As you might have already guessed if you know the comics… the first episode of Flash Season 3 will be called FLASHPOINT.
For those of you that don’t read the comic books, and don’t know the significance of the name Flashpoint, it was a major crossover event that rebooted the entire DC Comic book line in 2011, into the era known as the ‘New 52’.
In the books, Barry wakes up to discover his powers have gone, and his mother is alive. Captain Cold is the protector of Central City, and Superman, The Flash, and the Justice League don’t exist. In fact, Wonder Woman and Aquaman have destroyed most of Europe, and Batman’s ‘n0-kill’ policy has totally been throw out the window, much like any criminal he catches.
Barry goes to the Bat Cave, thinking the ‘worlds greatest detective’ is probably his best bet at solving things, only to discover it’s Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father in the cowl, and he has no idea who Barry is. Whilst trying to prove to Thomas he was a superhero called The Flash, he discovers Eobard Thawne’s Reverse-Flash costume and assumes he must be the cause of the time change. Barry convinces ‘Batman’ to repeat the experiment that turned him into The Flash, which (eventually) succeeds. Once the catch up with Thawne, he reveals that it was actually Barry himself who caused all of this by stopping Thawne killing his mother… Is this sounding a bit familiar yet?
The original comic book was written by the brilliant Geoff Johns, who is currently an EP on Flash, and CCO of DC Comics overall. It remains to be seen how much of the Flashpoint comic book makes it into the tv show, given many of the characters used there have never appeared in the Berlantiverse. Our guess would be it will take the essence of the Flashpoint story, but replace all the characters with people we know already. Captain Cold being Central City’s hero seems likely, as we know Wentworth Miller has signed an overall deal for the DC shows, despite his character’s unfortunate demise on the last season of Legends Of Tomorrow. And the trick to giving Barry his powers back has already been done once already by Harrison Wells, so if that needs to happen again, he’s the obvious choice.
It also remains to be seen what this will do to the other DC shows in the Berlantiverse. Flash & Arrow return the same week (Tues Oct 4th for Flash, Weds 5th for Arrow) in the US. Supergirl airs the following Monday (10th) with Legends on the Thursday (13th). It’s a connected universe, so if the Flashpoint storyline isn’t resolved in that first episode, that leaves some major repercussions for Arrow & Legends. Hard to say if Supergirl will be affected as it is currently, as far as we’re aware, set on Earth 3. Could this be a way to fold Supergirl more directly into the Berlantiverse, by moving them to Earth 1? It could also give them an excuse to resurrect some other characters which have been killed off… Anyone missing a Black Canary?
There are lots of very interesting possibilities here which could really shake things up across the DC’s TV universe! According to The Flash himself:
Season 3 is gonna be lit.
— Grant Gustin (@grantgust) June 20, 2016
We can’t wait! :D