The Flash: Showrunner Eric Wallace Explains Why the Series Wrapped Up Diggle’s Green Lantern Arc

With The Flash racing to its Season 8 finale this week, recent episodes of the long running The CW series have been packed with some surprising developments and turns. Last week, it was the return of Tom Cavanagh’s Thawne quite literally emerging from Matt Letscher’s version of the character but before that, in “The Man in the Yellow Tie”, fans got an unexpected resolution to a story started in Arrow’s series finale. John Diggle (David Ramsey) finally and definitively dealt with that mysterious glowing green object that fans had long hoped would see the character become a Green Lantern. Now, The Flash showrunner Eric Wallace explains why the series chose to wrap that story up and it turns out that it has to do with timing.

In an interview with TVLine, Wallace explained that at the time that episode was written — as well as the script for the season finale — the series hadn’t yet been renewed for Season 9. That meant that with the possibility for the show ending, the series thought it was important to deliver that closure as well.

“We were thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, we have to do this because maybe no one will get a chance to!’” Wallace said. “I talked to David myself and told him, ‘I’d like to give this some closure,’ and he was all in favor of it. And when I told him what we had planned, he thought it sounded fantastic.”

As fans will recall, Diggle found that glowing box during the Arrow series finale and since then the character has made appearances across the Arrowverse dealing with the fallout from that discovery. The episode of The Flash finally allowed Diggle to get a glimpse of his “cosmic destiny”, but also saw him reject it because none of the things offered to him within it led him back to his family. Having fully and emphatically rejected the box and that destiny, it disappeared, leaving Diggle free to finally go home to be with those he loves most. However, Wallace also said that the moment let him plan some additional seeds for a Blackest Night storyline — should it ever be able to fully develop.

“I’m a comic book nerd and I wanted to plant some Blackest Night seeds, and that Diggle moment helped me to do that,” Wallace said. “But I don’t know if we’ll ever get to it.”

Wallace has previously told ComicBook.com that he would love to do some variation on the iconic 2009-2010 DC Comics event.

“Who says that story is over? All I can say to you is there are many more Flash and Arrowverse stories to be told,” Wallace explained at the time. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I actually wrote a Blackest Night story. I wrote Power of Shazam 48. That’s where the Black Lantern Osiris comes back and all that good stuff. There’s a reason I’m talking about Blackest Night. I’m trying to will it into existence. Now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to, because that would require a full-on crossover and many more millions of dollars than our show has. However, you got to start somewhere. And remember, I’m a fan first. I love Blackest Night So, to me, hopefully I’ve opened a door that eventually we’ll get to walk through. I know we have a ninth season and there’s kind of a plan in place, but we may still be in COVID protocols, which means no crossovers, which means we couldn’t do a story as big as Blackest Night. But I could certainly plant the seeds and try to will it into existence, because I want to see it, too.”

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

Were you happy with how The Flash wrapped up Diggle’s Green Lantern-esque story arc? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.