reactions to that feel very human and grounded. I know we use that word a lot in Arrow, but that’s really the way it feels,” Kreisberg says. “Oliver Queen is a very dark and tortured soul, and Barry is not. I think it’ll be a fun by-play to see these two characters together, because they both have distinctly different world views, while both caring deeply about right and wrong.”

– “We’re really focusing on making these episodes the very, very best they can be. Flash deserves it,” Johns says.

– “He’s a cop. He follows the law, he follows the rules… the last thing in the world he would ever think about is being a vigilante,” Geoff Johns says when detailing differences between him and Oliver. Kreisberg says that Oliver and Barry will learn from each other.

– Casting for the role of Barry Allen was waiting for today’s news to come out first. Now that it’s out there, the search can begin.

– The visual effects for The Flash will be unlike nothing we’ve seen before from the character on things like Smallville or the old Flash TV show. Some inspiration may come from the artwork done by Francis Manapul in The Flash comics from DC Comics.

– As Barry’s first visit to Arrow will be in Starling City, we probably will not see other characters from the Flash world until Episode #2.20 of Arrow.

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Modern Flash image courtesy of DC Entertainment