The Flash Showrunner Clarifies SPOILERS Departure in “Marathon”

Tonight’s episode of The Flash kicked off the back half of The CW series’ sixth season in a major way. Not only did it reveal the extent of how “Crisis on Infinite Earths” and the creation of Earth-Prime changed reality as the heroes know it, but it also saw a status quo shift for one of the series’ main characters. However, When said character departed in tonight’s “Marathon”, some wondered if that was a permanent situation. As it turns out, that’s not the case, at least according to series showrunner Eric Wallace.

Spoilers for “Marathon” below.

In the episode after struggling to deal with all of the changes brought by “Crisis on Infinite Earths” – including a whole remix mess of villains that includes new ones, old ones with new powers, and old powers with new faces. With all of these new threats and changes being problematic for the safety of the world, Cisco ends up departing to go out and catalog these differences and changes. He asks Nash Wells to take care of things in his absence. It seemed, in the moment like it might be a permanent goodbye for Cisco, but you may not want to start missing him just yet.

In an interview with TV Line, Wallace clarifies that Cisco isn’t leaving the show and neither is the actor who portrays him, Carlos Valdes. Cisco may be stepping away from STAR Labs for a bit, but he will be back in a big way in the near future.

“Oh no. No. [Cisco and Carlos] are not going anywhere,” Wallace said. “Cisco’s off on his journey to catalog the world, but he’ll be back very quickly And the information he learns out there in the world is going to help us solve one of the biggest things Team Flash has ever dealt with, and that involves the return of an old villain, which I won’t spoil.”

This should come as a relief to fans who have wondered about whether Valdes would continue to be on The Flash this season. It was rumored that Valdes was going to leave the show after Season 5, but that did not happen leaving fans wondering about the actor – and character’s – status. But when it comes to the villain situation, that’s one that is going to be very interesting.

“The past villains that we saw in previous seasons, they’re not the same villains anymore. They are different people. They might even have different abilities, which Team Flash is going to get caught unprepared,” Wallace said in a separate interview. “It gives a freshness to it and even more danger to what would be a meta-of-the-week kind of story line. It becomes even more treacherous if you don’t know what the meta is, because that meta is a little bit more unpredictable.” Without revealing who we’ll see in addition to Amunet, he adds: “We’re going to dig deep. You’re definitely going to get villains we have not seen in a long time popping up.”

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.