At the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday, it was announced that Kevin Smith will direct an episode of The Flash.
Smith, of Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob fame, will be directing an episode later this year, though details about the episode or where in the line up the episode will fall have yet to be released.
It’s worth noting that Smith, a prolific comedian, writer, actor and director, has written comic runs for Marvel and DC Comics, including a critically-acclaimed run of Green Arrow. He was also one of the writers of the script for the canceled Superman Lives film from the 1990s.
How did this come to be? According to EP Andrew Kreisberg, “I literally got a phone call from his agent saying, ‘Kevin Smith’s favorite show is The Flash’ and was there an episode for him and the answer was ‘yes.’ It was really that simple.”
He added, “[O]bviously there’s a good deal of publicity that comes with this and as responsible executive producers we have to look at that. But we would never look at that at the expense of our own show. Knowing the scrutiny that the episode is going to be under, I know he’s going to bring it to his fullest.”
Smith tweeted the following after the news was released:
This is gonna be SO much fun! Big thanks to @AJKreisberg & @GBerlanti & @CW_network for the play date! #RunBarryRun https://t.co/CP0wbqem90
— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) January 10, 2016
The Flash returns with new episodes on Tuesday, January 19 at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.