We know that ‘The Flash’ Season 3 will adapt the comic book storyline “Flashpoint,” after Barry went back in time and changed history at the end of Season 2. When the show returns, expect a completely different reality in the present as a result. But that won’t be the only change. The show’s creators will be heavily altering the ‘Flashpoint’ comic book story… with good reason.
In the original comic book, Barry finds himself in a twisted reality where Superman is a prisoner of the government, Batman is actually Thomas Wayne striving to avenge the death of his son Bruce, Captain Cold is the defender of Central City and the world-at-large is torn apart by a war between Atlantis and Themyscira.
The Flash himself, Grant Gustin addressed the changes that the show will have to make in order for the storyline to work on TV, while appearing at SDCC:
“We can try to talk about Flashpoint, yeah. I’ll tiptoe around stuff. It’s different. It’s its own thing. When I was cast last… God, it’s been almost three years now, one of the first things I did was watch Flashpoint Paradox, because it was… everyone talks about it. I loved it. But obviously we’re not going to have Batman, we’re not going to have Superman or Wonder Woman, and that’s kind of like… everything that happens in Flashpoint Paradox.”
Indeed, while Barry is the focal character of the comic story, it’s not so much about him, as it is a DC-wide crossover event.
Producers Aaron and Paul Helbing further discussed the departure ‘The Flash’ will have to make so that this all-star comic story will work on the small screen.
Aaron Helbing: I mean, we’re really inspired by the comic book, I loved it personally. But there’s certain limitations [on what] we can do just being a TV show. There’s a lot of… I mean, Thomas Wayne, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. So we just try to do what we can and what we feel emotionally feels right for the story. So we try to take pieces that we can from it and tell the best story we can.
Todd Helbing: It’s the same as any moment that’s in the comics books. You loved it when you read it the first time, or the tenth time, or the hundredth time. And then you really think about how you could do that on our show. Like, the reaction you got when you read it for the first time, how can you get the same reaction? Because you can’t do it verbatim every time. So Flashpoint is very similar, we approach it the same way: how do you get that emotional response from people? We might not use the exact same events that happened.
So while ‘Flashpoint’ is a memorable Flash-centric comic book story, when you really look at it, it’s isn’t really a Flash story at all. So while the show borrows the title, expect big changes for the adaptation– if it can even be considered an adaptation. It sounds as if this will simply be a stand-alone TV story that may cherry pick certain beats from the comic book.
Are there any story elements from the comic book that you hope to see on ‘The Flash’? Are you disappointed that more of the story won’t make it onto the show?
Source: Screen Rant
