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A preview for 'The Flash' season 3: Are the CW's superheroes succeeding?

The CW's hit superhero show 'Flash' debuts its third season on Oct. 4.

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Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press/AP/File
'Harry Potter' actor Tom Felton is joining 'The Flash' for the program's third season.

The CW’s hit show “The Flash” will premiere soon, as the CW moves forward with multiple superhero TV programs. 

“The Flash,” which debuts its third season on Oct. 4, stars Grant Gustin as the super-speedy Barry Allen.

The program is a spin-off from fellow CW superhero show “Arrow,” which debuted in 2012 and centers on the wealthy Oliver Queen, who becomes a superhero who fights with a bow and arrow. 

In previous episodes, the Flash decided to go back in time to save his mother from dying. This could now change the future. 

But there could be romance in Barry’s life as well, as “Flash” star Candice Patton, who portrays Iris, told TVLine that viewers could “rest assured that the Barry and Iris relationship [will finally] come to fruition this season.” 

“Harry Potter” fans will recognize actor Tom Felton, who portrayed villain Draco Malfoy in the “Potter” film series and who will appear in the new episodes of “Flash” as Julian Dorn. According to the International Business Times, Mr. Felton’s character will first appear in the second episode of the third season, and Julian will take a dislike to Barry.

The CW is becoming quite the destination for superhero fans, as in addition to airing “Arrow” (which will debut its fifth season in early October), “The Flash,” and the TV program “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” which will return for a second season around the same time, the CW recently acquired the CBS show “Supergirl,” which aired its first season last year. 

Comic book fans know that all the heroes and villains featured on these shows hail from DC Comics and so all live in the same fictional universe. The characters often hop from one show to another.

Is this strategy of superheroes working for the CW?

“Flash” was a strong ratings performer for the CW in its first season, though Deadline writer Dominic Patten noted that the show’s second season finale “stumbled 20 percent among the 18-49s from its freshman finale of last May.” 

But Washington Post writer Michael Cavna sees this superhero show dominance on the CW as a positive development. 

“The CW, which for so long looked lost in the programming desert … has recently found a sense of mission based on superheroes, super-soaps and the supernatural,” Mr. Cayna writes. “And now it’s the DC Comics characters that could provide the CW with its strongest sense of identity.”

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