Flash is on the fast track to The CW.
Deadline.com broke the news that The CW is looking at creating a series around DC Comics' Scarlet Speedster as a spinoff from "Arrow." The spinoff would be helmed by the show's co-creators Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg and directed by David Nutter.
"We plan to introduce a recurring character and an origin story of Dr. Barry Allen, we'll see how it goes and hopefully it goes well," CW president Mark Pedowitz said at TCA. "We do want to expand upon the DC universe. There are very rich characters we can use, and we thought this was a good way to do it."
In DC Comics lore, Flash has gone through quite a few incarnations. The character in the "Golden Age" was Jay Garrick, a college student who got his super speed powers after inhaling fumes in a lab. The "Silver Age" version of the Flash was Barry Allen, a police scientist who got his powers following a chemical accident in his lab. The "Modern Age" Flash, Wally West, nephew to Barry Allen, got his powers the same way. Bart Allen, the grandson to Barry Allen, was Impulse and Kid Flash. He appeared in The CW's "Smallville."
This won't be the first TV show for Flash either. In 1990, John Wesley Shipp starred as Barry Allen in "The Flash," which lasted one season.
While there are many potential comic book characters worthy of their own show, Pedowitz said, "I came to a point and said, 'this would be a great character to do' and we felt that the best way to launch this character would be as an origin story on 'Arrow.'"
Fans know that "Arrow" is a fairly grounded world, which so far hasn't featured any super powers, but Pedowitz says that hasn't altered their plans. 'There's a big DC universe where super-powered characters do intersect and don't intersect, but it's an origin story, so he may not come in with super powers."
The casting process is just beginning, but The CW isn't necessarily pursuing a known star. "TV creates stars, so if we get a name, great, if we don't get a name, they'll become a name," Pedowitz said. Expect the character to appear on "Arrow" sometime this fall and recur into next year.
The CW was also developing a TV series based on "Wonder Woman" with Allan Heinberg penning the script. The pilot didn't receive a series order, but the network hasn't given up on the project. "It is being redeveloped. We're waiting for the script to come in; we haven't seen it yet," Pedowitz told reporters after the network's 2013 upfront presentation in May. "We are preparing to pilot it off-cycle should the script be what we want it to be. We do not want to produce something that doesn't work for that particular character -- it is the trickiest of all the DC characters to get done." Heinberg was replaced by "Heroes" writer Aron Eli Coleite for the rewrite.
At TCAs, Pedowitz confirmed that the "Wonder Woman" pilot has stalled for the moment. "'Amazon' is on pause right now. The script isn't quite where we want it," he said. "It's an iconic DC character and we're not going to put it on until it's ready. With the origins of Black Canary coming up on 'Arrow' and potential origins of The Flash, we're not going to rush it."
Pedowitz said having a Flash TV series won't conflict with Warner Bros. and their plans for bringing the character to the big screen. Berlanti has cleared the potential series. "We're good to go. Greg [Berlanti] has spoken to them. There's no conflicts in any way shape or form," he said.
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