
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:
âThey made an offer. They called my agent and said they wanted to talk. When I heard about it, people were saying âJay Garrick! Jay Garrick! Jay Garrick!â I thought âYeah, I guess a mentor figure.â 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 âWait a minute! Thatâs the character!â 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.â
John Wesley Shipp sprak ook over zijn verwachtingen:
“Well Iâm excited to see, because I look on the blogs and theyâre going âI donât understand how this fits. I donât understand how that fits. I donât understand why the suit looks like this. I donât understand why heâs playing the father and not Jay Garrick.â And Iâm going âWait!â Believe me, Kreisberg, Berlanti and Johns, these guys are smart. They love the character and they know what theyâre doing. Just wait because youâre going to be eating some crow if you donât! I have people coming in and saying âYouâre the only reason Iâm going to be watching this show. I donât like the way he looks, I donât like this.â I say thatâs fine. Whatever it takes, whatever reason watch the first time then youâll have many more.”
Verder zei hij:
“Iâll be a recurring guest star. I donât know what I can say without giving stuff away! All I can say, if people were disappointed that Iâm not playing Jay Garrick because they wanted to see the baton passed, theyâre going to get that. Itâs 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 canât keep a show on the airâŠalthough 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. Itâs 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. Â
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.