Even though The Flash has continually dazzled us by never shying away from its source material or wholeheartedly embracing the science fiction genre, I doubt many would argue with me saying a sort of complacency has set in. In other words, despite there being more evil speedsters to pluck from the comic books, we certainly don’t need to see another one anytime soon.
Moving on, it should be most interesting to see how the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs crew will be forced to get by now that Barry Allen has been in the Speed Force for six months. Thanks to DC All Access having caught up with the cast and crew at San Diego Comic-Con, we now have even more of an idea of what to expect when the show resumes this fall.
One change in particular that everyone should be aware of is that of Iris West emerging as Team Flash leader, or as actress Candice Patton puts it, “picking up the slack.” From what we’ve been able to gather, she’ll coordinate matters while Kid Flash and Vibe handle things on the streets.
Speaking of Barry not being around, Carlos Valdes, Cisco Ramon himself, says that they’ll be forced “to replace that lost dynamic.” With that, we may be able to infer that this is what leads to Wally West graduating to red tights, thus attempting to fill the void the Scarlet Speedster left.
Getting back to the idea of villains, it goes without saying that a big bad such as the Thinker should come as a breath of fresh air. According to executive producer Todd Helbing, we’ll be seeing “not as much fisticuffs” as we did with the likes of the Reverse-Flash and Zoom, and that “mind games” will rule the day. And from the look of it, Valdes seems to welcome the change as well.
The Flash returns for its fourth season on Tuesday, October 10 on The CW.
