The Flash Will Challenge Its Award Winning Visual Effects Department in Season 4

07/03/2017 09:20 pm EDT

The Flash's visual effects department, who just took home a Leo Award for season 3, will apparently not be resting on their laurels in the coming season, as a new character is reportedly being introduced that will "put the visual effects department to the test."

That's according to TVLine, who also say the character is not someone who has previously been announced. Moreover, their exact phrasing -- "A role being cast for Season 4, that you have not heard about yet" -- likely indicates that it is not simply The Thinker, the season's rumored big bad.

In fact, after three seasons of visual effects-heavy big bads, it's entirely possible that The Thinker -- who originated as a regular guy with some wonderful toys -- could be more reminiscent of an Arrow villain, with relatively little in the way of visual effects on Clifford DeVoe himself.

Of course, the other half of that argument is that in the '90s, DeVoe died and was reborn as an AI construct, which could very well tax the VFX department with a TRON-style look that might be difficult to faithfully replicate onscreen without looking bad.

Assuming it is not in fact the AI version of DeVoe that TVLine is teasing, who it is...is really anybody's guess. There are far too many characters in the DC Universe -- or even in The Flash's own little corner of that universe -- who might fit the bill to make a solid guess on that one clue alone.

Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) lived a normal life as a perpetually tardy C.S.I. in the Central City Police Department. Barry's life changed forever when the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded, creating a dark-matter lightning storm that struck Barry, bestowing him with super-speed and making him the fastest man alive — The Flash. But when Barry used his extraordinary abilities to travel back in time and save his mother's life, he inadvertently created an alternate timeline known as Flashpoint; a phenomenon that gave birth to the villainous speed god known as Savitar, and changed the lives of Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and Wally West (Keiyan Lonsdale) forever.

With the help of his adoptive father, Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), his lifelong best friend and love interest Iris West (Candice Patton), and his friends at S.T.A.R. Labs — Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes), C.S.I Julian Albert (Tom Felton), and an Earth-19 novelist named H.R. Wells (Tom Cavanaugh) — Barry continues to protect the people of Central City from the meta-humans that threaten it.

Based on the characters from DC, THE FLASH is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti ("Arrow," "Supergirl"), Andrew Kreisberg ("Arrow," "The Flash"), Sarah Schechter ("Arrow," "DC's Legends of Tomorrow") and Todd Helbing ("Black Sails").

The Flash will return to TV on October 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

More The Flash news:

• The Flash Season 4 SDCC Panel Info Released
• Candice Patton Teases Surprising New Role For Season 4
• Kid Flash Won't Become The Flash in Season 4
• The Flash's Danielle Panabaker Is Now Married

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