Grant Gustin as Barry Allen on "The Scientist"

After the news broke yesterday that The CW has adapted its plans to introduce the Flash to television viewers by way of a back-door pilot episode of "Arrow," opting instead to film a standalone pilot episode, the network released the first batch of photos featuring the soon-to-be hero's civilian identity, Barry Allen.

Actor Grant Gustin plays the police scientist in the appropriately titled "The Scientist" episode of "Arrow," scheduled to air Dec. 4. It's the first of two appearances the character will make on the series before the Flash pilot is filmed as the CW tests the waters for a spin-off series it hopes to debut during the Fall 2014 season.

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"I think it is a little bit unique. I don't think we planned it," "Arrow" executive producer Marc Guggenheim told CBR of the way the Flash is being developed, after the initial announcement of "The Flash" series. "But at the same time, quite frankly, we didn't plan to expand the DC Universe so much in the first season of 'Arrow.' For example, Greg [Berlanti], Andrew [Kreisberg] and myself never said, 'In the first season of this show, we're going to introduce the Huntress and Deathstroke.' We really didn't have that plan. We were hoping to one day get to those characters, but we never thought it'd happen as quickly as it did."