The ninth and final season of The Flash speeds our way Wednesday night, February 8 on The CW, and FlashTVNews’ Craig Byrne had the opportunity to see the premiere and ask Executive Producer/Showrunner Eric Wallace a bunch of questions about what is coming up. Some things, of course, are going to have to wait until after the season premiere has aired, but for now, enjoy our conversation previewing the final season, where [ideally] there won’t be anything spoilery to the level of ruining anything. Then of course follow @FlashTVNews on Twitter for updates on when Part 2 goes up after the premiere! Enjoy our one-on-one interview below.

FLASHTVNEWS & KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: The season premiere kicks off with a lot of “WestAllen.” Can you talk about what fans have to look forward to there, and will this Barry and Iris interaction continue throughout the season?

THE FLASH SHOWRUNNER ERIC WALLACE: Yes, yes, yes! What they have to look forward to is a lot more Barry and Iris. Unlike the last few seasons, which was very important to develop Barry’s character and level him up as the hero, but also separately to level up Iris as a journalist, with the Citizen, getting a new office, getting a new staff, all of those things.. the difference this year is now that they’ve established themselves individually, as a couple, I’m happy to report they’re better than ever, and we’re gonna see it almost each and every week, especially when they kind of go on their “Babymoon” adventure. Some of it we’ll see on camera, some of it we won’t, because they’ve got to fight crime at some point. But it’s the Barry and Iris season, I’m very happy to say.

When writing the season premiere, was there a hope that it would air on February 1?

Up until like a month out, that was happening. We were so excited. We were like “this is great! We’re premiering on February 1 and it’s a Groundhog Day episode! They’re gonna watch it as it happens… it’s gonna be terrific!” And then they said “hey, we’re gonna bump it for a week” and we went “okay, that’s fine. No worries.” But I’d like to think we’ve made a perennial Groundhog Day classic. [Laughs]

A question we got on Twitter: Will we get an opportunity to see Iris, Joe, and Wally all in a scene together this year?

No. And here’s the reason why: It’s not because we don’t want to; there are plenty of scenes with Joe and Iris, or Iris and Wally, but we only have Jesse [Jesse L. Martin] for a handful of episodes this year, because he has a show he’s going to [the new NBC series The Irrational]. So when Keiynan [Lonsdale] came to join us for his one-off episode, Jesse was unavailable, because he’s on his other show. So, unfortunately, no, there is no scene with three of them together.

Will we finally see Baby Jenna this year?

I think you should keep watching for that, and ask that question four months from now. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Did it take much coaxing to get Stephen Amell to come back?

No, not at all. As soon as I came up with a crazy idea of bringing Oliver back, Greg [Berlanti] and I both talked to Stephen and he immediately said “let’s do this.” We were so honored to have him back, and he was so excited to come back. And we did one thing that was in that episode you’ll see that was a bucket list request from Stephen – something he didn’t get to do on Arrow, and we got to do it on his Flash episode. No spoilers. I won’t tell you what it is. But get ready for some tears. It’s a very emotional episode.

Speaking of things that might bring us tears, will the series finale serve as just the end of The Flash or as a conclusion to the Arrowverse as well?

It’s just the end of The Flash. In our minds and in our hearts, the Arrowverse continues. Who knows what may happen afterwards? I don’t mean that just because of Superman & Lois. It definitely continues. Without spoilers, there’s a moment in the final episode that literally addresses how this is just the beginning of the Arrowverse and the adventures of The Flash. Not the end.

How has it felt to be breaking down the series finale?

It’s been very emotional for myself and for the entire writing staff, as we realize there are so many things we want to pack into a series finale. There are so many emotional things that we have to tie up. There are so many plot threads that have been hanging since Season 1…. it’s been incredibly rewarding, yet difficult, yet the happiest difficult task we’ve ever had to do. It’s the most happy, difficult task I’ve ever had the privilege of being a part of. Every time we write a scene in the cortex, we say to ourselves, “this might be the final cortex scene.” Or a scene with a particular character, especially when we were writing the Oliver Queen episode, it was very clear to us “wow, we’re never gonna get to write Oliver Queen ever again.” Everyone got very emotional about it in the best way possible.

All of the season has been a labor of love – from the cast, and the crew, and the writers, and the directors, and everybody who’s been a part of this final season…. we’re just trying to make the best season ever, and go out with a truly unforgettable and emotionally satisfying finale.

Are we to consider the Earth-Prime comics to be canon?

I would say yes, because literally, as you’ll see with that – again, no spoilers – we know what happened at the end of the Earth-Prime comics with the character of Bloodwork, and we know somehow, Bloodwork is coming back to our show. Could those two things be connected? Of course! They’re canon.

What are the chances we’ll see any of the actors that you worked with on Teen Wolf this season? [Our sneaky way of asking about Tyler Hoechlin]

Very low. I’m literally trying to get Tyler [Hoechlin] to come back as Superman, and it’s very difficult to schedule. It’s very, very tough. I don’t really we’re going to be able to make that happen, and that’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just scheduling, and the fact that we didn’t know it was going to be the last season, and then when we got the last season, we were hoping for more episodes – 20 or 22 -snd in a 13 episode order, there’s only so much time that we have. So sadly, no. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get anybody from Teen Wolf. Although, Teen Wolf is back and their movie is fantastic, so kudos to them!

Beyond Dreamer coming this season, there are some references to some Supergirl characters in the season premiere. Can you talk about those?

When you hear us addressing folks off camera that way, those are folks who we’d love to get on the show, but unfortunately couldn’t. But it’s very important for us as an Arrowverse show to say to the audience “hey, these characters are still alive and out there, and doing just fine.” So. you’ll hear us name drop other Arrowverse characters throughout the season, just very matter of fact.

I even think we name drop the Hall of Justice at some point. Things are all happening off camera, even if we don’t see them. They’re part of the Arrowverse world. The Arrowverse is still alive. This is just the end of The Flash this season.

It was just announced that Rick Cosnett was returning for the final season. What can you tell us about that and what it means to bring him back in?

Barry’s journey this year is that he has to reconcile the past. Iris’ journey this year is to reconcile with the future. As we learn in the season premiere, the solution to both of those, after you reconcile your respective past and future, you have to to live in the present, and live in the moment. Bringing [Eddie] back is very much a part of Barry’s story, especially in the back half, of coming to terms with hanging threads emotionally that haven’t been resolved from Barry Allen’s past. So, we had to bring Rick back, in order to do that. You just have to. I think people are going to really love the emotional story that we have coming up between Grant and Rick.

What else would you like to say about the season premiere and the final season?

In many ways, Barry and Iris’ journey is just beginning. It doesn’t seem apparent in the premiere, but the whole season is so connected this year. What we’re really gonna see when we get to the series finale is all of the things we were talking about in the series premiere: Barry being the person who’s obsessed with getting a map to the future, because he figures it’ll lock it all down, and Iris being the person who is like “free will! We can shape the fate that we make…” paraphrasing Terminator 2 now, obviously. Sorry, Jim Cameron! But those two themes kick off the entire journey for the rest of the year, and we’re going to learn they’ve been really struggling with those two things the whole nine years. That’s what becomes apparent over the course of the season. So that’s why I would say tune in to this premiere, because it really is going to inform the journey that Barry and Iris have been on since Day One, and put a fresh perspective on it…. one that pays off in a big way in our Season 9 series finale.

The Flash Season 9 premiere airs Wednesday, February 8 at 8PM ET/PT on The CW. See some photos from the season premiere here!