John Wesley Shipp Says The Flash Midseason Finale Has a "Variation On a Theme" Of A 1991 Trickster Episode

When John Wesley Shipp's The Flash and Mark Hamill's The Trickster face off tonight on The Flash, it won't be the first time they've done so...but it will be the first time in decades.

Neither of the two, of course, have ever totally left the DC Universe behind, with convention appearances, animated roles and more keeping them tethered to the cult-favorite show that ran for one year and saw the two of them spar often and memorably.

It won't just be fans who recognize similarities between a sequence from tonight's episode and the 1991 episode "The Trial of the Trickster," which was half of the direct-to-VHS movie The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster.

"It's wild. When he came back and I was Henry Allen, they kidnapped me and took me out of Iron Heights -- that was a completely different thing, and we got to remark then about how extraordinary it was to come back to a project 24 years later and hand it off to the next generation," Shipp told ComicBook.com of working with the Star Wars and Batman: The Animated Series star. "Now that [Grant Gustin and I are] on set Flash-ing together and Mark's up to his old tricks and I'm in an action sequence that's very reminiscent of something that we did in 'Trial of the Trickster' -- sort of a variation on a theme -- it's a little mind-bending. I shake my head and go 'how did this happen?' It's nothing I would have predicted when I swore I would never get into another superhero suit at the end of that very hard season back in 1991."

Shipp has always been open about his experiences on the original The Flash TV series: while he loved the character and the people he worked with, the suit itself -- an early attempt at a high-quality/non-tights superhero costume for TV -- was stiff, hot, and retained moisture and odor. He's told stories of working in freezing temperatures with no functional way to remove the suit or to warm up, and of watching wardrobe people wring sweat out of used suits by the bucket.

Of course, this time around, he's playing Jay Garrick, who has always had a little less of a superheroic look and more that of a soldier with a color scheme. Jay's Flash uniform seems to be a lot easier to work with this time around.

Hamill first reprised his role as James Jesse, the gimmick-using crook known as the Trickster, in the show's first season, and his appearance in the holiday-themed midseason finales has now become a staple on the series.

The Flash airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. The midseason finale, titled "The Present," will air tonight.