Oorspronkelijke The Flash John Wesley Shipp over zijn rol in reboot

Onlangs werd bekend dat acteur John Wesley Shipp, de oorspronkelijke The Flash, in de aankomende serie The Flash de vader van Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) zal spelen. In een interview ging hij in op zijn rol:

”They made an offer. They called my agent and said they wanted to talk. When I heard about it, people were saying ‘Jay Garrick! Jay Garrick! Jay Garrick!’ I thought ‘Yeah, I guess a mentor figure.’ I thought that was pretty limited. Then I heard about Geoff Johns reboot where he reimagined the Allen family and the fact that the father is imprisoned, convicted wrongfully, for killing his wife. I thought ‘Wait a minute! That’s the character!’ Then it was after that that they called and asked to see some recent tape. I had just done two films. One was with John Savage and Corbin Bernsen, who was the husband of Amanda Pays who played Tina McGee in The Flash. And then I did a movie with Lance Henriksen and Richard Tyson. So they saw that footage then called and made an offer.”

John Wesley Shipp sprak ook over zijn verwachtingen:

“Well I’m excited to see, because I look on the blogs and they’re going ‘I don’t understand how this fits. I don’t understand how that fits. I don’t understand why the suit looks like this. I don’t understand why he’s playing the father and not Jay Garrick.’ And I’m going ‘Wait!’ Believe me, Kreisberg, Berlanti and Johns, these guys are smart. They love the character and they know what they’re doing. Just wait because you’re going to be eating some crow if you don’t! I have people coming in and saying ‘You’re the only reason I’m going to be watching this show. I don’t like the way he looks, I don’t like this.’ I say that’s fine. Whatever it takes, whatever reason watch the first time then you’ll have many more.”

Verder zei hij:

“I’ll be a recurring guest star. I don’t know what I can say without giving stuff away! All I can say, if people were disappointed that I’m not playing Jay Garrick because they wanted to see the baton passed, they’re going to get that. It’s going to be in the context of father/son so that it will appeal to a wider audience, because we have to realize that we can’t keep a show on the air…although the comic book audience will drive getting it there, we have to appeal to a broader audience so we put it in the context of father and son. But they will know when it happens. It’s awfully effective.”

The Flash heeft hoofdrollen voor Grant Gustin als Barry Allen/The Flash, Candice Patton als Iris West, Danielle Panabaker als Caitlin Snow, Carlos Valdes als Cisco Ramo, Tom Cavanagh als Dr. Harrison Wells en Jesse L. Martin als Detective Joe West.  

De reeks is gebaseerd op de DC-personages en wordt uitgevoerd door Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter en Eric Wallace. The Flash wordt geproduceerd door Bonanza Productions Inc. in samenwerking met Berlanti Productions en Warner Bros. Television.