The Flash Confirms Key Stars to Return for Season 8 on The CW

Even as Season 7 of The Flash is in full swing, fans of the hit The CW series have already begun looking ahead to the future, with the series’ already-greenlit eighth season shrouded in a lot of mystery. On Wednesday, it was confirmed that three of the series’ original stars will be returning for those new episodes. Jesse L. Martin (Joe West), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), and Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow and Killer Frost) have all reportedly closed new deals with Warner Bros. Television to appear in Season 8, after their contracts were initially set to expire at the end of Season 7. They will join series star Grant Gustin, whose contract reportedly already goes through Season 8.

This comes after two of the series’ other original cast members — Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells) and Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) — departed the series in this current season.

“Well, I was kind of dreading Cisco’s last episode for a while because, I don’t know, I was kind of nervous about the prospect of there being all this pressure on the story, and it having to be this momentous, significant, emotionally calibrated departure for this character,” Valdes recently told ComicBook.com. “But I’m actually so glad that Eric [Wallace] and the writers decided to go in a more irreverent direction, and that’s what this episode doing, is all about. It kind of goes back to a little bit of a fun and games aspect of the villainy that we were exploring in the first couple of seasons. So yeah, it’s definitely like more of a baddy of the week kind of energy. But it was really fun to play opposite this villain.”

Panabaker already confirmed the Season 8 news in a tweet, which you can check out below.

While the long-term tenure of The Flash hasn’t been confirmed, some have begun to wonder if Season 8 could end up being its last. As Gustin said in an interview last year, the initial conversations surrounding Season 8 — and even Season 9 — were briefly put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The conversations actually had started already for adding a potential eighth and ninth [season], but then this pandemic happened, and everything has stopped,” Gustin explained in April of last year. “We don’t know when we’re back, and I don’t know when we’re going to continue the renegotiation talks.”

What do you think of the latest casting details regarding The Flash? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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

h/t: Deadline