Former Flash John Wesley Shipp to Play The Flash’s Dad

John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen/The Flash in the 1990s iteration of the TV series, will play Henry Allen, Barry’s father, in the forthcoming CW Television adaptation of the DC Comics property.While no official announcement has yet been made, and the showrunners have labored to keep the exact nature of Shipp’s role in the pilot a secret, the veteran character actor can be seen pretty clearly in the five-minute extended trailer for The Flash, both in Barry’s family photo and also standing next to Barry as Nora Allen — Henry’s wife and Barry’s mother — is killed.In the comics, Henry Allen was wrongfully convicted of the murder of his wife and, despite his son’s obsession with freeing him, died in prison before his name was cleared. He never lived to learn that his son would become The Flash. In Arrow, we know that he was wrongfully imprisoned for his wife’s death but there has not yet been any reference to Henry having died. It could be that it simply didn’t come up, or that Henry died during the nine months Barry was in a coma — or they could be leaving him alive in the series. Executive Producer Greg Berlanti tweeted that the show’s pickup meant that “we get to reunite regularly, John.”