The Flash: More Seasons Planned Pending Contract Negotiations

The coronavirus pandemic has not only been wreaking havoc with our day to day lives and the world economy, it’s also affecting the entertainment industry in ways you can see and ways you can’t. The ways you can see, like how all filming and a chunk of post-production were shut down back in March, thereby affecting TV schedules. For example, even though The Walking Dead season 10 finale has been filmed, it still hasn’t been completed. And while most CW scripted dramas, especially the majority of their DC superhero shows, get 22 episode orders, they’re all ending with episode 18 or 19 this year, depending on where they were when things got shut down.

But then there are the invisible effects. The Flash Season 7 is already confirmed, it’s likely that the show will continue even beyond that. We know this thanks to an interview Grant Gustin gave to Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast where he talked about one of those invisible effects: the state of his contract negotiations.

“The conversations actually had started already, for adding a potential 8th and 9th, and then this pandemic happened, and everything has stopped,” Gustin said (thanks to The Flash TV News for bringing this to our attention and the transcription). So this is good news, since it seems that Warner Bros. TV and The CW are hoping for at least two more seasons of The Flash beyond that seventh season.

But then there’s the bad news…there’s still no word on when production can begin on The Flash Season 7. That’s the kind of problem that could lead to another “visible effect” of the coronavirus shutdown if it goes on too long: no new episodes of The Flash in October. But less visibly, it also means that Gustin’s contract negotiations have stalled.

“We don’t know when we’re going back, and we didn’t finish our last episodes of Season 6,” Gustin said. “And now, we might do those scripts when we go back for [Season] 7 to lead into what we were going to film anyway. I don’t know what the plan is. We don’t know when we’re back, and I don’t know when we’re going to continue the negotiation talks.”

The Flash Season 6 will end prematurely on May 12 with episode 19, “Success is Assured.” We know that one of those episodes that didn’t finish and that might be rolled into season 7 was called “All’s Wells That Ends Wells,” and there were supposed to be two more beyond that. Hopefully we’ll get to see all of this, and on schedule, too. Until then, stay home and stay well.