The Iris West/Candice Patton Thread

One of many casting announcements.



On IMDB

Casting Call:

Dialogue from the Audition Video:
Here on Reddit

 

So, I'll start with my breakdown of how she's different from the comics:

Iris West from the comics:

1. Female
2. White
3. Red hair
4. Brown Hair
5. Brown Eyes
6. Traditionally Attractive
7. Young Adult
8. Reporter
9. Career is basically her talking about the Flash and his villains a lot
10. Dates Barry Allen
11. Doesn't Date Barry Allen
12. Cares Deeply for Barry and unconditionally supports him
13. Doesn't Know Barry is the Flash at first
14. Figures out Barry is the Flash on her own
15. Highly Driven in her Career,
16. Goal Oriented Risk Taker
17. Highly Intelligent
18. Assertive Outspoken Communication Style
19. Great with People
20. No aversion to getting her hands dirty
21. Can be flirtatious
22. Gift Giving appears to be her love language
23. Consistently sacrifices to take care of her family
24. Loves to take care of other people's kids
25. Drinks a lot of Coffee
26. Lives in Central City
27. Is From the Future
    • Adoptive Father, Ira West, is a Physics Professor
    • Adoptive Mother, Nadine West, is unremarkable
    • Adoptive Siblings are Rudy and Charolette West
    • Biological Parents are in the Future, the Russels
    • Nephew Named Wally
28. Is Not From the Future
    • William West, unnamed profession (same as Sgt. Rock character???)
    • Unnamed Mother is deceased
    • Younger brother named Daniel, a criminal
    • Probably still a nephew named Wally West

By my count, the only things we can be sure are different from the comics is that she's not a white reporter who meets Barry on her job. And of course, stuff that's different for every continuity like who her family is and what they do and her relationship with Barry. So she may indeed be something like 21/24, and that idea is supported by the brief casting tape we did see, but we really won't know until we actually see the show. Crazy, I know. 21/24 is as good as the current Iris West in the comics, all things considered. Not a bad number, not bad at all.

 

Scripts do change often, but the fact they auditioned with this one shows that's the kid of person they're looking for. I loved it, honestly. Seeing Iris in action, even with a sub-par actress made me excited. I love her character.

This is a fair point. I do think they were onto something, because when you have two people in the family with the same name, one gets a nickname, but that's usually just inside the family, and they go by their given name elsewhere. They also had an issue where the name 'Dinah' isn't in use anymore. It's kind of like having a character named 'Ichabod' who was born in 1980... it doesn't work.

I think, with Iris, they've skewed a lot closer to the core of her character and what her purpose is in the Flash mythos.

 

The same way Matthias is a less common name than Vernon or Roger. (EDIT: Which is the same way Roger is a less common name than John or Michael) Are you asking for documentation?

 

That doesn't indicate mishandling, unless you feel change=bad, which I've seen enough evidence to the contrary to dismiss out of hand. Also, they're still not step siblings, no matter how many times you say it. That's a pretty strong indication that you aren't giving an honest evaluation when you make up stuff to not like about it.

Really? Interesting. You may just be unique in that regard. I too have heard of someone named Dinah, in the lyrics to "I've been Working on the Railroad." Overall though, Dinah hasn't been in use since the 60s (so there are definitely a few elderly women that have it), while Iris and Laurel are relatively common names for all ages, at least in the States. Compare Dinah with Iris based on census information.

It really is like naming someone Ichabod who was born in the 80s. It doesn't really make sense. Now, naming her after her mother gave them some leeway, but they erred on the side of not giving her an old woman name, which is fine because the problem with Dinah Laurel on Arrow is not that her name is different, it's that her role is different. In the comics, Dinah Laurel is someone who Green Arrow meets as a follow superhero. They are on the same page, and his biggest challenge with her is that she doesn't want to have kids. She is his partner.

The problem of course is that Arrow is not fundamentally about a superhero (even though it is growing into that) and it requires Oliver be isolated, which is pretty much impossible when he has a sidekick, essentially.

They were actually on the right track, more or less, by making her a crime fighter in her own way. The problem was that they mishandled her role as Oliver's partner, because they had other characters they wanted to be crucial supporting cast members, and with that, that means Laurel has to do something else, and her character got lost because in the comics, her fundamental role is being Green Arrow's partner. She has other relationships in other comics, she leads in the League, and is Oracle's agent in BP, but in GA, she is the partner. It's what she does. And here, in Arrow, she was not that, so her character got lost. If they had made her more Harvey Dent/Rachel then we could have had something very interesting, but at the cost of Diggle and Felicity, and honestly... I'm not sure I'd make that trade in retrospect.

The reason Caity Loitz's character works is because she is so very very much what BC is in the comics, GA's partner. She is introduced as assisting him, even when he tries to fight her, she is looking out for him. She is an incredible partner, from start to finish. The fact that she does it while crime fighting is even better. Ring a ding ding, best female character. She plays her role, and when she's not playing her role, she is totally 100% off screen.

We can also go into the brand of chauvinism that defines women who are helpful and have no accountability requirements such as Sara and Felicity as 'good' while women who have needs and issues and call BS such as Laurel and Season 1 Speedy as 'bad.' But I digress.

The reason I think we're heading down the right path is that CW Iris is fundamentally tied to Barry in a supporter role, the same role she plays in the comics as his wife, but now with sexual tension. She's oblivious enough to be the typical comic book girlfriend type but in a way that makes sense for a modern intelligent person.

Definitely interested, thanks for the info!