The Flash has run the race to its final season on The CW as the network and the Arrowverse die together, and The Scarlet Speedster may have shared that fate. The show’s star Grant Gustin recently revealed he was willing to go all the way and kill Barry Allen, taking the hero and the series to a logical, if tragic, conclusion.
This, of course, already happened in the comics and Wally West took his place for a few years. However, the torch passed at the end of Crisis On Infinite Earths, and the window of opportunity to imitate on the small screen what occurred on the page was missed by Gustin and the show’s producers who, accounting for that, nixed the actor’s suggestion.
But there’s more. “When I thought about [The Flash] ending, there was a theory out there that Barry would sacrifice himself to keep the Speed Force alive and become the lightning bolt that inevitably struck him [in The Flash‘s pilot episode] and create this full circle moment, which I thought was really cool,” Gustin explained to TVLine.
“I kinda always wanted him to die a hero’s death in a way, and [showrunner] Eric [Wallace] was very opposed to the idea, and we really wanted to see a happy ending for Barry and Iris,” he continued. “And ultimately, I think that is, probably, looking back at this [season] and as fans revisit it, probably how they’re going to want it to end.”
We can rule out Barry making the ultimate sacrifice and the inventive but cliche twist that he will set his own fate in motion. However, with the door open, it could be that Warner Bros. wants to keep Gustin around as they have plans for him in the DCU, though the rumor of a cameo in The Flash movie has been refuted.
That doesn’t mean plans don’t change or that James Gunn won’t have other ideas. Do you foresee or want Grant Gustin in the DCU? Or do you wish they went ahead with ending his iteration of The Flash for good? Answer in the appropriate place.