The CW’s Flash: Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg Talks About What’s Coming

The CW’s Flash is by far our favorite pilot for Fall 2014, and it’s likely you’ve visited our Flash hub, FlashTVNews, where you can read a whole lot more about the show.

At the recent CW portion of the Summer TCA Press Day, we sat down with one of the show’s Executive Producers, Andrew Kreisberg, to talk a bit about what’s coming beyond the pilot. This, of course, should come with a spoiler warning… though the spoilers aren’t too detailed and won’t ruin anything for you.

Our questions to Mr. Kreisberg are posted in bold; his answers are not. And, as always, we ask that you not copy and paste the full interview onto your own websites/blogs/Tumblr pages/etc. Just link to this article for people to read the whole thing… thanks!

KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: It was just announced that Wentworth Miller will be playing Leonard Snart/Captain Cold in the fourth episode of The Flash. Can you talk about getting him for the role?
FLASH EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ANDREW KREISBERG: I don’t understand how we get the casting serendipity that we get. We’re like “oh, hey, you know who would be great? Jesse L. Martin to play Joe!” and we got him. “Hey, you know who would be great to play Wells? Tom Cavanagh!” And then Greg [Berlanti] said “hey, you know who would be great? Wentworth Miller.” Greg sat down with him, and he was intrigued by the part, and we got him. We’re just so excited, because it feels like the casting on this show… one of the things we always talked about, especially with the modern superhero movies, whether it’s the Dark Knight or Iron Man – they’re really getting these amazing casts, and I think that lets people know that we’re not doing something silly. We’re very excited.

Both of your shows seem to be bringing in so many toys from the DC Universe. Should we assume Flash will be bringing in the more sci-fi elements that Arrow couldn’t?

There have been some fantastical characters on Arrow that were sort of reduced or stripped of their amazing or supernatural, super-powered abilities, but mostly we were limited to the non-powered people on Arrow, which sometimes was limiting. Now with Flash, we’ve opened the playbook up to this whole new wide swath of characters. For my money, aside from Batman and Spider-Man, Flash has the best villains. Not just from their abilities, but just the characterization… they’re really deep, dynamic, interesting people, and I think there’s an opportunity on Flash to have some of the villains be as interesting as some of our regular characters. We’ll really let them have a life of their own.

There’s a big surprise at the end of the Flash pilot episode. How important was it to have something that big to cap it all off?

We’d done something similar in the Arrow pilot, when we revealed that Moira was behind Oliver’s kidnapping. Hopefully it will have that same shock effect, but it’s also tied in to the larger mythology of the series, and certainly the events of Season 1, whereas I think with Moira, I think we had a vaguer idea. We have a much more specific idea about what’s actually happening. So, there’s nothing about that last scene that is not going to eventually play out in one form or another.

Has Iris noticed that Barry has changed since waking up from his coma?

Yeah, and that’s actually the redefinition of their relationship that’s going to make up a lot of these early episodes. There is that fun in “what’s the matter with you? Why are you acting this way?” There’s a great scene in Episode 2 where she’s questioning Barry, and Barry has a very interesting Flash way of confessing what’s going on without her realizing it.

Is Barry Allen one of those characters that’s just inherently good?

Yeah. He’s a good guy, but as Greg [Berlanti] always says, there’s a darkness inside Barry. It’s buried, but it’s in there. When he was 11 years old, he saw his mother die, and his father went to jail for it. It’s not some distant tragedy that he can ignore. It’s every day; every day his father spends in that prison is another day of a reminder of what he’s lost. Obviously, people have loved him, the Wests and whatnot; but underneath the joy and the happiness and the kindness and the support, there is a touch of anger, which we get to see in the pilot, and watching what happens when somebody who gains the power of almost a god, how they cope with that emotionally is a big part of the show.

Speaking of characters getting a lot of power and how they cope, what can you tell me about Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell’s character)?

Ronnie is Caitlin’s fiancee. We’re going to first see him in Episode 3 in flashback. We’re going to flash back to the night of the particle accelerator explosion, and find out what happened that night from the STAR Labs peoples’ point of view.

It is our interpretation of the Firestorm character, and we’re really excited; especially excited to get Robbie. I didn’t work on Tomorrow People, but spending time with Greg, and spending some time up in Canada, I got to know him a bit, and he’s a really special kid.

Will we see any hint to Ronnie Raymond’s other half?

Well, Firestorm wouldn’t be Firestorm without another half, so I don’t think fans of the comics will be disappointed.

The Flash premieres Tuesday, October 7 on The CW. Stay tuned for more interviews coming!