Hot on the heels of the fan favorite, ARROW, a new adaptation of The Flash was a gamble. However, the right casting and writing teams have been dispatched and it seems pretty clear that; it’s gonna be a great show!

During San Diego Comic Con 2014, I got the chance to sit down with the leading cast members and an executive producer; we didn’t get much time, but hey. What did you expect from a show about the fastest man alive?

Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells) – I can’t say much, normally I’m very forthcoming, but in this instance I will say, being a part of something that has almost essentially a mythology about it is pretty enjoyable. (said with that patented Cavanagh eye-twinkle and smile)

**spoiler alert?** And so far, we’ve seen some of that mythology in action, at the end of the premiere episode; Wells is looking at some sort of projection of a future newspaper headline (wait, there’s newspapers in the future???) concerning a certain red-suited Super Hero being missing! **gasp**

John Wesley Shipp (Henry Allen and former Barry Allen from the early 90s!!!) – I tuned into Arrow when I knew what I’d be playing (Gustin’s Allen had a cameo in Arrow) just to see the way he worked. And what I was delighted that I saw was absolute sincerity that he brings to the part. There’s no acting! He is who he is. And when he would talk about his dad, he certainly didn’t know I was playing the role, whatever he was drawing on I couldn’t find the scenes, I couldn’t “find the acting” which I loved about that. Now that’s just part one! Having that said; having shot the pilot and working with him on the pilot, particularly in that last prison scene; I’m like WOW this guy has CHOPS. He can do the comedy, he can do the goofy and then he can turn around and break your heart.

Are you comfortable yet? Playing Barry Allen?

Grant Gustin (Barry Allen) – I am actually! I mean, it was a little daunting getting the role; it was daunting when I got the audition actually! I was excited for the opportunity and there are some things where you think ‘Oh I have a really good chance at this’ and I didn’t necessarily think that about this role. But now that I have it, I see why they wanted to go in this direction; kind of a different take on The Flash. The writing is already written in ‘my voice’, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had so it’s GREAT!

The struggle to get another DC superhero from the page to the screen again is not lost on Greg Berlanti (Executive Producer), when asked what the toughest thing to accomplish, he answered, “Not screwing it up! The positive way of saying that is trying to ‘translate’ for people who didn’t grow up reading the comic books the way that I did; if they can watch the episode and have the same feeling that I got when I did read the comic books? Then I did my job right!”

The Flash has no shortage of storyline, that’s for sure! The audience isn’t going to have to sit through years and years of backstory just to get to the bottom of Barry & Friends.

Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow) gushed, “I’m so excited! One of the greatest things for me, every week reading the next script and being really excited by it! Episode 103? TOTALLY blew my mind! I was so proud of the writers and so grateful. The scripts are amazing, every week is a new rogue, a new meta-human, a new bad guy! And it’s so cool to see the one’s that they’ve picked and to learn about them.”

The Legendary Jesse L. Martin (that’s literally how I referred to him in my audio notes, **swoon**) plays Det. Joe West, the surrogate father figure to Barry, who welcomed him into his home and family after Barry’s father Henry was wrongly accused of murdering his wife, Barry’s mother.

Jesse L. Martin: One of the things I said to Andrew, Jeff and Greg is ‘A) Jesse Martin, myself, I didn’t grow up knowing that world (of comic book mythology) knowing the legend and all that stuff. And I’m kind of grateful because Joe doesn’t know that stuff either! So on a daily basis I have to plug my ears sometimes, they get so excited and they tell us what’s coming and I just say “I DON’T WANNA KNOW! I DON’T WANNA KNOW!” because Joe doesn’t know! If I know too much? I’ll start playing things differently and that won’t be fun or good. So I like the fact that I just don’t know that much! I walked past that gorilla cage and I was like “I don’t know what that is, what’s the deal with that?”

With the reboot of The Flash, the major deviations to the original character concepts have not gone unnoticed by the fandoms, which isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing. It’s just a thing.

Candice Patton (Iris West) handled that subject being brought up beautifully, saying “Iris is not her ethnicity. She’s just not. What I love about Iris, is not her skin-color; it’s her heart and her lightness. And she’s kind of Barry’s light at the end of his tunnel! That’s the important part.” And I wholeheartedly agree! I’m hoping that we get all the good stuff between Barry and Iris as well as Iris and Joe, her father.

After watching the premiere episode, I can certainly see what all the excitement has been about! The writing is great, the characters are solid, it’s gonna be a great run! **puns!!**

The Flash airs on The CW Network on Tuesday nights at 8/7c. I’ll definitely be watching, will you??