‘The Flash’: Danielle Panabaker Talks Directing Stephen Amell’s Return & ‘Surprising Reunions’

As The Flash prepares to say goodbye, it will be doing so with quite a few familiar faces returning in its ninth and final season. And Episode 9 is sure to be quite the event, with Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen), David Ramsey (John Diggle), Keiynan Lonsdale (Wally West), and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Ramsey Rosso) all appearing.

Directing the hour is Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow/Frost/Khione), and it’s the fifth episode she’s been behind the camera for on The CW superhero series. She previously directed Season 5’s “Godspeed,” Season 6’s “License to Elongate,” Season 7’s “Rayo de Luz,” and Season 8’s “Keep It Dark.”

“I feel incredibly grateful that that was the script and the episode that I got to direct and I’m flattered that everyone believed in me and thought that I could do this episode because it was quite ambitious and I really wanted to pay homage to Arrow and the characters that Stephen and David played and those are some of my favorite moments in the episode,” Panabaker tells TV Insider.

“Truly when The Flash started, they always had this idea that a Flash episode would include heart, humor, and spectacle. And to me, Episode 9 is an excellent example of that because there’s heart in unexpected places and surprising reunions and there’s a lot of humor,” she continues. “I think part of the success of the crossovers and this Arrowverse has been the chemistry with some of the actors, Grant [Gustin] and Stephen included, and their chemistry together on screen is delightful. So you get humor in different ways there.”

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As for the “spectacle” part, she teases “some of the biggest stunt work I think we’ve ever done on the show” in an episode she’s very proud of and excited for people to watch.

While she couldn’t share anything story-wise, “I was delighted, surprised, thrilled with Stephen’s performance in the episode. We were so lucky to have him back and deliver such a stellar performance,” Panabaker says. “It really felt like such a classic Flash episode — heart, humor, spectacle — and I don’t think fans will be disappointed in any element of that episode.”

We have a feeling we’ll be speeding to rewatch this one.

The Flash, Wednesdays, 8/7c, The CW