Posted in: CW, Preview, TV | Tagged: arrowverse, grant gustin, preview, season 9, the cw, The Flash

The Flash S09 Filming Starts; Grant Gustin Shares Message, S01 Images

UPDATE: The Flash star Grant Gustin shared a look at his shift back into "Barry Allen" mode for the ninth season (with the original article following):

Normally, when we get updates from Grant Gustin, Candice Patton & Danielle Panabaker regarding the start of filming on a new season of The CW's The Flash, it's a time to get excited and start speculating. But this time, there's a layer of bittersweet to the festivities, with the long-running (and now only) Arrowverse series gearing up for its final run with a 13-episode ninth season. After hearing from all three about the news and watching on social media as the team made its way to Vancouver, it looks like this week is the week that filming begins. And based on the heartfelt post that Gustin posted late on Tuesday, "Team Flash" should be back in front of the cameras today.

"Tomorrow we start filming the final season of 'The Flash.' I'll save the long, emotional captions for later in the season, but to say I'm grateful for this journey and the growth it's provided me in so many different ways would be a gross understatement. Thankful to everyone who helped give me this opportunity and all the fans of the show that have showed me, and anyone that's been a part of The Flash love along the way. Here's a bit of a photo dump from my first year on the show," Gustin wrote as the caption to his Instagram post, which included a fun visual look-back at the first season:

But Gustin wanted to make sure someone else very important didn't miss the cut. "One more. I couldn't find this one when I was compiling the last post. This man is one of my favorite people for the rest of time. Just a good one. Thank you endlessly, Greg [Berlanti]," he wrote in the caption to a quick follow-up post:

Last month, Gustin shared a video for the fans via Instagram explaining that the finish line approaching was feeling "bittersweet" after an "incredible nearly ten years" with the series. From there, he offered waves of thanks and appreciation for everyone who's been part of the journey and let fans know that Barry Allen/The Flash is a character he will be proud to be known for throughout his life. "Thank you to all our Flash fans who helped allow us to go this long. Let's do one more run together," Gustin wrote in the caption of his Instagram post… but the video accompanying it has so much more to say to the fans and to the show's team:

When the news was first announced, Panabaker checked in via social media with a video thanking the fans for the opportunity to have been part of the show's run and how she's feeling with the news still very much new:

But what if Season 8 was the final season? Wallace revealed in previous interviews that the Season 8 finale was first written as a series-ender, with changes needed once the renewal notice came through. Now thanks to the folks over at TVLine, we're learning from showrunner & EP Eric Wallace what viewers would've seen if the series ended with eight seasons. While the final face-off between Barry, aka The Flash (Gustin), and Eobard Thawne, aka Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh), was kept even after the Season 9 green light came through ("We were like, 'Oh crap, we just did the ultimate battle. How are we supposed to ever top that?' Then it was like, 'Let's just kill him for now and worry about that later.'"), here's a look at what was in play for the then-assumed series finale:

A "Sexier" & "Romantic" Conversation Between Barry & Iris: "We had to change the whole final scene. We had to rewrite it three different times. Because when it was a series finale, we had to have a much more deep conversation with Barry and Iris, dealing with the fact that they were going to have kids soon. It was a little bit sexier, and it was a lot more romantic of a scene. I really liked it."

Team Flash Would've Gotten Closure: "There would have been an additional scene with all of Team Flash all getting their goodbyes on. But when we found out we had another season to play with, that meant, 'Ooh, I can tease next year's Big Bad? All right, let's do that!' So that final scene [with the blue crystal] changed radically, and then the 'Goodbye to Team Flash' group party scene got deleted entirely."

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