Grant Gustin had a lengthy stint playing the Arrowverse's Fastest Man Alive in The Flash, and the show reached its natural conclusion with a truncated ninth season last year.
The actor has since moved on to other projects and recently made his Broadway debut in Water For Elephants. During a recent signing, Gustin was asked if he'd play Barry Allen again if DC Studios came calling, to which he said, "Yeah, if James Gunn asked me to play The Flash, I would do it again. I trust James Gunn."
Plans for the character are somewhat unclear; despite the controversies surrounding Ezra Millar, Warner Bros. Discovery and Gunn gave the actor and last year's The Flash movie their full backing. The SUPERMAN director even went so far as to declare it "one of the greatest superhero movies ever made."
Those words came back to haunt the filmmaker amid negative reviews, a so-so response from fans, and a dismal haul at the global box office. At this stage, fans would welcome Gustin back to the role, though we'd guess the Scarlet Speedster will be sidelined for the next several years.
Responding to a fan on Threads who pleaded with him to cast Gustin as the DCU's Flash because his "talent is going to waste," Gunn responded by saying, "Grant is an incredibly talented guy, performing now on Broadway, I believe, and is absolutely not going to waste just because he’s not currently in a DC project."
"But of course I’d love to work with him at some point," he concluded.
If and when DC Studios chooses to reintroduce The Flash, we'd assume it will involve a completely fresh start and a new actor (heck, it might be better to just head down the Wally West route, skipping Barry altogether).
It's been nearly a year since Gustin marked his departure from the DC TV series when he took to Instagram to say, "I said goodbye to The Flash and my Flash family on Saturday. Very special day, with moments I will cherish for the rest of my life. My family got to see my last shot as The Flash - that’s something I could’ve never imagined nearly 10 years ago when I started this journey."
"I got a chance to thank the crew, who have worked longer hours than anyone can imagine and are the reason we were able to accomplish 184 episodes of The Flash. More than anything I’ll miss chatting and laughing in between takes (and sometimes during takes) with so many of them. Regardless of how challenging this journey was at times, I know I laughed every single day at work for the last 9+ years.”
"Honored to have had the chance to play this iconic character," the actor concluded. "I gave it absolutely everything I had. That’s all for now."
Perhaps "for now" should have been taken literally! After all, say what you will about The Flash, but Gustin was infinitely better as this superhero than what we saw from Miller across multiple big screen projects.