Did one person make Grant Gustin the Flash? “He’s the nicest.”
Grant Gustin nearly passed on the Flash—until the pilot king changed his mind; wait till you hear who.
At the Across the Arrowverse panel at New York Comic Con, Grant Gustin admitted he nearly skipped the audition for The Flash because he couldn’t picture himself as Barry Allen. He said he only agreed to try once he heard David Nutter would be involved — and then got a personal push from the director after his callback. The CW series ultimately ran from 2014 to 2023.
As Gustin recounted, via PEOPLE:
"The audition went well, and then [executive producer] David Nutter was in my callback, who is considered to be the pilot king."
"He's the nicest man in the world. He called me after my callback that he had been in and basically was like, 'I want you to get this'."
Enter David Nutter
Nutter’s “pilot king” nickname isn’t hype. He has directed 24 TV pilots, with 21 going to series, including a streak of 16 consecutive pickups. He helped kick-start the Arrowverse by directing Arrow’s 2012 pilot, then set the tone for Central City by directing the first two episodes of The Flash.
- Smallville
- Supernatural
- The Mentalist
From backdoor to breakout
The CW initially planned to introduce Barry Allen through a backdoor pilot in Arrow season 2. But after seeing Nutter’s approach and Gustin’s performance, the network ordered a stand-alone pilot — and then a full season. When The Flash premiered in October 2014, it drew 4.8 million viewers, the network’s most-watched series launch in five years.
The debut also posted a 1.9 rating among adults 18–49 and expanded its reach to more than 13 million viewers across TV and digital in its first week.