It looks like director Kevin Smith is going to be responsible for an episode of The Flash this year.
A new announcement from the CW during the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour made it known that Kevin Smith would be directing one of the last episodes from Season 2 of The Flash . That episode will be airing at some time in May.
Kevin Smith is the well-known director of the Jay and Silent Bob movies, but he’s also known as being one of the biggest comic book fanboys in Hollywood. He even has a reality show on AMC, Comic Book Men , that follows stories from his New Jersey comic book store: The Secret Stash.
Clerks was the first full-length feature film directed by Kevin Smith. Any of the witty director’s fans would be quick to tell you it’s his best. Many people critical of Smith directing The Flash are going back to that movie and the movies that sprouted off of it ( Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks II ) to explain why Kevin might not have been the right choice to direct an action-based series.
What many people don’t realize is that this is not Kevin Smith’s first time involved in directing for the CW. It’s not even his first step into the DC universe.
For the CW, Smith directed the pilot episode of Reaper .
[ Disclaimer: Some explicit language in video ]
Reaper was a short-lived comedy about a boy named Sam (played by Bret Harrison) who learned that his parents had sold his soul to the Devil (played by Ray Wise) before he was born. The plot followed Sam as he’s forced to be the Devil’s bounty hunter.
Although Reaper was a comedy at heart, there was a decent amount of action throughout. Even in the pilot, where Sam faces his first flaming bad guy with the use of a Dirt Devil.
Reaper only lasted two seasons however, and Kevin Smith only directed the pilot.
Still, that wasn’t the only time Smith directed an action-based story.
His film Dogma was about a small group of chosen people on a mission to stop two rogue angels from re-entering heaven and destroying the world.
One could argue that Dogma is still a comedy and falls into Kevin Smith’s comfort zone, especially since it involved his Jay and Silent Bob characters, but his list of experience doesn’t end there.
Kevin Smith also directed a horror film called Red State .
[ Disclaimer: Some scenes may not be right for younger viewers ]
Kevin Smith’s Red State was in no way a comedy. It was a horror through-and-through and showcased everything from gun fights to torture. It was out of his comfort zone and action-packed.
Where The Flash is concerned, although Kevin hasn’t directed anything for the DC Universe yet, he has written for it.
Kevin Smith is responsible for having written two Batman story arcs for the comics and one Green Arrow arc.
Batman: Cacophony was written by Smith and released between 2009 and 2011. It’s where the villain Onomatopoeia is first encountered by Batman, though it is not his first appearance in general. Batman also battles the Joker and Maxie Zues, a crime lord. Kevin Smith also penned another six issue series: Batman: The Widening Gyre .
For the Green Arrow, Kevin Smith penned Quiver , a ten-issue story arc. It involves Hal Jordan resurrecting Oliver Queen’s body, but not his soul. As a hollow, Oliver Queen is targeted by Etrigan the Demon.
In the end, Kevin Smith is not new to the DC Universe, to CW, or to action-based directing. The CW has faith in Smith for The Flash and so should viewers.
[ Photo by Sarah Keayes/Getty Images ]
