The Flash: Not Having Carlos Valdes Back as Cisco for the Series Finale Was ‘Really Weird,’ Says Grant Gustin
The Flash series finale has now come and gone, and OG Team Flash member Cisco Ramon did not put in one final, crowd-pleasing encore.
Original cast member Carlos Valdes, who exited the Arrowverse series after Season 7, had told TVLine back in January, “I can’t imagine a scenario” where Cisco doesn’t to some degree figure into the Arrowverse series’ final run.
But with only seven weeks of filming left at that point, it was not meant to be. And another of TVLine readers’ Top 6 wishes for the final season bit the dust.
Valdes would later explain to EW.com, “I did consider” returning for the series finale, but “there was no way to make it happen with regards to my schedule and just all the different creative ventures and life circumstances that I was trying to juggle at that time.”
Missing out on the series’ swan song “was really heartbreaking to me,” Valdes said, “because I thought, if I decided to step away from the show [after Season 7], at the very least I have to be there for the finale to … really honor the full circle-ness of it.”
The Flash front man Grant Gustin told TVLine it “was really weird” to not have Valdes back, even for one final appearance.
“Carlos and I talk a lot,” Gustin shared during his visit to TVLine’s New York office, “but he lives here, he’s doing a show here, and I guess it wasn’t possible to get him back for the last season.
“That was one of the weirder parts of it being the final season,” Gustin reiterated. “We got Tom [Cavanagh/Eobard Thawne] back [for the finale], and Jesse [L. Martin/Joe] is back but not in the same capacity,” having stepped down as a series regular to star in NBC’s The Irrational. “It was so weird that Tom, Jesse and Carlos weren’t there for every day of what we were doing, because they were such staples of my experience on The Flash.”
Were you sad to not see The Flash‘s Cisco one last time?
That party at the end, I was hoping he would show up with gifts or something. It didn’t even have to have much substance; just being there would’ve made it so much better.
I would have taken a virtual Cisco (like on Zoom or FaceTime) even congratulated Barry and Iris.
First and second season were great but it stopped there
Season 5 Nora’s back from the future storyline & Thawne arc was excellent, but yeah…. the last 3 Season’s especially went downhill.
I didn’t care about any of the new character’s & with no more real stakes & poor lazy writing the new chatacters especially “shirts off guy” Mark or whatever.
I’m still going to watch the final episode, but they should’ve gone balls to the wall & made the final Season w/ Cobalt Blue as over arching story, with a tie full circle storyline with Eobard Thawne.
The Flash showed up on screen in maybe 1/2 of season for his own show & final season, it was more about the bland secondary character’s….sad really.
Please. He just didn’t want to do it. Between Zoom, doing a remote video in NYC, etc. there are plenty of ways to make it happen if he really wanted to during the 8 month production cycle. Sorry he’s not *that* busy.
I kept thinking Cisco would show up even for a tiny cameo at some point. Even on Skype or some kind of video call, They could have at least done a thing like that. I was disappointed. He was my fav after Grant Gustin’s Flash.
It was not an adequate or appropriayte ending without Cisco.