Tonight sees the launch of the much anticipated fourth season of The Flash, with The Thinker as the new big bad. But what do we know about him and the rest of the season to come?
[Warning – some spoilers ahead]
In the Season 3 finale we saw Flash defeat Savitar, but it came at a cost. As a result of Savitar being ripped from the Speed Force, Barry Allen’s Flash had to go into the Speed Force in order to balance the books. This meant that he had to leave his beloved Iris in the care of his friends.
In the Season 4 opener, which is appropriately titled The Flash Reborn, we see team flash under the management of Iris who is having Cisco’s Vibe and her brother Wally West aka Kid Flash do most of the crime busting. Cisco realises that the team is not at full strength and devises a way to get Barry the real Flash out of the Speed Force.
However, it quickly becomes apparent that Barry is not the same as he was before. He will likely have to pull himself up by his bootstraps pretty quick, though, because a whole feast of villains lay in wait for him.
First off, the main villain this season will be none other than Clifford DeVoe who is also known as The Thinker and will be played by Neil Sandilands. For those not in the know, The Thinker is one of Flash’s oldest enemies and dates back to the original Flash Comics, which featured Wade Garrett as The Flash.
The Thinker is not a speedster, but he does have the ability to control the minds of others using some very clever technology, which is hooked into his thinking cap. In the comics, The Thinker bases his operations in Keystone City, which is the neighbouring city of Star City. The Thinker has been affiliated with The Injustice Society and The Suicide Squad.
It will be interesting to see how the writers of Flash use The Thinker in the coming series. There are a ton of potential storylines in the comics that they can draw on. It’s fair to say that The Flash is not going to be able to purely rely on his speed in order to defeat The Thinker, which leaves us with some tasty prospects to come.
A theory being bounced around by many fans is that The Flash with help from Caitlin Snow might broker a deal with Gorilla Grodd in order to help in the fight against The Thinker. One thing is for sure, this series and the other CW offerings will likely keep us all busy with theories and ideas as the show starts to open up its main story arc.
The season also features Kim Engelbrecht as highly intelligent engineer The Mechanic, who designs things for DeVoe.
We’ll also see a guest-starring turn from Danny Trejo who will play the role of Breacher. In the comics Breacher is the father of Gypsy. As fans know, Gypsy was introduced in the last series and though she started in an adversarial role, she eventually wound up on good terms with team Flash and even developed a romantic interest in Cisco Ramone aka Vibe.
Here is what executive producer Andrew Kreisberg had to say about the addition of Danny Trejo to the series: “Gypsy and Jessica [Camacho], they’re so tough and so strong. We’re like, ‘Obviously she came from somebody strong,’ and we just thought it would be a hilarious idea for Cisco, who’s managed to melt Gypsy’s heart, being unable to do the same with her father.
“We were in the room and we were like, ‘Who could we get?’ and someone said ‘Danny Trejo’ and we all started laughing like, ‘He’d be great, but of course Danny Trejo’s not going to do this.’ But as I’ve discovered over these past few years, if you don’t ask, you don’t get it. So we reached out to him and his people, and it turned out he was a fan, and he was eager to do it, and he loved the character.
“I feel like we wrote him a great script. His character and his storyline with Cisco and Gypsy, it’s part of this slight redirection of the series this year — it’s just doing much more fun stories and much more just out and out hilarious things to match Barry’s newfound optimism and lightness.”
The Flash returns tonight at 8/7c on the CW. Feel free to share your theories in the comments below.