5 Things We Learned From The Flash's Commentary Track

The first season of The CW's The Flash is out today on Blu-ray and DVD, and included in the [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The first season of The CW's The Flash is out today on Blu-ray and DVD, and included in the package is a commentary track for the show's pilot episode, one of the highest-rated shows in CW history.

The commentary features DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns along with showrunners Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, and along the way, there are some interesting things you learn about the way the show took shape.

So...what did we find out? Read on...

The Mist was supposed to be the villain in the pilot.

The Mist was originally going to be the villain in the pilot episode, which would have changed things up a bit.

First of all, The Mist doesn't have a convenient brother in the comics, so they would have had to find some other way to bring the character back into play later.

He was also going to be Caitlin's fiancee, back before they decided that Killer Frost and Firestorm was a more interesting match-up.

"We had pitched the idea that at the very end, he re-forms, and that's when Joe shoots him," Kreisberg said, adding that Geoff Johns had always thought Joe should save Barry at the end.

...Although...

Joe West almost didn't survive

...There was a point where Joe West didn't make it through the pilot.

It' hard to picture a version of the show where the father/son relationship between Joe and Barry isn't a key part of Barry's story, but back before his partner was set to be a big part of the story, it was possible Joe West was going to die early on.

But of course, then they met Jesse L. Martin. I assume that's all it took to change their minds.

Martin Stein was going to be in the pilot

"We had always planned Firestorm to be a big part of this," Johns said.

Originally, the episode was going to start with Barry coming back from Starling City on the train, and he would meet Martin Stein.

Most of the dialogue they would have used if they introduced him in the pilot, showed up later when Barry actually did meet Stein on a train in flashback.

Grodd's cage was almost cut from the pilot

"The studio cut it, and we put it back in," Johns said, "And then production cut it, and we put it back in."

Knowing the success they had with Arrow placing Deathstoke's mask on the beach in the pilot, the producers were keen on teasing Grodd, even though they admitted that they didn't know when or if they would actually get to use him. That they would have to build a cage for just this one shot was apparently a sticking point and at one point a miniature was used to avoid constructing a full-sized one...which of course ultimately had to be made.

"Talk to him like he's your child."

Amell started to talk to Barry in the Arrow voice on the rooftop -- until Glenn Winter told him "You just had a daughter. Talk to him like he's your child."

That's the advice that took a very gruff and stilted conversation between the two most important figures in the CW's DC Universe and turned it into a heartfelt conversation between friends, setting the stage for what Oliver and Barry's relationship can and should be going forward.

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