Stargirl creator Geoff Johns breaks down the return of John Wesley Shipp's incarnation of The Flash following Jay Garrick's surprising return in the epilogue of the series' season 3 finale. Shipp first portrayed Garrick in season 2 of The CW's The Flash, reprising the role in later seasons of the show while also making his Stargirl debut in season 2. In Stargirl season 3, episode 13, "Frenemies - Chapter Thirteen: The Reckoning", Garrick interrupts Jonathan Shake's The Shade during a guided tour of a Justice Society of America museum 10 years after the events of the series, where he recruited Richard Swift to face a new threat.
During a guest appearance on The Flash Podcast, Johns was asked whether the Stargirl season 3 finale flash-forward epilogue was developed with input from The Flash's showrunner Eric Wallace. Johns confirmed that he had discussed Garrick's appearance with Wallace, but intentionally set it in the future to avoid potential continuity issues in hopes of creating a moment that could surprise audiences with its returning cast members. Check out John's full response below:
"I talked to Eric about The Flash and how we were using him just so he knew and kept everyone up to speed. But because it’s in the future, so to speak – no pun intended – it didn’t really affect the other show. That final scene with Jonathan Cake, who played a wonderful Shade, such an amazing actor – our whole cast from A to Z was brilliant – but having that last scene be [about] The Shade and the Golden Age Flash, was really important. The Shade hadn’t showed up in a while and Jay Garrick was a nice surprise. I don’t think people are seeing him coming, which is cool."
While Stargirl's final moments provided fans with one last small crossover across the Arrowverse series, it isn't the first time that members of Stargirl's cast have appeared in other series. In the Crisis on Infinite Earth crossover that aired in December 2019 and January 2020 across episodes of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Batgirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and Black Lightning, LaMonica Garrett's villainous Anti-Monitor's wave of antimatter threatened to annihilate various realities across the multiverse. As such, Stargirl's Brec Bassinger, Luke Wilson, Yvette Monreal, Cameron Gellman, and Anjelika Washington appeared as Stargirl, S.T.R.I.P.E., Wildcat, Hourman, and Doctor Mid-Nite through archive footage of the series, despite the show having not premiered yet.
While brief, Stargirl's inclusion in the event established itself as not only a part of the Arrowverse, but as part of a greater multiverse consisting of many of DC's previous live-action productions, alongside original realities created specifically for the event. Alongside characters including Tom Ellis' Lucifer, Tom Welling's Superman, Brandon Routh's Superman, and Ezra Miller's Flash playing roles in the event, Burt Ward and Robert Wuhl each made brief cameos as their respective Batman 1966 and Batman 1989 characters, while archive footage of Stargirl, Green Lantern, Titans, Swamp Thing, and Doom Patrol was used in a final montage. With Stargirl being established as part of this multiverse, Shipp reprised his role as Earth-2's Jay Garrick in Stargirl season 2 following previous appearances in other Arrowverse shows as an original member of the show's Justice Society of America.
Though his appearance was brief, the return of Shipp's Jay Garrick in Stargirl's season 3 finale is a perfect inclusion to celebrate the show's conclusion. Not only does The Shade's preceding tour and meeting with Garrick provide Stargirl's audience with a brief glimpse at a hopeful future for the Justice Society of America for Earth-2, but Shipp's appearance is also a fitting farewell to the multiversal aspect of the Arrowverese, as the franchise prepares to wind down following the conclusions of multiple series including The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. While John's idea for Garrick's Stargirl appearance was intentionally made to not rule out potential cameos in season 9 of The Flash, the character's finale scenes in Stargirl give fans hope that while the Arrowverse may be ending, its heroes will continue to do what they do best and protect the citizens of their worlds beyond their on-screen adventures.
Source: The Flash Podcast