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Iris West is more than the woman behind the hero. Throughout The Flash’s nine-season run we saw Iris West grow from a damsel to a girlboss. Iris became the editor-in-chief of The Central City Citizen and the leader of Team Flash. Candice Patton’s Iris West Allen was a true equal to Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen, proving herself as a hero in her own right. 

However, it wasn’t always this way. Speaking to a crowd at Megacon 2025, Candice Patton opened up about Iris’s early characterization, and how she felt the character deserved more. 

“I’m really proud of how she evolved. A lot of the feedback I get from the fans at these cons is that they’ve enjoyed her character development. I think even for me in the beginning it was like, [exacerbated] what are we doing. I had trouble rooting for her because it was so one-note on the page.”

Things changed when Patton took a more proactive role, working with the writers to flesh out Iris.

“I fought for it, I think the writers wanted it too, and it was just figuring out how to make her part of the story with everybody else, part of the team. It took a while to figure out the best avenue for Iris, but by the time we finished the show, I was really happy with her agency. I feel like we got there, she stood on her own outside of Barry, and she worked really well with him as well. I was pleased with it.”

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