The Flash: Danielle Panabaker on Directing Her Latest Episode, “Keep It Dark”

The Flash returns tonight after taking a week off with “Keep It Dark”, the seventeenth episode of The CW series’ eighth season and while the episode will see The Flash/Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) paying Reverse Flash/Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh) a visit where he is imprisoned on Lian Yu, the episode will also see series star Danielle Panabaker step behind the camera to direct. For Panabaker, this is her fourth time directing on The Flash having previously helmed Season 5’s “Godspeed”, Season 6’s “License to Elongate”, and Season 7’s “Rayo de Luz” and she recently spoke with ComicBook.com about her latest directorial effort, praising series showrunner Eric Wallace for his empowerment of directors.

“One of the things I love directing about Flash is that Eric really empowers every director to make their best version of the show,” Panabaker said. “You don’t need to stick to any formula. You can do whatever you feel best is needed to tell the story. And the movie he gave me for reference for this episode was Assault on Precinct 13, which is not a movie that I knew even. And so, it’s a different genre for me and its’ been fun the last couple of years. In Season 6 it was meant to feel like a Bond movie and then this year’s is shot a little differently. It’s a little darker, there’s a lot more handheld. So, it’s been fun to get to do and direct different episodes and get to explore all the different tools that come along with that.”

While the darker tone is something that has been new for The Flash overall this season, Panabaker said that it is something that has kept things interesting on the working side of things and she hopes viewers have been enjoying this shift as well

“It’s fun. I think that’s what keeps it interesting for us working on the show and hopefully for viewers as well,” she said. “You know you’re going to see Barry and Team Flash fighting a bad guy, but it’s going to look and feel a little different this time.”

You can check out the official synopsis for Panabaker’s episode, “Keep It Dark”, below. The episode airs tonight, Wednesday, June 8th at 8/7c on The CW.

“DANIELLE PANABAKER DIRECTS – The Flash (Grant Gustin) goes off the grid to look for answers about a new Meta in town. Meanwhile, Allegra (Kayla Compton) pulls out all of the stops at CC Citizen Media, to protect a source and a friend. The series also stars Jesse L. Martin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Danielle Nicolet and Brandon McKnight. Danielle Panabaker directed the episode written by Kristen Kim & Emily Palizzi.”

Are you looking forward to this week’s episode of The Flash? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!