‘The Flash’ Star Candice Patton Says Season 3 Will Feature A Lighter Version Of Barry Allen

Although last night’s Season 3 premiere of “The Flash” was emotionally intense for Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), the tone of the new installment won’t be dark all throughout.

In an interview with Mashable, Candice Patton — who plays Barry’s love interest, Iris West — said that the Scarlet Speedster isn’t always down in the dumps in the new installment of the CW series.

“I think there’s definitely a lighter version of Barry this season, which is really nice,” Patton said. “I think he’s come to terms with his mother and father’s deaths; some things in life you have to accept and move forward, and once he does that, it allows him to live a lighter life.”

In fact, the 28-year-old actress said that fans can expect some adorable Barry-Iris moments in the upcoming episodes.

“There’s a lot of cute romantic scenes with Barry and Iris [this season],” she told TV Guide. “It’s really fun to see. It’s personally my favorite part of shooting the show. There’s a lot of really great Barry-Iris interaction. If you like that aspect of our show you're going to be really, really pleased.”

But since it’s “The Flash,” the Mississippi-born thespian said that fans can always expect some drama on the show no matter what Barry’s emotional state is.

“We always have drama and villains and people threatening to destroy the world, so there’s a balance for Barry, for sure. It’s business as usual!” Patton explained.

Executive producer Todd Helbing told Variety that the new season is pretty much like Season 1 in terms of tone.

“We definitely realized it got pretty [dark] last season so Season 3 is going to be more tonally similar to Season 1,” Helbing said. “There are a lot of ramifications for what Barry did, but as the season goes on, he gets more of the pep in his step that he had in the first season.”

“The Flash’s” next episode, titled “Paradox,” airs on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Check out the synopsis for Season 3, episode 2 below:

“Barry realizes the effects from Flashpoint are much greater than he thought. Meanwhile, Barry meets new co-worker Julian Albert (Tom Felton) and is surprised by Julian’s immediate disdain for Barry.”