The Flash season 5 is going to see a major shake-up to the status quo as the Scarlet Speedster and his wife are going to have to come to terms with the fact that Jessica Parker-Kennedy’s mystery girl is actually their daughter, Nora West-Allen, who’s returned from the future. Still, even with unexpected time-traveling family issues to deal with, one thing will still be the same in Central City – there’ll still be a criminal metahuman on the loose each and every week.
In the season premiere, suitably titled “Nora,” the latest super-powered crook causing havoc on Barry Allen’s home turf is Gridlock. And now, we have our first look at the villain in action, thanks to TV Line. If you’re wondering who’s behind that funky mask, that’d be Daniel Cudmore, who previously played Peter Rasputin/Colossus in a bunch of X-Men movies.
Intel on The Flash‘s version of the character is on the slim side right now, but in the comics, Gridlock’s real name is Abner Girdler, a man who hatches a scheme to ruin his former boss’ mayoral campaign by becoming a supervillain, using tech of his own invention to suck the kinetic energy out of people and objects, which leaves them stationary for about an hour. Interestingly, he was also a foe for Impulse, Barry’s grandson Bart Allen, who plays a similar role to Nora in the comics.
Of course, given that Gridlock will invariably be bested after just one episode, the new big bad of season 5 will be Cicada, who’s been teased as “mysterious” and “intimidating” and possesses the ability to suppress other metahumans’ powers. In fact, Grant Gustin has said that, out of all the previous major villains, Cicada most resembles Zoom. Color us excited.
Be sure to catch The Flash season 5 when it kicks off on The CW on Tuesday, October 9th.
