The Flash boss promises to reveal 'new sides' to Barry and Iris in season 6
AsThe Flash, which crossed the 100 episode mark last year, enters its sixth season, new showrunner Eric Wallace is keenly aware of the show’s age. In fact, he and the writers are taking steps in the upcoming season to keep things fresh and interesting for the audience by making it a goal to reveal new things about the show’s lovable cast.
“Sometimes what can happen as you get to later seasons of a show is we can kind of forget to find new sides of the characters that we love so much,” Wallace tells EW. “One of the goals of season 6 would be to show some new sides of the characters that we love.”
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of Nora’s death in season 5, the new season dives right into how Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris (Candice Patton) are grieving their daughter’s passing and dealing with the fact that the future newspaper now says Barry will disappear in 2019 instead of 2024. At the same time, though, Wallace also wants to explore the fact that Barry and Iris are an interracial couple and that there’s a mixed family at the heart of the show but he’s not going to do it the way you expect.
“I want to get to the heart of maybe what that really means and we do it and I think we can do it in some subtle ways,” says Wallace. “I don’t want to be heavy-handed about it, but it might be as simple as the food that they eat at dinner or the music they listen to in the background of a scene. Those things, I’d like to see them really inform who these people are.”
In fact, “you’ll see that right at the top of the season,” he says. “There’s a really fun scene in the [premiere]. I’m not going to spoil it, but I can’t wait for everybody to see it because it’s literally all of the Team Flash family getting together in a way that one imagines they do all the time but we have never seen before. They get to let their hair down.”
Wallace’s goal of revealing new sides of the characters extends beyond the main couple. Season 6 also finds Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) and her icy persona Killer Frost grieving the loss of her father, which will hopefully be a revelatory experience for both characters.
“The way they deal with this will be a delightfully fresh take on both characters, but will especially impact the Killer Frost persona,” says Wallace. “This is a big Killer Frost season. Don’t be surprised if [she] takes on an even larger role.”
Wallace also assures EW that season 6 will be a “huge season” for Cisco (Carlos Valdes), who took the metahuman cure at the end of season 5.
“He doesn’t have his powers as season 6 begins and he’s not going to get them anytime soon because he’s enjoying his non-super hero life,” says Wallace, assuring us he’s still a member of Team Flash in good standing and will continue to help them as a scientist and as a best friend to Barry. “But, it is a different season for him. And you’re going to have to go a long way before he gets to the end of his journey of what being a human being on Team Flash really means. It gives him and Iris, ironically, something to bond over because now they’re the two non-powered superheroes on the team.”
The Flash returns Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. E.T. on The CW.
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