The Flash Season 9 Won't Debut Until 2023

The Flash will debut its ninth (and likely final) season in early 2023, serving as a midseason show on The CW's primetime lineup. Ahead of today's upfronts presentation, The CW gave advertisiers a look at  the 2022-2023 broadcast schedule, and the long-running DC superhero show will not debut until 2023. Given the long delays between episodes on The Flash and Superman & Lois, it's possible that delay will help the schedule maintain some consistency, but it's still likely to rankle DC fans who are still stinging from the cancellations of Naomi, Batwoman, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

The show's current, eighth season is not quite over yet, but over the last couple of years, visual effects-heavy shows like The Flash and Superman & Lois have struggled to maintain a consistent weekly schedule. The Flash has coped with it by breaking the season up into mini-arcs, allowing for a logical stopping point before each hiatus. 

The Flash's first season 8 arc, "Armageddon," featured The Atom, Black Lightning, Batwoman, and other characters from around the Arrowverse. That represented the closest thing The CW's shared DC Universe has had to a crossover since Crisis on Infinite Earths, which merged the worlds of the CW's multiverse together. At the time, it seemed like Crisis would set the stage for more and easier crossovers, but then the Covid-19 pandemic happened.

In addition to The Flash, Superman & Lois will not air new episodes until 2023, suggesting that the two could be paired on the schedule. The Fall 2022 schedule features a full night of All-American an a full night of Walker.

During a pre-upfronts call with the press, The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz assured reporters that the network was "still in the superhero business," but cited only Gotham Knights (set to premiere in 2023) and Stargirl (entering its third season in the fall), which raises more questions as to whether today will be the official announcement that The Flash is entering its final run.

So far, series star Grant Gustin is confirmed to be back for a ninth season, although with a lighter workload. Contracts are still being hammered out with Candice Patton and Danielle Panabaker, while Jesse L. Martin, who played Iris's father Joe West, has left the series to pursue another gig, although his schedule leaves open the possibility of returning a few times next season.