The Flash Vanishes Today in The CW's 'Future' & I Am Not Ready To Accept It's Been A Decade

Summary Today, April 25, 2024, marks the day when The Flash was originally meant to disappear during Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The Flash's pilot episode tease of the Crisis event came to pass earlier than originally expected in the Arrowverse timeline.

Despite the end of The Flash series, its legacy continues with the TV show being the defining adaptation of DC's speedster hero.

In the final scene of The Flash pilot episode, the front page of a future edition of The Central City Citizen newspaper reports "Flash Missing: Disappears In Crisis," and today, April 25, 2024, is the date of that report. The scene was exciting for a few reasons — not only did it tee up The Flash season 1's time-travelling villain Reverse-Flash, it also teased the Crisis on Infinite Earths storyline five years before it came to pass. However, now that the date of Barry Allen's (Grant Gustin) disappearance has come, it's difficult to believe it's been almost 10 years since The Flash premiered.

In the last decade, the Arrowverse expanded greatly, growing from only The CW's flagship DC TV show, Arrow, to include multiple spinoffs like The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Batwoman and Superman & Lois. The franchise was known for its annual crossovers, which brought heroes from multiple series together to battle massive threats, all culminating in the five-episode Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover that aired in late 2019 and early 2020. Now, more than a decade after Arrow premiered, the Arrowverse has essentially ended, and real life is catching up with the future that The Flash teased in its very first episode.

Superman & Lois is the last remaining Arrowverse show, with its final season set to air in 2024. However, in the season 2 finale, it was confirmed to take place in a different universe to the franchise's Earth-Prime, so the main timeline ended with The Flash in 2023.

Related All The Flash Seasons, Ranked Worst To Best The Flash is the Arrowverse's longest series, with Grant Gustin leading nine seasons as Barry Allen; however, some seasons were better than others.

The Flash's Pilot Episode Tease Never Truly Came To Pass

Crisis On Infinite Earths Happened Earlier In The Arrowverse Than 2024

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One rule of time travel established in The Flash season 1 is that the future can always be changed, and the present can be impacted by going back in time — this was especially explored in The Flash season 3 when the series loosely adapted the Flashpoint storyline from the comics. As such, the newspaper seen in the pilot episode underwent a few changes throughout The Flash series' run. Partway through season 1, the author of the story changed to become Iris West-Allen, confirming her future marriage to Barry and career as a journalist.

Moreover, the Crisis referenced in the newspaper arrived five years earlier than the Arrowverse's originally teased timeline. The Flash season 5 finale hinted that the events of the show had sped up Crisis's arrival, which was confirmed in the season 6 premiere. Instead of 2024, The Flash would vanish on Dec. 10, 2019, the date that the show's episode in the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover aired in real life. However, it turned out not to be Gustin's version of Barry Allen who died in Crisis. Rather, it was the Earth-90 version of The Flash, played by John Wesley Shipp from the 90s TV show, who sacrificed himself.

The Flash Remains Active In Arrowverse Canon Until 2049

The Flash Series Finale Teased New Speedsters Joining Barry Allen's Legacy

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Although The Flash season 9 ending concluded Gustin's run as the Scarlet Speedster, in Arrowverse canon, Barry Allen continues operating as The Flash until at least 2049. This makes sense since the tease of his disappearance was already resolved during the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. By the time The Flash season 9 premiered, the show had already paid off its biggest pilot tease, though Barry Allen still faced off with Reverse-Flash once more during that final season.

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One other future tease in The Flash's pilot episode, Wayne Tech's merger with Queen Inc, also never occurred in the Arrowverse.

However, the ending of The Flash also set the stage for more speedsters to join the Arrowverse, with Barry sharing his connection to the Speed Force with three new heroes: Avery Ho, Max Mercury and Jess Chambers. All three are speedsters in the comics, and the first two were either introduced or hinted at during The Flash season 8. This means that not only did The Flash not vanish on April 25, 2024, in the Arrowverse, but even more speedster heroes are running around helping Barry Allen protect the DC universe.

A Decade Later, The Flash Remains One Of The Arrowverse's Biggest Successes

It Became The Longest-Running Arrowverse Series With 9 Seasons

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Though it was the second DC TV series to join the Arrowverse, The Flash became the longest-running show in the franchise with nine total seasons and 184 episodes. It was also critically well-received throughout its run, holding an average 89% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes - which is only bested by Black Lightning's score of 92%. All told, The Flash has cemented its place as one of the Arrowverse's best series and its biggest successes.

Arrowverse TV Shows By The Numbers Title When it Aired Number of Seasons Number of Episodes Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score Arrow 2012-2020 8 170 86% The Flash 2014-2023 9 184 89% Supergirl 2015-2021 6 126 88% DC's Legends of Tomorrow 2016-2022 7 110 89% Black Lightning 2018-2021 4 58 92% Batwoman 2019-2022 3 51 83% Superman & Lois 2021- 4 53 83%

Which is why it's so bittersweet that today is a reminder of how much time has passed since The Flash premiered. It marked a turning point for the Arrowverse, proving the then-burgeoning TV franchise could become an interconnected universe and going on to become so well-developed, it's only true rival was the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time, it would've been impossible to predict that from 2014-2024, not only would superhero fans see the rise and fall of the Arrowverse, but even the DCEU and MCU would face their own struggles — the former moreso than the latter.

The Flash TV Show is the gold standard against which all other adaptations will be measured.

Now, it's also worth appreciating everything the Arrowverse, and The Flash specifically, achieved during its time. The Arrowverse pulled off a massive feat in delivering a truly spectacular event with its Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, and produced a number of well-liked DC TV shows. Additionally, Gustin's Barry Allen is so beloved, that his has become the defining performance of The Flash. All told, though there have been adaptations of Barry Allen before and since, The Flash TV Show is the gold standard against which all other adaptations will be measured. And even 10 years later, it remains to be seen when, if ever, a better adaptation of The Flash will be produced.