It was announced earlier this year that Barry Allen, aka The Flash, would be appearing in three episodes of the current season of The CW’s ARROW. Grant Gustin eventually landed the gig, with him set to debut in Episode 8 of Season 2. The character would appear again in Episode 9, but would then be held back until Episode 20 of Season 2, where he would become The Flash, complete with the iconic red suit. It was planned that this third appearance would be a ‘backdoor pilot’ for The CW’s planned Flash TV show.

Well, in some pretty cool news, Deadline is reporting that these plans have changed, and that The Flash show will actually get its own pilot episode, rather than just being tagged into an episode of ARROW. This decision has been made after early footage of Episode 8 and 9 of this season of ARROW impressed The CW’s higher-ups. The basis is, rather than have Episode 20 of this latest ARROW season work as a pilot, The CW would like to give an official pilot to the new show as pilots are generally given a lot more budget to play with. Whether Barry Allen will still be appearing in Episode 20 of ARROW’s Season 2 is still up in the air.

It’s said that The Flash character, despite having his own show, will still be very much linked to the ARROW world and continuity. The new show will also have ARROW’s Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns all on board.

This TV version of Barry Allen will debut in next week’s ARROW as a Central City Assistant Police Forensics Investigator who is looking into a series of unexplained robberies in Starling City. The character is said to be completely obsessed with the Arrow ‘hero.’

Expect more on this as it becomes available, and keep an eye out for Barry Allen’s debut next week.

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