The CW is set to close out “The Flash” with its upcoming ninth and final season, one last run that clocks in at a shorter than usual thirteen episodes.
Ahead of that premiere, showrunner Eric Wallace has spoken with TV Line about what to expect and reveals that one thing the new season will address is getting the show’s leads back together.
The series has long been centered on the love story between Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Iris West (Candice Patton) who went from friends to dating to marriage over the show’s first five seasons.
Then for much of the last three years or so, the two have been separated with Iris trapped in the Mirrorverse or kept apart from Barry due to a time sickness. Wallace says:
“We’ve had them on their own separate journeys for [Seasons] 6, 7, and 8, because we had to build their characters. We had to level up Flash as a superhero, and we had to level up Iris emotionally as a journalist. That ball really got dropped in Seasons 2 through 5 or so. But now that we’ve done that, let’s level them up as a couple.”
Wallace also discussed his aims for the final season at length, saying long-time fans of the show should be excited about the tying up of various old and loose threads along with plenty of fan service:
“My mission statement is to reward the audience with things that I know they have been asking for and looking forward to; scratching off things on my own bucket list, as a fan – the same thing with the writers’ bucket list; and ending on a really positive note.
I just wanted us to be strong emotionally, as much as we could, and then finally deliver just a few surprises, a few old faces returning here and there. You’re going to see a lot of nods to Season 1, and a lot of things that were never resolved now get resolved. It’s all about bookending the series and finishing on a really high, emotional note.”
The ultimate aim of upping the romance and adding all these callbacks is to create a fondly remembered series finale: “A series finale where people will truly go, ‘Hey, that was a good one. That one’s going to stay with me in a positive way and really honor the legacy of the show.'”
The ninth and final season of “The Flash” kicks off this Wednesday on The CW.
