Numerous teases about what the future holds for Barry Allen have yet to pan out in The Flash. With the series coming to an end with a 13-episode final season, time is running out for the show to pay off each one. Some may never come to fruition or become anything more than Easter eggs, while others could end up driving all-new Arrowverse stories in season 9.
Thanks to the show’s heavy use of time travel, The Flash has been able to find room for all sorts of references to classic DC Comics characters connected to the world of the Scarlet Speedster. By introducing various time travelers and sending its characters into the timestream, The Flash paved the way for several key developments long before they could ever happen. Iris marrying Barry and the live-action debut of the Thinker are among the many events predicted The Flash that eventually did transpire on the show. Interestingly, quite a few of these moments haven’t happened yet. Here’s every future tease that The Flash can still address.
Barry Creates Gideon
It was established in The Flash season 1 that Gideon, the artificial AI contained in the Vault at S.T.A.R. Labs, was designed by Barry in the future before being acquisitioned by Reverse-Flash. In eight seasons, Barry has yet to have a reason to develop an AI, but based on what’s known about the timeline, the creation of Gideon should happen sooner or later. What’s not clear, though, is if The Flash will force Barry down this road within the story of the series, or if viewers will have to assume that it’ll happen when he’s much older.
The Flash vs. Red Death
In a season 5 episode that discussed Cicada’s killing spree in the future, Barry said in a recording that the villain killed more people than the Red Death. The Flash namedropping comic book villains was nothing new, but what was particularly surprising about this revelation is that Red Death is a twisted, evil version of Batman who became a speedster in an alternate timeline. Later, Javicia Leslie’s Batwoman talked about fighting a speedster described as a “lady in red” in The Flash’s “Armageddon” crossover. This raised speculation that the Arrowverse was planning a gender-swapped take on DC’s evil speedster Batman. Now that it’s been revealed via The Flash season 9 set photos that Leslie is returning to the show to play Red Death, it’s become apparent that this is exactly what the show has been building toward.
Barry & Iris Have Children
It’s been understood as early as the season 4 finale that Barry and Iris will have at least one child together. Now, it’s no secret that Barry and Iris will be the parents to not one but two kids, Nora and Bart West-Allen. But while the adult versions of the children have been featured prominently in the series, neither has been conceived in the present-day timeline. That being said, it’s hard to imagine the show ending without the Flash delivering a true beginning to the Flash Family. Whether it’s an event for the first episode or the series finale, there’s a good chance that Iris will become pregnant with Nora at some point in The Flash season 9. Depending on the timing, she could give birth in the last episode.
Godspeed & Zoom Team Up To Fight Barry
Barry’s trip into the Still Force in season 8 tipped him off to a major fight in 2024. According to a newspaper headline, he’ll eventually find himself in a fight with both Godspeed and Zoom. An alliance between the main antagonists of the show’s second and sixth seasons would certainly be a troubling scenario with almost insurmountable odds for Team Flash. But if The Flash season 9’s story stretches into 2024, a Godspeed-Zoom team-up will become all the more likely for the series. As the two characters are individually capable of pushing Barry to his limit, both of them showing up in the same episode could force Barry to pull out all the stops to win.
Cobalt Blue Becomes The Negative Speed Force Avatar
In the season 8 finale, a blue crystal was shown when Team Flash was talking about the inevitable outcome of the Negative Speed Force picking a new avatar to replace Reverse-Flash. Given that the blue crystal resembles the talisman wielded by Flash villain Cobalt Blue, the obvious implication of this tease is that not only will Cobalt Blue be Eobard’s successor, but he’ll serve as one of season 9’s main villains. Without mentioning the character by name, showrunner Eric Wallace has confirmed that the subject of the blue crystal tease is indeed the very person fans suspect it to be.
The Flash vs. The Chronarch
When Barry Allen battled the time-travelling Abra Kadabra in a season 7 episode, he was warned by the latter of a threat known as the Chronarch. In fact, Kadabra claimed that in killing Barry, he’d be sparing him from ever enduring “wrath of the Chronarch”. Kadabra’s choice of words laid the groundwork for the Chronarch to be one of Barry’s deadliest adversaries if and when he ever appears. As for who the Chronarch actually is, the name belongs to a very minor character in DC Comics associated with Kadabra’s backstory. In the comic books, Chronarch is a power-hungry 64th-century dictator in Kadabra’s timeline.
Max Mercury Joins Team Flash
When Barry saw a vision of his past, present, and future in the Still Force, he named off a list of people who have been counted as friends of Team Flash, including Jesse, Harry, and Wally, and most curiously, someone called Max. Since Barry has no known acquaintances by that name, it’s clear that Max is someone who’ll be befriended by Team Flash at some point down the road, possibly before The Flash ends. While a last name wasn’t mentioned for this character, there’s little doubt that the show was teasing Max Mercury, a Golden Age speedster and a 19th-century superhero.
Based on how his name was included in the same sentence as several of the Flash’s closest allies, it makes sense that upon meeting Barry, Max Mercury will become a full-fledged member of the Flash Family, and perhaps even one last mentor to Barry. Though Barry has been a superhero for eight years, it’s possible that there’s still more for him to learn about his speedster powers. If there’s anyone out there who might be more experienced than Barry or Jay Garrick, it would have to be Max Mercury, who could very well make his Arrowverse debut in one of The Flash’s final 13 episodes.