Barry Allen and Team Flash had a challenging year in the eighth season of The Flash. But let’s face it, everyone who lives in Central City has a demanding year every year. The heroes of the longest-running show in the Arrowverse saw their lives turned upside down once more by the appearance of the Negative Forces and the Reverse-Flash, and that’s before accounting for Iris West-Allen’s Time Sickness or the passing of a longtime Team Flash member. The Team Flash and the Negative Forces & Reverse-Flash engage in a great battle to end Season 8. The Scarlet Speedster will still appear in future episodes as the show was extended for a ninth season early this year. It will undoubtedly be a fight for the ages.
Season 9 of The Flash and the future of the Arrowverse are both quite unclear. When the Crisis on Infinite Earths event brought together all the CW superhero series into a single shared world called Earth-Prime in 2020, the shared world appeared to be flourishing well. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic put an end to the plans for additional crossovers right after Crisis, and the recent Discovery purchase of Warner Bros has cast doubt on the future of the Earth-Prime setting. At the moment, The Flash, Superman and Lois, and Stargirl are the only superhero shows still airing on the CW network. Only The Flash is set in Earth-Prime among these.
Here’s everything that we know about The Flash season 9:
The Flash Season 8 Finale Recap
Flash and Negative Reverse-Flash engaged in a brutal fight in the season eight finale. This version of his archenemy reappears when the Scarlet Speedster is fooled by the Negative Forces into murdering his wife Iris who had been temporarily stricken by Time Sickness. Eobard Thawne gains access to her energies and the Negative Thawne emerges to cause trouble.
Iris, though, is still alive (though Barry thinks she is). Damien Darhk helps her break through a time stone when her consciousness is transferred there so she can get back home. Flash, with the assistance of Impulse, XS, and new speedster Meena, defeats the Negative Reverse-Flash. Although Central City was saved and the universe was reset by the death of the final Thawne, the heroes will still face additional challenges in the future.
There were numerous cliffhangers in season eight’s finale, which introduced season nine. Iris’s role as an incubator for the avatar of the negative forces is revealed in the finale as a result of her time sickness. She no longer carries her time sickness, thus the negative forces will need to select a new avatar. Wallace, the creator of the show, stated that a new Negative Speed Force avatar will be appearing since the cosmos need balance, but he did not specify who it will be.
Since losing her metahuman sister Killer Frost earlier this season, Dr. Caitlin Snow has been fixated on reviving her. Snow continued through her experiments despite Barry’s warnings and the destruction of her lab, and in the season eight finale, an unidentified character rises from the chamber. Creator Wallace made a suggestion that it will be some incarnation of Panabaker, and that fans will learn who she is at the start of season nine.
The Flash Season 9 Release Date
The Flash is not on The CW’s Fall 2022 schedule, which was just released. This, however, is not unexpected considering the uncertainty surrounding several DC Comics titles at the moment and the issues with the long-delayed The Flash movie. Warner Bros. has taken multiple cares to avoid confusing casual fans by using the same characters in various media. The studio had originally intended to release The Flash movie during the pause between seasons, but it appears that they have since changed their mind.
Irrespective of where those plans stand right now, The Flash season 9 might debut as early as 2023. The most likely dates for its official debut are February or March of next year. The Flash season 9 will likely run through the summer because that is when The CW typically premieres its midseason series. There are reports of a reduced episode count, with 15 episodes supposedly being a major possibility, even though it is unknown if season 9 would be the show’s final one. We’ll have to wait and see whether that happens.
The Flash Season 9 Cast
Although The CW has not officially revealed which actors will be returning, the Season 9 renewal is thought to have been made possible by Gustin’s agreement to return as Barry Allen/The Flash in the early months of 2022. On June 28, it was revealed that Candice Patton, a member of the original cast, would also return for Season 9 in the role of brave journalist Iris West-Allen. However, the actor had previously stated that she might not continue to appear in the show. She said she wasn’t “quite sure” if she would return during an Instagram AMA in early March, but added that she was taking things “one date at a time”. Later that month, she posted the statement “THAT’S A WRAP ON IRIS WEST” under a video, raising more questions about the character’s future on the show.
Danielle Nicolet (Cecile Horton), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost), Brandon McKnight (Chester P. Runk), and Kayla Compton (Allegra Garcia), among others, are more prominent cast members from The Flash Season 8 that might make a comeback.
From the beginning of The Flash, Jessie L. Martin has played Joe West, a series regular. After Barry’s biological father is charged with murdering Barry’s mother Nora, Joe adopts Barry as a child. Martin’s departure from Flash for the brand-new NBC thriller The Irrational was revealed in April, raising doubts about his presence in season nine. Wallace said that although though the season is still being planned, they don’t want Jesse to leave the show, and he will be included in the plot at the start of the new season. Williams won’t be gone forever because actors like Cavanagh and founding Team Flash member Cisco (played by Carlos Valdes) have transitioned from series regulars to recurring parts.
The Flash Season 9 Plot
Plot details for Season 9 have not yet been released, but Wallace has revealed why John Diggle’s Green Lantern-style arc ended before the next chapter. The gist of it? The Flash wasn’t revived for Season 9 until after the last screenplay was written because they wanted to make sure the character received an appropriate send-off. Wallace then teased a Blackest Night plotline from the comic books to further imply that Diggle’s declining his “cosmic” invitation “had a wider purpose.” He’s not yet certain whether Season 9 will be The Flash’s final season, so the plot may still not go there.
Eobard Thawne’s death creates a window for another bad guy to pose a threat to Central City. Season nine’s main villain has not yet been revealed, however, it will feature a number of well-known villains from earlier seasons. There are many to pick from since Flash has battled some formidable foes including Captain Cold, Gorilla Grodd, and Bloodsport. The most well-liked villains have the highest probability of returning since fan favorites are expected to make a comeback.
Additionally, viewers anticipate that Season 9 will see the return of the evil Bloodwork, a.k.a. Dr. Ramsey Rosso, who last made an appearance in Season 6. Bloodwork apparently managed to escape from prison in DC’s Arrowverse-themed comic book series Earth-Prime, with the promise that the plot would “be resumed in Season 9 of The Flash.”
Cobalt Blue & Killer Frost In The Flash Season 9
The season finale featured two moments that prepared viewers for The Flash season 9. The first continued Caitlin Snow’s and Mark’s “Chillblaine” Blaine’s attempts to bring Frost back to life. The pair last appeared together in “Negative, Part 1,” where Chillblaine imprisoned Caitlin inside a specially made pod in the hopes that it would resurrect Frost’s personality inside Caitlin’s body. In “Negative, Part 2,” Chillblaine was shown waking up to a warning that the pod had broken down. He hurriedly tried to remove Caitlin from the pod, but failed as an unidentified figure stepped out of the chamber, leaving him stunned.
In Caitlin’s voice, the figure said, “A friend… I guess,” in response to Chillblaine’s question. This implies that Chillblaine might have mistakenly generated a new personality, turned Caitlin into the evil Killer Frost from earlier episodes of The Flash, or accidentally revived Frost in a different form. In any case, if Danielle Panabaker decides not to come back, this sequence might allow the part of Frost to be recast with a different actress.
The closing scene of “Negative, Part 2,” the season 8 finale of The Flash, centered on Barry Allen and Iris West-Allen as they talked about how the Negative Speed Force would eventually select a new avatar. On June 29, 2049, this conversation took place over visuals of a science facility where a weird blue crystal started to shine as if it were ignited by an internal fire. This could be a sign that the villain Cobalt Blue will make his debut in season 9 of The Flash.
Will The Flash Season 9 Be The Last Season?
The Flash season 10 doesn’t yet have a clear direction. In a conference call in May 2022, CW president Mark Pedowitz stated that he was open to the potential of one more season. However, it appears likely that The Flash season 9 will be the series’ final one and wrap up the television adventures of Earth-Prime because the majority of the series’ original cast has left the series and it is still unknown if Danielle Panabaker will return.
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