The Flash: Grant Gustin Says Season 8 and 9 Talks Were Halted by Coronavirus Pandemic

Essentially all of the film and TV world is currently shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with countless productions being shut down and release dates being delayed. The CW‘s slate of programming has been especially affected by that, with multiple of the network’s shows already having to end their seasons early. Among those is The Flash, which will be airing an earlier-than-planned Season 6 finale in May. According to series star Grant Gustin, the pandemic has also affected discussions surrounding the show’s long-term future. Gustin recently appeared on an episode of Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, where he confirmed that the upcoming seventh season is the last under his initial contract. He did reveal that they’re working on discussions beyond that season, but that the timeline of everything is up in the air thanks to the 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, before adding, “We don’t know when we’re back, and I don’t know when we’re going to continue the renegotiation talks.”

Gustin’s comments are certainly interesting, and shed a bit of light on the well-oiled machine that The CW operates its veteran shows on. Of course, there is a lot of uncertainty about what the future holds for the network’s shows, especially as social distancing guidelines grow and evolve in Vancouver, where The Flash and the other Arrowverse shows largely film.

This detail is just the latest way that the pandemic has impacted The Flash, as the current season will be forced to end on its upcoming nineteenth episode due to production being shut down. While the story might not be ending how the cast and crew initially planned, showrunner Eric Wallace has found a bright side in the shortened season.

“Ironically, I’m relieved,” Wallace recently told ComicBook.com. “I’ll tell you why. When I break the seasons of The Flash, each graphic novel is broken down like a movie, what I think of as my master plan. So, like a good movie, it has an act one, act two, and an act three. Well, the end of this season, because of production stopping, will be the end of act two of our movie, which is a perfect point to break your story because there’s a huge cliffhanger and there’s a hero at his lowest point, but yet now you finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“So, it actually was very fortunate for us, even though it was very sad to see production end and not be able to get to what is essentially act three of our movie,” Wallace continued. “When we come back, not only are you presenting the ending in a house on fire, but where we leave this year’s cliffhanger isn’t just an ordinary episode.”

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