During today's panel at PaleyFest in Los Angeles, The Flash showrunner Greg Berlanti said that members of DC Comics' "Flash family" could appear as soon as next season.

Asked whether we might see Wally West or Bart Allen appear on the show, Berlanti said -- as he did last year at Paley -- that was the plan.

"That's our hope," Berlanti said. "And we've already been picked up for a second season so I think if we were going to do something like that, we would do it next season."

During the course of the panel, they also promised that there was a specific story from the comics that they would be adapting "coming up in the future," although whether that has to do with introducing a younger generation of speedster or is the Flashpoint/Crisis on Infinite Earths-type of stories that have been hinted at all season wasn't made explicit.

Back in September of last year, Berlanti also said that the show's eventual goal was to introduce an African-American Flash, which most readers took to mean Wally West, since he is no longer white in the comics since the New 52 relaunch.

"We made the Wests African-American so that we could ultimately head in that direction, absolutely," Berlanti told the fan. "That's our hope."

Kreisberg followed it up with a confirmation of what many comic book fans had already assumed: that Wally West was reinvented as an African-American character in part to accommodate the TV series.

"What's very cool is in the New 52 they hadn't reintroduced Wally [yet]," Kreisberg said, adding that because they were working with DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns on the show, "when they reintroduced Wally, they made him African-American. So now and forever, Kid Flash will be African-American."

The Flash returns Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.