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He also assured fans that rewatching the ’90s series ahead of this fall’s season premiere of Grant Gustin’s version is something that would benefit viewers.
“See, we did it in ’90/’91. The DVDs didn’t come out until 2006. That’s when I started doing conventions,” Shipp explained. “To see fathers come up to me who had grown up with The Flash now saying ‘I’m introducing it to my son and we’re watching it together.’ That’s good stuff! A lot of people now are saying ‘I’ve just got it. I haven’t seen it before, but I want to see all the episodes in preparation for seeing the new Flash.’ And that’s going to pay off for them. Because [The Flash producers Andrew Kreisberg, Greg Berlanti and Geoff Johns], like I said, they were fans at that time. There are lots of sort of homage and throwbacks. It will be good.”
He also told fans who were disappointed that he’s playing Henry Allen and not Jay Garrick that they’ll still get to see a kind of passing of the torch — it will just play a little more mainstream.
“All I can say, if people were disappointed that I’m not playing Jay Garrick because they wanted to see the baton passed, they’re going to get that,” Shipp said. “It’s going to be in the context of father/son so that it will appeal to a wider audience, because we have to realize that we can’t keep a show on the air…although the comic book audience will drive getting it there, we have to appeal to a broader audience so we put it in the context of father and son. But they will know when it happens. It’s awfully effective.”
The Flash debuts this fall on The CW.
