Crisis On Infinite Earths Flash from Earth-90
The CW

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen Part 3 of The CW’s “Crisis On Infinite Earths” crossover, this article contains SPOILERS so proceed with caution.

It was foretold that Barry Allen would die in “Crisis On Infinite Earths” all the way back in the first episode of ‘The Flash‘, and at long last, the show has officially carried out that prophecy.  The Flash, Barry Allen, is dead, having made the ultimate sacrifice to at least slow the advance of the Anti-Monitor.

But they never specified which Barry Allen had to die.  In a switcheroo, it was John Wesley Shipp’s Flash of Earth-90 who died.  The regular Earth-1 Barry, Grant Gustin, was all set to go, as he knew he was supposed to die during the Crisis, but Earth-90 Barry stole Earth-1 Barry’s Speedforce and jumped on the Cosmic Treadmill, running backwards.  The anti-matter wave was halted, but all that was left of Earth-90 Barry was his chest emblem.

 

RELATED:  ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths: Part Three’ Review: A Deal With The Devil And A Flash Sacrifice Is Not Enough To Stop Destiny

 

Appearing on the recap show ‘Crisis Aftermath’, ‘The Flash’ showrunner, Eric Wallace, said:

The CW

“You have gotta come up with a way to honor what was said with the Monitor in [The Flash] 601 saying the Flash must die, but also give it a nice story twist, get in some emotion.  We thought about it for quite a while, and we got to what I hope the audience thinks is a satisfying conclusion, which is a little bit of the best of both worlds. Grant almost doing it, wanting to, being the hero we always thought he was gonna be and at the very last second, in comes John Wesley Shipp, and it completes a 30-year arc.”

Shipp starred as Barry Allen on the 1990 series ‘The Flash’, an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the first ‘Batman’ movie the year before.  So his casting as Henry Allen, then Jay Garrick, and now the Barry of Earth-90, has always been an Easter Egg.  The 1990 ‘Flash’ wasn’t a hit, so it ended after one season.  Wallace says he hopes this farewell was a proper send-off.

“Hopefully, we honor the original Flash from the ‘90s show.  You have these two great performers, two generations, where you had Grant Gustin who loves John…and John loving Grant, and to see them working together. That was real emotion you saw in that scene as they kinda realized, Grant’s like, ‘He’s passing a real torch to me. This really is the end of him.’ And then John, he told us I think afterwards, ‘Thank you for giving me this opportunity to close a chapter.’”

Warner Brothers

Viewers were also treated to a cut-away to a scene from the ’90 series, featuring a much younger Shipp, and his co-star Amanda Pays who portrayed love interest Tina McGee.

“We didn’t script that originally. That was something we added in the editing room.  We’re like, ‘You know what? We want to a little bit of his life flashing (no pun intended) flashing before his eyes.’ We just craved it. Our amazing post-producer Geoff Garrett went to the archives and got the footage. We have to change the aspect ratio, because [it has] a different aspect ratio…But man, it’s awesome. It’s like one of my favorite moments in the hour.”

How did you feel about the way the show handled the “death of the Flash” prophecy?

“Crisis On Infinite Earths” resumes on January 14, on ‘Arrow’ at 8 pm, and a special episode of ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ at 9 pm.

 

Source: Entertainment Weekly