Of all the DC shows on TV at the moment, The Flash is probably my favorite. Though I am, admittedly, a sucker for anything having to do with superpowers, parallel universes, and time-travel (and that The Flash has in abundance). While the show did have its darker moments in Season 3, the characters are genuinely likable, and the show has still continued to be one of the more light-hearted and fun series on the DC lineup. At San Diego Comic Con this year, I was able to take part in a series of roundtable interviews with the cast as they talked a little bit about what the fourth season of the show has to offer.
At the roundtables were stars Grant Gustin (Barry Allen), Jesse Martin (Joe West), Tom Cavanaugh (Harrison Wells/Harry Wells/HR Wells), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon), Candice Patton (Iris West), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow), and Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West).
Here is what they told us about Season 4:
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- Season 4 starts about 6 months after the end of Season 3, with Kid Flash and Vibe picking up the job that Barry left behind. As Carlos Valdes explained it, “I can tell you straight up, It's not good. Six months have passed since the disappearance of Barry Allen and the team is sort of clutching at straws to keep the city together, and though Kid Flash and Vibe are out in the field doing their thing and trying to keep it together, there is a unanimous feeling amongst the remaining members that it's just not the same without Barry. We cannot keep the villains at bay with the same efficiency that he used to. So in light of that, Cisco does whatever it takes to get his friends back.”
- Though Kid Flash and Vibe are fighting, Keiynan Lonsdale confirmed that the team is doing things their own way, “The whole team's had to step up and become a unit, and it's sort of becoming this sort of well-oiled machine -- as well as it can without Barry.”
- Candice Patton talked a bit about Iris’s new role at the start of Season 4. Iris has moved away from the more investigative role she had in the past and is now “at the forefront of Team Flash and Star Labs, […] She's had to sort of step into the role that Barry left. It's a way of distracting herself too. She's obviously depressed and sad that Barry's gone, not sure when he's going to come back, so it's a good distraction for her to be the leader.” She explained further, “She deals with that in her own way, I think you'll see a very different Iris in Season 4; she's almost hardened and a little more pessimistic, and is kind of like, we gotta move forward, we gotta just keep moving. We don't know if Barry's coming back, we can't deal with that, all we can deal with is protecting the city.”
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- Valdes also confirmed audiences see the return of Cisco’s more lighthearted joking manner. When speaking on the role his character has played on the show, and what the events of Season 3 did he said, “I got to imbue it with a life that I didn't anticipate, and that allowed the character to blossom. Their response to that was allowing him to go through stuff and experience some challenges and mature in light of them. I'm so grateful for that because it allows Cisco not just to grow in front of the viewers' eyes, but also to develop some dimension as a character. In spite of that, everybody agrees that last season was really dark, so I think the writers have decided to respond to that by making the next season much lighter. I think they recognize that Season 1 had a strength that really hit viewers in a very good spot, and I think they're really trying to go back to that.”
- Even though Killer Frost is out and in charge, there might be hope yet for Caitlin Snow, as Danielle Panabaker put it, “We'll get it out of the way, quick. Here's what I can tell you about Season 4: those who love Caitlin Snow won't be disappointed and those who love Killer Frost won't be disappointed.”
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- Gustin also talked a little about the new villain for Season 4, “The Thinker” (aka Clifford DeVoe), “Yeah, no speedster. I don't know much about DeVoe, to be honest, from the comics, but we're gonna have to find ways to outsmart him, her, when we figure out who it is, he or she. It'll be cool, Barry will actually be the fastest man alive.”
- He also talked a little about this season’s big crossover with the other DC shows: “I don't know too much, but what I have heard: last year was an alien invasion, so it was pretty intense. This one will hopefully be more fun. It won't be impending doom necessarily that brings us together, it'll hopefully be a more fun reason that brings us together.”