The Flash’s Chris Klein Teases That Cicada Might Not Even Be Human

The Flash season 5 is seeing Barry Allen come up against one of his most dangerous foes yet in the form of Cicada. We finally learned some more about Orlin Dwyer in yesterday’s episode, “News Flash,” but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the man who wants to wipe out every metahuman from Central City. And actor Chris Klein is teasing that there’s much more to the villain that meets the eye.

Cicada’s main shtick is his lightning dagger that allows him to dampen a metahuman’s abilities. However, one curious scene in episode 3 saw him with a glowing scar. At the time, we believed this could have been part of his powers as a metahuman himself, but “News Flash” revealed that this wasn’t the case. So, what was going on with that injury? Well, Klein’s hinted that it could be because Cicada is something other than human.

“That dagger can do a lot more than just dampen metahuman powers. And another thing that you’re going to want to keep your eye on — it’s not just the dagger. That doctor in the hospital wanted to take a look at a scar on his chest…. Is he a human? Because if he’s a human, why was that thing glowing? What is that about? Now we know there’s something going on inside of him, and that’s going to play a big part in how difficult he is to capture.”

In the comics, Cicada’s an immortal metahuman with delusions of godhood, so it’s possible Klein’s version will also find himself gifted with invulnerability. Maybe that’s what the actor means by calling Orlin inhuman. The Flash has served up a very different take on the character so far though so there’s no real way of telling at this stage. As season 5’s made clear, Cicada’s usually David Hersch but due to the disruptions in the timeline, this Orlin Dwyer has become the villain instead.

Though we have a lot of questions right now, Klein’s promised that the mysteries will be cleared up in time as an origins episode for Cicada is coming “a few weeks down the line.”

“There is going to be an origin episode, a few weeks down the line. But we are going to learn little tidbits moving forward. In [last week’s episode], we got a lot of clues.”

Be sure to catch The Flash season 5 every Tuesday on The CW as the enigma of Cicada unravels.