We’re up in Vancouver right now covering several TV shows on a press tour, and yesterday, Arrow’s Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg gave the group of us some hints about the development of The Flash for TV both for three episodes of the parent show and as a potential spin-off from Arrow.

Barry Allen – The Flash – shows up in Episodes 8, 9, and 20 of Arrow Season 2, which begins Wednesday, October 9 on The CW.

“Barry’s such a different character from Oliver,” Kreisberg says. “Episodes 8 and 9 [of Arrow Season 2]… I just handed in 9… it’s been really interesting to write those, because you literally have those two characters in the same show. In some ways it actually may be easier because you can say ‘That’s something Oliver would say; it’s not something Barry would say. Barry has a very easy relationship with Felicity, because Barry is a forensic scientist, and he’s young, and he’s a little bit socially awkward like she is, so there’s a lot of fun with that.”

“With Arrow, we wrote [the role] without anybody in mind,” he says. “This time, as we were writing these episodes, we cast Grant in the middle of it.” Met Grant early on. “We met with a lot of other really talented people. Not just talented, but good guys, and it was funny, because as each of us – Geoff [Johns] and Greg [Berlanti] and I — were working on individual scenes, we all sort of came together and said ‘we’re all writing Grant.’ It was just him.”

“That was different, because now when we go into writing the actual pilot in Episode 20, we already have our guy, and we’ve already seen him on the screen, so hopefully we’ll actually literally be able to look at things and learn,” he says.

Does the Arrow inspire the Flash? “Absolutely,” he says. “Barry’s a fanboy. He comes to Starling City and he says to Felicity, ‘so I heard the vigilante saved you. What’s he like?’ So I think for Barry, it’s one of those things where it’s sort of like ‘be careful what you wish for’,” he says.

“If you look at the Justice League, you have Superman and Aquaman and Wonder Woman. You have all these gods. And then you’ve got Barry Allen, who’s just a guy. That’s, I think, why the character appeals so much to Greg and to Geoff and to me, and it’s also why he’s a really good fit to the world of Arrow, because while we’re obviously introducing some fantastical concepts to things, we want to still keep the show as grounded and realistic as possible. So I think that the events that happen to The Flash, and what’s going on in Central City… I think some people will be like ‘that’s not happening. There must be an explanation for it.’ Barry’s a good guy, and he’s seen that it’s possible to put on a mask and change the world.”

This is one of several interviews we conducted up North – look for some more interviews relating to Arrow Season 2 at GreenArrowTV.com! More will be posted daily through the October 9 season premiere of Arrow!