Just yesterday, it was officially announced that the series Flash was nearing its end, as the long-running series inspired by DC Comicswill come to an end with the ninth season, so technically the Arrowverse that we have seen in united series, will end with the last 13 episodes in 2023.
This announcement marks the end of an era for DC fans, one that drastically changed the face of superhero television and while there are many fans hoping that arrowverse may continue after the end of The Flash, either with spin-offs or through the resurrection of other previously canceled shows in the universe, the reality is that now is the right time to end the Arrowverse.
You see, when The Flash first debuted in 2014, it wasn’t DC’s first series on The CW, as this spot went to Arrow, which debuted in 2012 and actually gave The Flash its start in a sense, with Grant Gustin appearing as Barry Allen on Arrow, but while Arrow was the first, The Flash quickly became one of the network’s most-watched series.
That’s why as the series continued, The Flash became very much the heart of the Arrowverse, so at times, it felt like Team Flash and Central City were kind of a hub for the Arrowverse with Barry having a relationship with almost all the other heroes and actually being the connection to heroes from other realities – first Supergirl and later Black Lightning, and now that the rest of the shows and their heroes are gone – it stands to reason that The Flash would be the series that turns off the lights so to speak.
And we could say that it is the right time from the perspective of history, since from “Crisis on Infinite Earths”The Flash has been a very different series, especially having gone through the death and rebirth of the universe, Barry Allen is a much more mature hero and while recent seasons have seen very personal stories and challenges for him, they have also seen an expansion of the idea of what The Flash is.
Because, love it or hate it, heroes never operate in a vacuum, for even in the comics pages, heroes often must trust others in some way and The Flash and he’s taken it seriously with TeamFlash growing and, so new heroes have emerged to take on more responsibilities.
That’s why now that season 9 is coming up, Barry is no longer the sole protector of Central City and he’s now in a place where he’s taking on more of an oversight role, so in a way, the world doesn’t need Barry anymore. “The Flash”Because they have multiple vigilantes, it’s as if in a way the series has largely concluded its main conflict as well.
Well at the end of season 8 we saw Barry finally defeat Eobard Thawne/Reverse Flash (Tom Cavanagh) once and for all, and while there are still stories to be told, they’re coming with season 9, so closing the book here feels complete and it feels like that’s something that even showrunner Eric Wallace felt in terms of. of that particular story arc in Season 8.
As he mentioned in a recent interview: “Well, there are two things. One, this time Thawne crossed the line. In fact, he killed Iris to bring about his resurrection. When that happened, I knew it would emotionally push Barry Allen to a place he had never been before. A place where For the first time, he’s really about to cross the line and consider killing someone.”
“Because he’s not reacting as our heroic Flash as we know him, he’s reacting as a husband and as a partner, he’s reacting emotionally. He knew that this would be the only time we could have a story…and how appropriate it should be. be in a season finale, but once we have a story about a hero who is actually about to kill his archenemy. So, that was pretty fantastic.”
Now if we look at it from its structural side, interconnected crossovers just aren’t practical anymore for the Arrowverse due to finished shows and other logistical issues, so the landscape of superhero entertainment in 2022 is very different than it was in 2014, and fans they already have more variety at hand on all the different platforms.