‘The Flash’ EP Eric Wallace Breaks Down the New Key Art, Talks Season 8 Long Game
Exclusive
The Flash is on a break this week, but don’t worry, folks. If you’re in need of some new Central City content, we got you. Actually, we’ve got your exclusive first look at the new key art for Season 8, which resumes next week with part two of Robbie Amell‘s three-episode return as Deathstorm.
So why debut a new image halfway through the season? Yeah, we wondered that too, so instead of tossing out theories, we hit up showrunner Eric Wallace for some insight into the design of this promo campaign and what message is being sent. Especially since he’s already admitted that the back half of the season is “going to be a very wild ride, but I gotta warn folks that what is coming emotionally is gonna change Team Flash permanently. And I’m not kidding around.” Read on…
It’s almost like now with all the changes amongst the team, this new art kind of clarifies that Allegra (Kayla Compton) has got powers, Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) has got powers, Iris (Candice Patton) is front and center…
Eric Wallace: Yes. Yes, exactly … It’s called The Flash and, yes, he’s the most important character and he’s our hero and we love him. However, supporting the Flash is Team Flash and on Team Flash, everybody’s equally important and everybody matters and everybody needs to have agency, OK? So it’s been a big effort over the last three seasons [as showrunner] to make sure that any of the supporting characters who maybe were just kind of in the background before, got to shine more. And some of those people who were not meta, like Jesse L. Martin. Obviously, you know, he’s not playing a meta, but his superpower is being a dad…
And just being Joe West!
Being Joe West, right! [Laughs] So we got that there. And Chester (Brandon McKnight), we had to establish his superpower as the new tech guru when Cisco left. That was important. But that still left Allegra, Cecile and it left the continuing evolution of Iris. She’s not just the Flash’s wife, she has her own stories and her own agencies. So I feel like we did good there.
And as this poster points out, my oh my, are you in for some surprises in the back half! Some, I’m happy to say, are literally previewed on this poster. You will see Allegra — it’s one of my favorite episodes coming up — where she gets to show her stuff and literally saves the day on her own practically. It’s a very intense episode and I’m so happy the way it came out.I don’t wanna reveal any spoilers, but her performance is phenomenal and you really see what she’s made of. Everybody else is obviously still in the episode, but it’s her showcase. Likewise, you will see those lines around Cecile and her making gestures…you are going to see something wild going on with Cecile that ties into our season finale and I’m very excited about that, too. The theme of this season is leveling up, so why can’t Allegra and Cecile level up, too?
Dig it. And I love the mimicking of you’ve got Barry (Grant Gustin) with his hands on his hips. You’ve got Iris with her hands on her hips. They’re both taking very strong stands here.
Yes. The back half of the season, I’m not gonna exaggerate here, some really intense stuff is about to go down. Really intense. And it involves all of the characters. I said at at the beginning of the season, the first graphic-novel storyline was “Armageddon.” We’re in the middle of our next graphic novel now and I’ll be announcing the title here in a few weeks because the title is ridiculously spoilery, obviously. For the first time ever, this season we have three graphic-novel arcs and Team Flash will never be the same after the second one. It ties and pushes them emotionally into the final graphic novel and all the people that you’re seeing here [in the poster] all have to work equally, as you would imagine, to save the world from another Big Bad. [Laughs]
Robbie Amell is back as Deathstorm for three episodes, one of which we have already seen. What is next?
So at the end of Episode 11, “Resurrection,” Deathstorm showed up and revealed himself. But what was not revealed is the true reason that he’s back. That will be revealed. Everything about why he is back, his plan, what he wants and how it’ll affect Team Flash forever will be revealed in [next week’s episode], “Death Rises.” Deathstorm might even achieve victories we never saw coming. It’s going to be devastating.
Why he’s back is not what people think it is. Sometimes — and this is a very very big hint — sometimes the bigger the villain, the simpler the motivation. It’s not always some crazy, convoluted Machiavellian plan. The working title for this graphic novel, which is not a spoiler, was “The Blackfire Hauntings.” When I first pitched my crazy ideas, my staff looked at me like, “What? Are you out of your mind? That sounds like a horror movie.” And I went, “Yes, it is a horror movie. We’re going to do The Flash‘s version of a horror film over several episodes.” And once they got past that, then the excitement set in
And we’ve always known the ending of [this] story. I have literally known it for two years and have building and building towards this. As I have been building towards the end of Season 8 — the last three seasons are literally all one big story and it’s leading towards one specific event…I have the Post-it somewhere on my desk. I wrote it down two years ago and went, “That’s the end of Season 8.”
Wait, so this is all connected going back to Season 6?!
What I would tell people to do before watching our Episodes 12, 13, and onward is to rewatch the beginning of Season 6. And I wouldn’t watch it for “Bloodwork,” I’d watch it for all the other reasons. The clues have been there the whole time.
The Flash, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW
