‘The Flash’ Spoilers: Grant Gustin Talks Season 4’s Lighter Tone

Grant Gustin is enjoying the lighter tone of Season 4 of “The Flash.”

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gustin said that he’s having “fun” with the less darker tone of the new season of the CW series. “[I get] to laugh things off a little bit more again as the character (Barry),” Gustin revealed. “When we see a bad guy that rolls around, a villain of the week, it’s not such a daunting task. We can have a little bit of fun taking down these guys now.”

Gustin said that Barry’s six-month stint in the Speed Force has allowed him to let go of his emotional baggage, which has paved the way for a more light-hearted Season 4. “A huge weight has been lifted and he’s forgiven himself again of all the mistakes he made the last couple years and people that he’s hurt,” Gustin said of Barry. “He’s ready to move forward with the team and move forward with Iris (Candice Patton) and be happy Barry again and save Central City.”

In a featurette teasing the upcoming season, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said that changing the show’s tone has always been part of their plan for Season 4. “Last season got really dark, and [that’s] on purpose. We wanted to do that,” Kreisberg said in the video. “But it was this darky dark, ‘Donnie Darko’ dark … so this year, since we feel we kind of did that, we’re not gonna out dark ourselves. We really wanted to sort of like pivot and lean on to fun and light and brightness.”

“The title premiere is actually ‘The Flash Reborn,’” Kreisberg continued. “And for us, it’s sort of a restart, just diving into more comedy and more fun and more brightness and more excitement and sort of getting away from [heavy] drama we were playing last season.”

Series star Danielle Panabaker also commented about Season 4’s lighter tone in an interview with Digital Spy earlier this month. “We’re filming episode 5 right now and there’s already a lot more levity to the show,” Panabaker said at the time. “It’s sort of getting back to our roots of Season 1, where it was a little bit lighter and there really was so much heart. So I’m excited to get to explore that a little bit more.”

“The Flash” Season 4 premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.