The Flash (season 6)

The sixth season of the American television series The Flash, which is based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, premiered on The CW on October 8, 2019, and consisted of 19 episodes. The season follows Barry, a crime scene investigator with superhuman speed who fights criminals, including others who have also gained superhuman abilities. It is set in the Arrowverse, sharing continuity with the other television series of the universe, and is a spin-off of Arrow. The season is produced by Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and DC Entertainment, with Eric Wallace serving as showrunner.

The season was ordered in January 2019, and was originally planned to have 22 episodes. Filming began that July, and production was shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the season with only 19 episodes. Grant Gustin stars as Barry, with principal cast members Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet, Tom Cavanagh, and Jesse L. Martin also returning from previous seasons, while LaMonica Garrett was promoted to series regular from his guest status in season five. They are joined by new cast member Efrat Dor while former series regular Keiynan Lonsdale makes a guest appearance. The series was renewed for a seventh season on January 7, 2020.

Main

 * Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / Flash
 * Candice Patton as Iris West-Allen and Mirror Iris West-Allen
 * Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow / Frost
 * Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe and Cisco Ramon / Echo (Earth-19)
 * Hartley Sawyer as Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man
 * Danielle Nicolet as Cecile Horton
 * LaMonica Garrett as Mar Novu / Monitor and Anti-Monitor
 * Efrat Dor as Eva McCulloch
 * Tom Cavanagh as Nash Wells / Pariah, Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash, Harry Wells, and Sherloque Wells
 * Jesse L. Martin as Joe West

Recurring

 * Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork
 * Victoria Park as Kamilla Hwang and Mirror Kamilla Hwang
 * Kayla Compton as Allegra Garcia and Maya
 * Alexa Barajas as Esperanza Garcia / Ultraviolet
 * Patrick Sabongui as David Singh and Mirror David Singh

Guest
• Ryan Handley as Godspeed Drone

• Brandon McKnight as Chester P. Runk

• Michelle Harrison as Joan Williams (Earth-3) and Nora Allen

• Morena Baccarin as the voice of Gideon

• Meera Simhan as Rachel Rosso

• John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick (Earth-3) and Barry Allen (Earth-90)

• Danny Trejo as Josh / Breacher (Earth-19)

• Carlo Rota as Remington Meister

• Eric Nenninger as Joseph Carver

• Andrew J. Hampton as Maurice

• Emmie Nagata as Dr. Kimiyo Hoshi / Doctor Light

• William MacDonald as Gene Huskk

• Katee Sackhoff as Amunet Black

• Damion Poitier as Goldface

• Natalie Dreyfuss as Sue Dearbon

• * Rebecca Roberts as "January Galore"

• Andy Mientus as Hartley Rathaway / Pied Piper

• David Sobolov as the voice of Gorilla Grodd

• Keith David as the voice of Solovar

• Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West / Kid Flash

• Vanessa Walsh as Frida Novikov / Turtle II

• Natalie Sharp as Millie Rawlins / Sunshine

• Briana Tedesco as young Maya

• Troy James as Peter Merkel / Rag Doll

• Phil LaMarr as the voice of Rag Doll

• BD Wong as the voice of Godspeed

• Joel Semande as Roderick Smith

• Mark Brandon as Richard Dearbon

• Nancy Hillis as Penelope Dearbon

"Crisis on Infinite Earths"
• Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce / Black Lightning

• Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El / Kara Danvers / Supergirl

• Ruby Rose as Kate Kane / Batwoman

• Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow

• Brandon Routh as Clark Kent / Superman (Earth-96) and Ray Palmer

• Caity Lotz as Sara Lance / White Canary

• Bitsie Tulloch as Lois Lane

• Tyler Hoechlin as Clark Kent / Superman (Earth-38)

• David Ramsey as John Diggle

• Osric Chau as Ryan Choi

• David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter

• Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor

• Katherine McNamara as Mia Smoak

• Ashley Scott as Helena Kyle / Huntress (Earth-203)

• Dina Meyer as Barbara Gordon / Oracle (Earth-203)

• Tom Ellis as Lucifer Morningstar (Earth-666)

• Matt Ryan as John Constantine

• Stephen Lobo as Jim Corrigan

• Wentworth Miller as the voice of the Leonard A.I. (Earth-74)

• Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels / Harbinger

• Amanda Pays as Tina McGee (Earth-90)

Development
The series was renewed for a sixth season by The CW on January 31, 2019, along with a 22-episode order. In March 2019, it was announced that Eric Wallace would replace Todd Helbing as showrunner for the season.

Writing
The season is split in two-halves, each having their own self-contained Big Bad story. Each half is referred to by the producers as a "Graphic Novel", with the first one being titled "Blood and Truth". The split was done to avoid inducing fatigue by keeping one Big Bad for 22 episodes, as previous seasons had done.

Wallace felt episode 19, which became the season finale because of the COVID-19 pandemic, worked in the series' favor because it had "a big cliffhanger" that was "a good pause point". The remaining three episodes, which had been written, will become the first three episodes of season seven. Wallace conceded there may be a few small adjustments made based on how the pandemic would affect shooting, but said Eva McCulloch’s story "is on a very specific trajectory that we want to honor and finish." Wallace continued that he thought having these three episodes start season seven was "making it stronger because it's forcing us to look at these two separate things — which is the end of Eva's story and the beginning of the next villain's story and how he relates to Barry and Iris —" and making a strong connection between them.

Casting
Main cast members Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes, Hartley Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet and Jesse L. Martin return as Barry Allen / Flash, Iris West-Allen, Caitlin Snow / Frost, Cisco Ramon, Ralph Dibny / Elongated Man, Cecile Horton, and Joe West. Tom Cavanagh also returns as a regular, portraying Nash Wells, another doppelgänger of his character Harrison Wells. Cavanagh also returns as Eobard Thawne / Reverse Flash. Valdes also portrayed Cisco's Earth-19 doppelganger "Echo" in the episode "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach". Sendhil Ramamurthy was cast in a recurring role as Ramsey Rosso / Bloodwork, the Big Bad of the season's first half. Efrat Dor appears as a series regular in the second half of the season as Eva McCulloch.

Design
The season introduces a new Frost costume which has a more vibrant blue color scheme than the older costume, exposes the shoulders and features a chest emblem shaped like an ice crystal.

Filming
Production for the season began on July 2, 2019, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was expected to conclude on April 6, 2020. However, on March 13, 2020, production was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 90% of the planned 20th episode was filmed by that time, with one more day of filming anticipated to complete it; the remaining two episodes were not filmed.

Arrowverse tie-ins
At the end of the 2018 Arrowverse crossover "Elseworlds", the follow-up crossover was revealed to be "Crisis on Infinite Earths" based on the comic book of the same name. The crossover took place over five episodes–three in December 2019 and two in January 2020.

Broadcast
The season premiered on October 8, 2019, in the United States on The CW. It was set to run for 22 episodes. As of March 2020, the final completed episode, before production was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was to air on May 12, 2020 and once production would have resumed, the remainder of the season would air later in 2020. However, the nineteenth episode was later announced as the season finale.

Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 85% approval rating for the sixth season with an average rating of 6.89/10, based on 5 reviews.

Accolades
! scope="row" rowspan="3" | 2020
 * Kids' Choice Awards
 * Favorite Family TV Show
 * data-sort-value="Flash, The"| The Flash
 * Nominated
 * BMI Film, TV & Visual Media Awards
 * BMI Network Television Music Award
 * data-sort-value="Blume, Nathaniel"| Nathaniel Blume and Blake Neely
 * Won
 * People's Choice Awards
 * data-sort-value="Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show of 2020, The"| The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show of 2020
 * data-sort-value="Flash, The"| The Flash
 * Nominated
 * }
 * data-sort-value="Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show of 2020, The"| The Sci-Fi/Fantasy Show of 2020
 * data-sort-value="Flash, The"| The Flash
 * Nominated
 * }
 * }
 * }