I admit it. I was wrong. David Dastmalchian will not be The Flash‘s new Weather Wizard. He will, instead, appear as supervillain Abra Kadabra.
The actor is no stranger to superhero franchises, popping up in Ant-Man, Gotham and, in a short but memorable role, The Dark Knight as the Joker’s henchman that Harvey Dent tortures. He’ll come along at an opportune time on The CW’s show, too, as it’s currently wrapping up its Flashpoint arc and is in need of a fresh infusion of mustache twirling villainy.
And if it’s mustache-twirling you want, Abra Kadabra has you covered. First appearing in The Flash #128 in May 1952, the villain hails from the 64th century. In this dark dystopian future, stage magic has been rendered obsolete by science. This leaves Abra Kadabra without a job and so, naturally, he travels back in time in search of an audience. Using futuristic technology, he’s able to force an audience to applaud him (raising the question of why he didn’t just use this in the future and save himself the whole time-travel shenanigans, but hey-ho).
In more recent, post DC Rebirth times, he’s a bumbling party magician known as Mister Hocus Pocus, who has Abra Kadabra sleeping deep within him. Once a psychic attack reawakens him, he begins to attack the Flash, turning his allies into puppets and using them against him. So, essentially, he’s a villainous Gob from Arrested Development.
It’s a perfect fit for Dastmalchian, whose marked his career by playing intense, wide-eyed characters with more than a couple of screws loose. We’ll have to wait until next season to see him in action, but until then consider us hyped to see what he’s got up his sleeve.
