When The CW initially announced its plan to spin The Flash out of “Arrow,” it was with the intention of bringing Grant Gustin back as Barry Allen in the 20th episode of the season for a backdoor pilot.
But when “The Flash” was bumped up to full pilot, those plans went out the window. Now, Gustin won’t even be making a return appearance on “Arrow.” At least for this season./
In place of Gustin’s Barry Allen, the “Arrow” creative team will be bringing in Danielle Panabaker (pictured above) and Carlos Valdes from “The Flash” pilot to act as a bridge between the two series. Panabaker and Valdes are both series regulars on “The Flash,” with Panabaker set to portray the future villainess, Killer Frost aka Caitlin Snow and Valdes as Cisco Ramon, the alter ego of the DC superhero known as Vibe.
While speaking to the press, “Arrow” executive producer Marc Guggenheim said that One of our writers had a great pitch for bringing in a couple of the S.T.A.R. Labs characters, Cisco and Caitlin. Even though the circumstances of that pitch changed, the idea of bringing in those characters really, really appealed to us, because it allowed us to honor our original intention that we had at the beginning of the year — doing something ‘Flash’ related around episode 19 or 20.”
“This episode is really cool,” continued Guggenheim. “And it allows us to further flesh out the ‘Flash’ universe in ‘Arrow.’ We get to see their dynamic. It’s like previewing Boba Fett in the ‘[Star Wars] Holiday Special.'”
The 19th episode of “Arrow” Season 2 is expected to air in late April. If “The Flash” goes to series, it will likely debut in Fall 2014 on The CW.
