The Flash Season 2 is speed-forcing its way to television screens in just a few short weeks and we caught up with Barry Allen himself, Grant Gustin, at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. Check out the highlights below where Grant gives us the inside track on Jay Garrick, crossovers, and that new suit…
What did you think of the cliffhanger at the end of Season 1?
I thought it was badass.
What can we expect to happen at the beginning of the second season?
Well, when we’re coming back, we’re going to see how the singularity affected everybody. Kinda piece together exactly what happened, because it is not a completely direct pickup. And Barry, The Flash rather, is getting a lot of acclaim from the city for being a hero at this point and Barry is having a hard time dealing with that. Just because, as we all know, Eddie stopped Wells. He was kind of the hero that day, was the hero that day, and Barry knows that.
And I think he’s having a hard time dealing with the attention. He’s kinda shunned by everybody he works with because he doesn’t want anyone else to have to die. He’s kind of going about things a different way when we find him at the beginning of Season 2.
Barry seems to have the white emblem on his suit this season. Is that a thing we see right away?
That’s a thing. I shot in the suit the first or second day of filming and I was in the red emblem, but yeah, I will be in that suit pretty soon.
How do you think the events of Season 1 changed Barry as he’s going into Season 2? What do you think that evolution has been?
I think the biggest thing, as Season 1 was winding down, I think he was getting a lot of confidence and he was feeling like he knew what he was doing. He had the team behind him and they all felt like they could take down these meta-humans and they were doing some good, and he was this hero that everyone said he was. But that’s all been turned on its head a little bit for Season 2.
Barry’s going to spend a lot of Season 2 maturing, trying to find confidence again. He’s working with a new mentor that’s going to help him hone some new powers pretty early on in the season. He discovers a new power in the second episode actually, that I’m pretty excited about.
Is that mentor character Jay Garrick?
The mentor character? Could be.
Are there any crossovers with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow or Arrow already planned?
There are some crossovers planned, but nothing that we’ve shot already.
At the end of the year probably, right?
Throughout the year and probably at the end of the year, yeah, I think it’s going to start to be a staple that around, I think it was episode eight last year that Flash and Arrow had their crossovers. I think that’s going to be the time every year, if we still have TV shows, that’s when we’ll cross over.
How badly would you want to have a Superman appearance?
Yeah, I’ve said from the beginning that, that would be my favorite DC character to have on the show for sure. Superman, or even if it was just a Clark Kent cameo.
What about Supergirl?
Yeah, it’s a different network [CBS], but same universe, same creators. Me and Melissa know each other from our Glee days, so I would love to work with her again. I think it’d be fun.
Is there something coming up this season you can’t wait for the fans to see?
I don’t know too much about what else is to come other than the first. I know some vague things, but other than the first two episodes that I read… things that have been kinda vaguely mentioned with mentors and iconic characters and whatnot that were teased in the season finale even. I think that’s probably the biggest thing that I’m excited about that I think fans will be excited about as well.
What aspects get easier about playing this Barry as the seasons go on? Is the action easier?
Oh yeah, everything about shooting has become easier. The effects, I know how they work now. We have guest directors all the time, so it’s more helpful now that certain things that they are, maybe slightly confused about, I can understand how we usually shoot them.
So that’s become easier for sure. I know what to expect, in general, when I read a page. I don’t just think, “Oh this is cool!” I’m like, “Oh, this is what it’s going to take to shoot this episode and this moment.” It all becomes mentally just less of a strain, because you know what you’re in for, for sure.
Have you tried to approached Andrew [Kreisberg] and the team about having an all-musical episode, given the chops you guys all have?
No, I have not. [Laughs] Although I am pushing, just fun in general on the show and maybe even the karaoke bar that we went to, becoming a frequent place we could go and bring Cisco… have it be a set we can hang out on, squeeze in karaoke moments here and there. I don’t know though. I think a musical episode is like a Season 10 type of thing, if we make it. [laughs]
The Flash returns to The CW for Season 2 on October 6th.
Comic-Con Photos Credit: Paige Wilson