‘The Flash’ Season Premiere Finally Used Queen’s “Flash’s Theme” and It Was Glorious

Spoilers for The Flash Season 6 premiere “Into The Void” past this point.

There’s a point towards the end of The Flash season premiere when, in order to save Central City from being sucked into a black hole, The Flash (Grant Gustin) needs to run fast enough to punch it, enter the black hole, and shut it down. Circumstances are a little more complicated than that, but that’s the gist. And it would have been cool enough a moment on its own, but Cisco (Carlos Valdes) amps it up with a sound cue so glorious, I can’t believe it wasn’t used on the show before: Queen’s “Flash’s Theme,” from 1980’s Flash Gordon, as well as the Queen album of the same name.

To give you a little more context here, Flash Gordon was a film serial from the 1930s, based on the comic strip, also called “Flash Gordon.” In it, the intrepid space explorer Flash Gordon heads to the planet Mongo to battle a tyrant named Ming the Merciless. The movie version from 1980 tweaked things a bit, making Flash a member of the Jets football team and ace pilot. The movie is a cult classic, and a cheeseball delight, and a large part of that has to do with Queen’s soundtrack for the film.

The album contained 18 tracks from the movie, and “Flash’s Theme” was released as a single, called “Flash.” It wasn’t Queen’s biggest hit, but like the movie, gained cult status.

However, despite some confusion from casual fans, The Flash and Flash Gordon are two entirely different characters, which is probably — along with expensive rights for Queen songs — why “Flash’s Theme” hasn’t been used in the first six seasons of the show.

Enter Cisco. As Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) looks on, The Flash runs up the side of a building, and Cisco queues up the tunes.

“I’ve been saving this for the right moment since day one,” says Cisco in a clearly meta moment, as I’m 100% sure The Flash production has been doing the same, behind the scenes.

“Really Cisco?” asks Iris West (Candice Patton) with a sigh.

“The guy’s running in and out of a black hole!” shoots back a perturbed Cisco. There’s a pause, and then Iris adds, “Good point.”

That’s because in Flash Gordon, the titular hero gets sucked through a pseudo-black hole, which is how he ends up on Mongo. Now you know!

What follows is one of the best action sequences in the show’s history, as — perfectly timed to “Flash’s Theme” — The Flash runs in a circle around the black hole, gaining enough speed, before slow-mo jumping right into it, in order to punch himself inside (and of note, Flash Gordon also has a punch directly towards camera). Once inside, the episode manages to build tension using the song. We see the characters reacting, crying, begging Barry Allen to come out of the void, the music hitting the same ominous note underneath in the background. And just when it seems like all hope is lost? Bam! Out pops Flash from the black hole as the lyrics kick in again, and he’s saved the world.

Flash! A-ah! Savior of the universe! The only bad thing about this moment? They just used “Flash’s Theme,” so they can’t do it again. Ah well. Maybe “We Will Rock You” next time?

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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