The casting rumor mill surrounding who would take on the role of The Flash on the CW’s Arrow whipped itself into such a frenzy this week, it nearly became one with the Speed Force. Now, the debate has come to as screeching halt because the CW has apparently found their future Barry Allen. Correctly predicted by Latino-Review, Glee star Grant Gustin was selected from a pool of contenders Hatfield & McCoys’ Matt Barr and Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark‘s James Mackay to don the iconic scarlet suit of Dr. Barry Allen, the forensic scientist turned speed demon crimefighter. After his turn as the villainous Sebastian Smythe on Glee, Gustin will be fighting on the side of truth, justice and the lab accident-induced superpowered way on the eighth, ninth and twentieth episodes, which will serve as his origin story and a backdoor pilot for a potential Flash-centric spinoff series.

This is big news for the televised version of the DCU and in particular for Arrow, a show that prided itself on avoiding the superpowered elements of the DCU. At this summer’s TCA Press Tour, CW president Mark Pedowitz explained Barry’s introduction to E! Online. “There’s a big DC universe where super-powered character do intersect and don’t intersect,” he said. “But remember, it’s an origin story so he may not come in with superpowers.” Arrow executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti are set to co-write the three Flash episodes with DC’s Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, which is where we hope he’s directing his creative energies after leaving Aquaman.

Arrow star Stephen Amell was quick to offer his congratulations and a word of advice to Gustin:

Hey @grantgust… You should probably start stretching your hamstrings like… immediately. Congratulations!! #Flash

— Stephen Amell (@amellywood) September 13, 2013

That’s actually pretty sound advice for whatever you’re doing in life. You never want to pull a hammy, especially not if you’re fighting Mirror Master.

Arrow returns for its second season on Wednesday, October 9th at 8/7c on The CW. Need to catch up? Read Kyle’s season one post-mortem here. What do you think of Gustin as Barry Allen? Let us know in the comments below or hit me up on Twitter!

[HT: Deadline]