The Flash just wrapped up its seventh season this week with a thrilling finale that teased exciting times to come in season 8. With the show confirmed to return for a full-length eighth season, that means The Flash will definitely run for longer than its older brother Arrow. But we still don’t know whether it’s going to get a record-breaking – for the Arrowverse – ninth season or not. EP Eric Wallace seems pretty hopeful of its chances, though.
While speaking with Deadline, Wallace – who took over as showrunner with season 6 – maintained that he’s confident there are enough stories to tell to last “at least several more seasons” as he and the writers room generate more ideas than they get to put on screen every year. From a “creative perspective”, then, there’s no endpoint in sight.
“I feel this show could run easily for at least several more seasons, and possibly beyond. Because I feel like every season, we, as a writing staff, have to decide between all the wonderful stories we want to tell, versus how many episodes we actually have to tell them. We have so much more that we’d love to show the audience and give to them, as a thank you for coming along on this ride with us, but we just can’t get to it. That’s why I say, there’s many more seasons worth of stories to tell, at least from our creative perspective.”
While that’s encouraging to hear, unfortunately there are other factors that will contribute to the series’ future. The CW is likely happy to keep The Flash around for a while yet, but the big question is if Grant Gustin will be willing to keep on playing the Scarlet Speedster for much longer. When questioned about whether actor availability will prevent season 9 from going ahead, Wallace revealed that everything is up in there right now but he’s hopeful for more.
“To be honest with you…I don’t know. Let’s all find out together, but until I hear differently, everything’s fine. You know? I know that’s super vague, but it’s just the honest truth. Anything can happen in this world.”
Season 7 saw both Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) and Tom Cavanagh (Wells) exit the show as regulars, although both returned for the final episodes of the run. The rest of the original Team Flash – Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker and Jesse L. Martin – have all signed on to stick around for season 8. But only season 8.
The Flash returns to The CW for more episodes on November 12th, with season 8 kicking off with an epic five-episode event that’s due to feature some crossover guest stars.