The Flash Season 8 Is Bringing Back Surprising Arrowverse Characters
The Flash season 8 is bringing back some older, fan-favorite characters. It is gearing up to be a great new season of stories.
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The Arrowverse’s newest crossover event sees past and present collide, a Collider exclusive reveals. The first five episodes of The Flash season 8 will revolve around Armageddon, an unexpected crash landing that puts Team Flash in a collision course against an extraterrestrial villain none of them has had to contend with before.
With limited time for containment and the fate of the planet at risk, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) enlists the help of both new and old allies, namely Ryan Wilder/Batwoman (Javicia Leslie), Mia Queen (Katherine McNamara), Ryan Choi (Osric Chau), Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams), Alex Danvers/Sentinel (Chyler Leigh), and Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh). Representatives of the Legion of Doom are also expected to figure into the story, which so far includes Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanaugh) and Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough). Unlike past crossover events, which spill into multiple CW properties concurrently, Armageddon will only take place in The Flash season 8.
The Flash executive producer Eric Wallace could barely contain his excitement telling Rafael Motamayor of Collider about the upcoming crossover event in The Flash season 8. “Simply put, these are going to be some of the most emotional Flash episodes ever,” he gushes. “Plus, there are some truly epic moments and huge surprises that await our fans. And we’re doing them on a scale that’s bigger and bolder than our traditional Flash episodes. So yes, Armageddon is a lot more than just another graphic novel storyline. It’s going to be a true event for Flash and Arrowverse fans, old and new. Honestly, I can’t wait for audiences to see what we’ve got planned.”
Armageddon is not based on any preexisting DC comics storyline and will presumably be completely original to the Arrowverse. Wallace doesn’t elaborate on the rest of season 8, however; for instance, what happens after Armageddon concludes? Does the show segue into a new arc, or are both arcs connected, perhaps as a consequence of the first?
A sizable chunk of the beefed-up Team Flash in season 8 is composed of franchise newcomers. Javicia Leslie’s Ryan Wilder is the second Batwoman to suit up in The CW after Ruby Rose abruptly left after season 1. Kate Kane would later reappear after being surgically altered following her plane accident — a workaround writers chose to explain Krypton star Wallis Day succeeding Rose as Kane. Mia Queen (formerly Smoak) takes on a more proactive role after her father, the original Green Arrow, became the Spectre only to pass away and reunite with Felicity Smoak in the afterlife.
Osric Chau’s Ryan Choi is destined to become the second Atom after Brandon Routh departed the role of Ray Palmer last year in the seventh episode of Legends of Tomorrow season 5, entitled “Romeo V. Juliet: Dawn of Justness.” Right now Choi functions in the franchise as a physics consultant; he made his debut during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event. He returns to The Flash season 8 to offer his services.
The rest of the returning crew in The Flash season 8 are recurring associates. Black Lightning is a relatively new entry in the Arrowverse, but already featured in Crisis on Infinite Earths and has been renewed for a fourth season. Alex Danvers is a mainstay on Supergirl, assisting her adoptive sister Kara (Melissa Benoist) and taking on the mantle of the Sentinel after making Martian relic Hand of the soldier her primary weapon. The series will notably wrap up this year during its sixth season.
And of course, Ray Palmer is a prominent founder of the Legends, having been active since the early days of Arrow. His return will vastly prove more cathartic, as Armageddon is his only television appearance after already parting with his teammates in season 5. Tom Cavanaugh’s reprisal of the role that made his career is similarly exciting, as the character of Harrison Wells was originally departing The Flash during its seventh season. But he returns to Team Flash in season 8 not as Wells, but as antagonist Eobard Thawne. Neal McDonough’s Damien Dahrk, on the other hand, is a recurring baddie on Legends of Tomorrow.
Last we caught up with Barry Allen and Team Flash, Godspeed ignited a Speed Force war that demanded the presence of two other speedsters: Allen’s two children, Nora/XS (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and Bart/Impulse (Jordan Fisher). Season 7 of The Flash saw Carlos Valdes and Tom Cavanaugh exit as series regulars. Bart Allen, Barry’s grandchild in the comics, was retconned in the show to instead play his son. Both Kennedy and Fisher will return for season 8. It airs on November 16. Though the series is one of the Arrowverse’s longest-running entries to date, the future of The Flash remains uncertain. Rumors suggest it will soon get the boot, likely after season 8.
