Andrew Kreisberg recently opened up a bit about the Flash, the new superhero set to appear in Starling City on ‘Arrow’ and on Grant Gustin, the actor who will portray forensic scientist Barry Allen who ultimately becomes the super swift superhero on the show, before (hopefully) spinning off into his own series.
Barry Allen first pops up in episodes 8 and 9 and then will return in episode 20 for the “backdoor pilot” for his own series.
Kreisberg described writing for Barry versus the show’s star Oliver, stating “Barry’s such a different character from Oliver. Episodes 8 and 9 [of Arrow Season 2]… I just handed in 9… it’s been really interesting to write those, because you literally have those two characters in the same show. In some ways it actually may be easier because you can say ‘That’s something Oliver would say; it’s not something Barry would say.”
He also hinted that the character will have some chemistry with supporting character Felicity. “Barry has a very easy relationship with Felicity, because Barry is a forensic scientist, and he’s young, and he’s a little bit socially awkward like she is, so there’s a lot of fun with that.”
Kreisberg explains that they essentially wrote the first scripts without an actor locked in for the part of Barry Allen, although Gustin had met with the writers/producers. “With ‘Arrow’, we wrote [the role] without anybody in mind,” he says. “This time, as we were writing these episodes, we cast Grant in the middle of it… It was funny, because as each of us – Geoff [Johns] and Greg [Berlanti] and I — were working on individual scenes, we all sort of came together and said ‘we’re all writing Grant.’ It was just him.”
They have not begun scripting the all-important episode 20 yet, but now that they have their Flash, Kreisberg says that that should make things easier for them. “That was different, because now when we go into writing the actual pilot in Episode 20, we already have our guy, and we’ve already seen him on the screen, so hopefully we’ll actually literally be able to look at things and learn.”
He went on to explain their take on The Flash:
“Barry’s a fanboy. He comes to Starling City and he says to Felicity, ‘so I heard the vigilante saved you. What’s he like?’ So I think for Barry, it’s one of those things where it’s sort of like ‘be careful what you wish for’.”
“If you look at the Justice League, you have Superman and Aquaman and Wonder Woman. You have all these gods. And then you’ve got Barry Allen, who’s just a guy. That’s, I think, why the character appeals so much to Greg and to Geoff and to me, and it’s also why he’s a really good fit to the world of ‘Arrow’, because while we’re obviously introducing some fantastical concepts to things, we want to still keep the show as grounded and realistic as possible. So I think that the events that happen to The Flash, and what’s going on in Central City… I think some people will be like ‘that’s not happening. There must be an explanation for it.’ Barry’s a good guy, and he’s seen that it’s possible to put on a mask and change the world.”
Well, they certainly know their comics. We’ll have to wait and see how that translates to television. Still no word on whether Gustin will alter his appearance (in other words, bleach his hair) to more closely resemble the character from the comics.
‘Arrow’ kicks off its second season on October 9th at 8 pm ET on The CW.
Source FlashTVNews
