The Flash

For the current season of The Flash, see Season 5 (The Flash).

For other uses of "The Flash", see The Flash (disambiguation).

The Flash is an American TV series, a modern re-imagining of the DC Comics series, The Flash. The series premiered on October 7, 2014, airing at 8 pm.

Originally, the twentieth episode of Arrow's second season was going to act as a backdoor pilot and was it popular enough the series would be greenlit.^[3] However, after executives from The CW Network saw "The Scientist" and "Three Ghosts", Barry's premiere episodes on Arrow, they made the call to order the series straight to pilot.^[4] On May 8, 2014, The Flash was picked up to series.^[5] On October 21, 2014, The Flash was green-lighted for a full season by the CW, extending from 13 episodes to 23.^[6] The Flash was renewed for a second season on January 11, 2015.^[7] On March 11, 2016, The CW renewed The Flash for a third season.^[8] The Flash was renewed for a fourth season on January 8, 2017. On April 2, 2018, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which is scheduled to premiere during the 2018–19 season.^[9]

Grant Gustin portrays Barry Allen/The Flash in the eponymous lead role. The series is written by Greg Berlanti, Todd Helbing, and Geoff Johns.

Synopsis

Barry Allen was 11 years old when his mother was killed in a bizarre, terrifying incident and his father was falsely convicted of murder. With his life changed forever by the tragedy, Barry was taken in and raised by Detective Joe West, the father of Barry’s best friend, Iris. Now, Barry has become a brilliant, driven, and endearing CSI assistant, whose determination to uncover the truth about his mother’s strange death leads him to follow up on every unexplained urban legend and scientific advancement that comes along. Barry's latest obsession is a cutting edge particle accelerator, created by visionary physicist Harrison Wells and his S.T.A.R. Labs team, who claim that this invention will bring about unimaginable advancements in power and medicine. However, something goes horribly wrong during the public unveiling, and when the devastating explosion causes a freak storm, many lives are lost and Barry is struck by lightning. After nine months in a coma, Barry awakens to find his life has changed once again - the accident has given him the power of super speed, granting him the ability to move through Central City like an unseen guardian angel. Though initially excited by his newfound powers, Barry is shocked to discover he is not the only "meta-human" who was created in the wake of the accelerator explosion - and not everyone is using their new powers for good. In the months since the accident, the city has seen a sharp increase in missing people, unexplained deaths, and other strange phenomena. Barry now has a renewed purpose - using his gift of speed to protect the innocent, while never giving up on his quest to solve his mother’s murder and clear his father’s name. For now, only a few close friends and associates know that Barry is literally the fastest man alive, but it won’t be long before the world learns that Barry Allen has become The Flash.^[10]

Introduction

At the beginning of each episode, a voice of Barry Allen describes briefly the hardships that he faced in the past. Barry states that he will use his new powers to fight crime and find the one who killed his mother to bring justice for his father in season one. In season two, Barry states how he must now use his powers to stop the new threats that he accidentally brought into the world after finding his mother's murderer. Season three featured two different intros. The first half sees Barry facing the ultimate consequence from he went back in time to save his mother, which in turn created a new timeline, leaving him facing threats from that timeline who are manifesting powers in the 'real' world. A second version was introduced in "Borrowing Problems from the Future" as Barry attempts to save Iris from getting killed by Savitar right after he witnessed her future death. The fourth season mentions the new threats Barry’s friends brought after they got him out of the Speed Force.

Season 1

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, I use my speed to fight crime and find others like me. And one day, I'll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father. I am The Flash.

Season 2

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. I hunted down the man who killed my mother. But in doing so, I opened up our world to new threats, and I am the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."

Season 3

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. After defeating Zoom and saving the multiverse, I ran back in time and created the alternate timeline Flashpoint. I restored the timeline to how it was, only to find things weren't as I left them. I brought new threats to our world, and I'm the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."

Mid-season variant

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. In an attempt to stop the evil speedster Savitar, I was accidentally thrust into the future, and I saw him murder the woman I love. But I won't let that happen. I'm going to do everything in my power to change the future, and I'm the only one fast enough to keep her alive. I am The Flash."

Season 4

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. But I became lost in time. It took everything in my friends’ power to bring me back. And in doing so, our world was opened up to new threats, and I'm the only one fast enough to stop them. I am The Flash."

Season 5

"My name is Barry Allen and I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I am an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs I fight crime and find other meta-humans like me. But when my daughter came back from the future to help, she changed the present, and now our world is more dangerous than ever and I'm the only one fast enough to save it. I am the Flash."

Cast

Main cast

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen/The Flash
Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost
Rick Cosnett as Eddie Thawne (season 1; special guest season 2–3)
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon/Vibe
Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash (seasons 1–2 and 4), Harrison "Harry" Wells (seasons 2–4), Harrison "H.R." Wells (season 3), and Harrison Sherloque Wells (season 5)
Jesse L. Martin as Joe West
Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West/Kid Flash (seasons 2–4; special guest season 5)
Neil Sandilands as Clifford DeVoe/The Thinker (season 4)
Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny/Elongated Man (season 5; recurring season 4)
Danielle Nicolet as Cecille Horton (season 5; guest season 1; recurring seasons 3–4)
Jessica Parker Kennedy as Nora West-Allen/XS (season 5; special appearance season 4)
Chris Klein as Orlin/Cicada (season 5)

Trivia

The Flash has had one supplemental comic book series, The Flash: Season Zero, one supplemental internet blog, The Chronicles of Cisco, and two supplemental web series, Chronicles of Cisco and Stretched Scene. As well, The Flash has had several supplementary books.
Grant Gustin had confirmed that elements of the "The Trial of The Flash" comic, where Barry is incarcerated for manslaughter when he accidentally kills Eobard Thawne, would be used in the future after the appearance of Barry in a prison outfit appeared in season 1, hinting at the eventual adaptation of the story with Clifford DeVoe in season 4.^[11] However, he indicated it would probably get its own season.^[12]
The only cast members to have appeared in every episode of the series are Grant Gustin (Barry Allen), Candice Patton (Iris West), and Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow), the most of any show in the Shared multiverse.