Spoilers ahead for the spring premiere of The Flash, “Impulsive Excessive Disorder.”
Following a three-month hiatus, The CW’s The Flash finally returned, with the action picking up immediately after the Season 7 finale and pre-Armageddon. The episode highly revolved around Barry and Iris’ kids, Nora and Bart, following in their father’s footsteps and trying to fix the timeline. And one scene involved an Easter egg with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and superhero Booster Gold.
When Nora and Bart returned to their own time after their parents’ vow renewals, the two speedsters began to notice that things were off when their Uncle Jay was alive, and also not married to anyone. They went to the Flash Museum and looked through old headlines to see what changed, and found one about Donald Faison’s Booster Gold visiting the White House. Nora wondered who Booster Gold is but Bart told her to just keep looking through.
Showrunner Eric Wallace discussed the series’ spring premiere with EW, including that Booster Gold reference. Scrubs star Donald Faison made his debut as the DC hero in the season finale of Legends of Tomorrow, which aired a week prior to The Flash’s spring premiere. Wallace explained the coincidental Easter egg and how it all worked out:
It was just a kind of a fun coincidence. I was in post working on episode 806 and I knew the kids, Bart and Nora, would be looking at future things in the Flash Museum. And the head of post for our show and for Legends is the same person, Geoff Garrett. He happened to mention, 'Oh, by the way, don't tell anybody, but Booster Gold is going to be appearing in the finale of Legends.' I'm big Booster Gold fan, and I went, 'Hey, have they cast that person yet? I have a crazy thought. What if we see our kids in this episode looking through newspapers and we see whoever you guys have cast really fast, kind of a connected thing?' And he said, 'Well, it's funny you should mention that, Eric, because the finale of Legends airs the week before Flash returns.’
While the reference was quick and nearly a “blink and you’ll miss it” moment, it was still a nice surprise. It worked out pretty well that the Legends finale just so happened to air a week before The Flash returned, and this could have been a fun cameo for DC Comics fans overall, even if they don't also watch Legends of Tomorrow to see Faison as Booster Gold in the flesh.
Showrunner Eric Wallace also revealed how long it took to put the Easter egg together after calling the Legends showrunner:
So we made a few calls. I called up Phil [Klemmer], the showrunner of Legends, pitched him the idea. After he stopped laughing so hard he's like, 'Of course, definitely do that.' And then it was a very simple matter of just talking to the actor Donald Faison and getting his permission just to use a picture. He was into it. Next thing you know, it's in the show. It all happened in literally 24 hours. It was hilarious.
What works so well about the connections between the Arrowverse shows is that they don't need giant crossovers to remind viewers of how closely they're tied together, when there are options like what Eric Wallace pulled together for a bit of Legends on The Flash. To know how excited Wallace and Phil Klemmer were to include the beloved DC Comics hero on The Flash, and how “into it” Donald Faison was, shows that they genuinely care about these shows and the character.
While The CW has yet to renew most of their shows for the 2022-2023 TV season, both The Flash and Legends are expected to come back, with the former possibly ending soon. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season of The Flash plays out and whether Booster Gold could team up with Team Flash next season. Fingers crossed that happens!
Will there be any more Booster Gold references or more hints about the timeline that was seemingly fixed by Nora and Bart? Find out in new episodes of The Flash airing on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW! Check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 TV schedule to see what else to look forward to.
