Another season of The Flash, another new superhero added into the mix.
The upcoming fourth run of The CW’s hit DC series will introduce Ralph Dibny AKA Elongated Man, as played by The Young and the Restless star Hartley Sawyer. In the comics, Ralph and Barry Allen have a long-lasting friendship and crime-fighting partnership. But it turns out the TV show will take their relationship in a much different direction.
Exec producer Andrew Kreisberg teased to TV Insider that the Flash and Elongated Man will butt heads in the new season due to their clashing personalities and their conflicting views on what it means to be a hero.
“There’s going to be a lot of conflict between them in terms of how to be a good guy. Ralph is hitting on everybody all the time. He’s brash and loud and doesn’t listen.”
Though this might break with tradition, it makes sense that the writers would decide to portray the character this way, as it mirrors the personality clashes Barry has had with new team members in the past. Think back to how he and Wally West didn’t get along in season 2, or how Julian Albert rubbed him up the wrong way initially in season 3.
Kreisberg then went on to tease another new facet that The Flash will bring to the character. Apparently, Ralph will hide the secret of how he gained his powers of malleability from the rest of Team Flash, which will create “one of the biggest mysteries of the season.”
In the comics, Elongated Man got his abilities after drinking a special kind of soda (no, really), so it’s no surprise that the TV show will devise a more dramatic origin story for him. The obvious explanation would be that he’s another victim of the Particle Accelerator explosion, but it doesn’t look to be that simple. Just please don’t make him another surprise villain posing as a friend.
The Flash returns to The CW on Tuesday, October 10th.
