Grant Gustin’s The Flash Legacy Likened to Christopher Reeve’s Superman

Grant Gustin’s The Flash legacy gets compared to Christopher Reeve’s Superman by the Arrowverse showrunner ahead of season 9 premiering this week.

Grant Gustin’s The Flash legacy gets compared to Christopher Reeve’s Superman by the Arrowverse showrunner. After starring as the Scarlet Speedster for nearly a decade, Gustin is getting ready to hit the finish line as The Flash. While The CW renewed The Flash for season 9, the network confirmed later in 2022 that it would be the show’s last one. Picked up for 13 episodes, The Flash season 9 will be the shortest one in the series’ entire run. However, by the time The Flash ends, it will still hold the title of being the Arrowverse’s longest-running series on The CW.

The Flash season 9 will officially premiere this week on The CW, as Barry Allen begins his final run. In a new interview with TVLine, showrunner Eric Wallace opened up about The CW show coming to an end and what fans can expect to see this year. When speaking about Gustin’s impact with The Flash, Wallace compared the star’s legacy to another beloved DC actor. Reeve, who starred as Superman in the late 1970s, is someone who Wallace likened Gustin’s time as The Flash to, stating the following:

I do believe there’s a world for all things Flash — Elseworlds, TV, movie… whatever. I just love the character so much. Grant [Gustin] will always be the Flash for a certain generation in the same way that for my generation Christopher Reeve was Superman. That doesn’t mean I’m not excited to see Michael B. Jordan play a Black Superman — I can’t wait for that — or for the other Supermans, like Henry Cavill or Brandon Routh. I love them all, but I grew up with Christopher Reeve. So there’s a whole group of folks who are going to grow up saying, ‘Grant was my Flash.’ But then there’ll be a new generation of folks that say, ‘Ezra Miller, they are my Flash, too.’

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Why Grant Gustin’s Arrrowverse Legacy Is So Significant

While the Arrowverse exploded as a franchise, The Flash will always hold a particular place in DC TV history. The Flash was the first spinoff series that came out of Arrow, as season 2 specifically set up Barry’s Arrowverse introduction. Gustin’s casting as the Scarlet Speedster was so well-received that instead of doing a backdoor pilot, The Flash got its own traditional pilot by The CW. To this day, The Flash pilot is still the most-viewed CW series premiere of all time. It’s also crucial to remember that Gustin’s show was the series to set up a lot of things in the Arrowverse.

The Flash premiere even seeded the idea for Crisis on Infinite Earths, which is a huge story for Barry in the comics. Whenever The Flash ends this year, Gustin will be one of few DC actors to have played a superhero the longest in live-action. Gustin will join fellow actors Tom Welling (Smallville) and Stephen Amell (Arrow). Out of any Arrowverse actor, Gustin’s Barry is the only one to have ever “crossed” over with the DCEU. In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Gustin and Ezra Miller’s Flashes finally met in the crossover, which was historical for DC live-action history.

It will be bittersweet to see Gustin’s time as The Flash come to an end. Many have been defining him as the definitive take on the fastest man alive, hence Wallace’s comments. It will be intriguing to see if Gustin ever reprises the role in another DC project. With DC Studios getting the DC Universe ready, the multiverse could allow Gustin’s Flash to crossover at some point. Since other actors in the DCU are staying with DC Studios, the possibility certainly exists for Gustin. As the Arrowverse show gets ready to wrap up, The Flash season 9 will certainly be a can’t-miss-event.

MORE: The Flash Ended Diggle’s Green Lantern Story Too Soon

Source: TVLine