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'The Flash' Producer Teases Surprising Cameos In 'Season Zero'

Writers Andrew Kreisberg and Katherine Walczak previews DC Comics' digital tie-in to the CW show.

"The Flash" doesn't premiere on The CW until October 7, but starting today you can snag your first look at the show in comic book form. DC Comics, along with "Flash" Executive Producer Andrew Kriesberg, and writers Katherine Walczak and Brooke Elkmeier, are bringing "Flash: Season Zero," a story set between the first and second episodes of the show.

MTV News hopped on the phone with Kreisberg and Walczak to preview the comic, as well as the upcoming season of the TV show. And along the way, we found out about a possible, major DC Comics guest star - as well as how "Arrow" fans should keep their eyes wide open while reading the comic:

MTV News: How did you set up doing the digital comic version of the show, and what was the idea behind it?

Andrew Kreisberg: We had done something similar on "Arrow" in season one. We made them these short vignettes, which were fun but it didn't have that cohesive storyline. This time, DC wanted us to do something longer form, more traditional comic book format. So Katherine Walczak, Brooke Elkmeier – one of the other writers on the staff – and I sat down.

They actually came up this story and pitched it to me. We fleshed it out together, and we're just really excited by it. It's a story we wouldn't necessarily be doing on the TV show, only because it would be unproducable for TV. That's one of the great things about a comic: you're only as limited as your imagination. We're just as excited for this story, as anything we're doing on the show.

MTV: We talked to "Arrow" Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim last week and he said the same thing about the "Arrow: Season 2.5" comic. On "The Flash," though, you're dealing with straight-up superpowers… So what's the limit of what you can't do on the show, that you can do in the comic?

Kreisberg: There's always a limit. [Laughs] Certainly "The Flash," even though its taking place in our world, and the world of "Arrow," there's a growing acceptance of the impossible by the characters and by the public in the TV show.

But even then, there's limits to what we're able to achieve, budgetarily and timewise. The story of circus, which actually comes from the "Starman" universe, would kill us in an episode. But in a comic book run, we can let our Flash flag fly.

MTV: What's it been like tackling this comic book at the same time as you're trying to find your footing with a new show? For example, I imagine there's character beats you're developing in season one that you don't want to spoil in the comic.

Katherine Walczak: You're right, there's things we're excited about down the road in the season that we don't want to totally catch up in the comic. But there are Easter Eggs, and hints at relationships that we're going to do in the TV show, in the comic, so it's an additive experience if you're reading both the comic and watching the show.

Kreisberg: A TV show is 42 minutes of actual screentime, and sometimes the smaller character stuff is the stuff that falls by the wayside. Doing the comic is allowing us to touch on those little moments, and those little relationship beats that will hopefully make the audience fall even more in love with these characters than they are by watching the show.

MTV: So what do we find out about the characters? What does it say about Barry Allen, or any of the supporting cast?

Kreisberg: In this first story, it was really Brooke and Katherine's idea to draw the analogy between Barry and the circus people. Barry, for all the amazing things that happen to him, he does suddenly feel like a freak now. He's been separated by everyone else because of what's happened to him.

He's always felt like a little bit of an outsider because of his interests, and what happens to his mother. Now he's even more of an outsider because he has these amazing powers. Having him go up against a whole group of people, who have always felt like outsiders, and yet they have each others, felt like such a rich area of storytelling…

Also to have Barry realizing he's not alone in this, which is something the TV show touches upon, but it becomes a big part of this comic book.

MTV: Dancing around spoilers here, but there's a pretty direct cliffhanger that happens at the end of the first episode involving Tom Cavanagh's character Harrison Wells. Since this book takes place after the first episode of the show, will you be dealing with that fallout at all?

Kreisberg: Harrison Wells, and what he's up to is probably the most difficult thing, but there will be glimpses of it in the comic book for sure. It's tricky, and we're in the middle of it, and figuring it out, how these things are going to work together.

It was really important to us, and to DC that this felt evergreen, that it was divorced from the reality of what was happening on the show. It's been a delicate dance, and as we continue to write the TV show, that's affected the work we've done on the comic book.

We've tried to stay as nimble as possible, so we can adjust so these comic books feel like a part of the show, without taking away from it.

MTV: Jumping back a little, since Flash is meeting the circus from "Starman" in this comic, is there a chance in the comic – or in the show – you could bring in Starman himself, Jack Knight or Mikaal Tomas?

Kreisberg: Not in the comic book… As for the show itself, we always keep our options open. When we started "Arrow," if you had told me that we would have two TV shows that would have Ray Palmer, and Ronnie Raymond, and Helena Bertinelli, and Slade Wilson, I would have said you were nuts. And you would have been right! [Laughs]

We take these things as we come. As always with these things, we want to our superhero to be the star of his own comic.

MTV: I asked Marc about this, and he said that "Arrow: Season 2.5" couldn't cross over with "Flash: Season Zero," unless they wanted to have a comatose Barry. But "Season Zero" takes place after "Arrow" season three has already started, so any chance of a crossover on your end?

Kreisberg: We hadn't actually talked about that… Part of the problem is that episode eight of both "Flash" and "Arrow" this season is a two-hour crossover event. So a lot of the "meet and greet" between these characters will take place on the TV show.

But as always there are ways for people to be in the comic together, without being the comic together, without them realizing it. There are the big crossover events, and then what we call the mini-crossover… And the comic is certainly rife with mini-crossovers.

DC Comics

Flash Season Zero

"The Flash: Season Zero" is now available for download via the DC Comics App, Readdcentertainment.com, iBooks, comiXology.com, Google Play, Kindle Store, and Nook Store.

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