Is The Flash Finally Introducing Cobalt Blue?

By Nicole Drum

On Tuesday, it was announced original The Flash cast member Rick Cosnett's return for The CW series' eighth season will be a bit longer than originally expected. Series showrunner Eric Wallace revealed that Cosnett will be appearing in at least three episodes and that the appearance will bring an "exciting new side to his portrayal of Eddie Thawne". While Wallace's statement didn't give away any specific details about the appearance, one can't help but wonder if the long-running series is finally going to give fans something they've been clamoring for for years: the arrival of Cobalt Blue.

As most The Flash fans know, Eddie Thawne isn't a character that appears in DC Comics, but Malcolm Thawne does. Created by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn, Malcolm is Barry Allen's long-lost twin brother who was essentially stolen from Nora Allen who had actually given birth to twins when Barry was born but told one of them, Malcolm, was stillborn. The infant was instead given to the Thawne family and ultimately discovered the truth and was enraged that his brother had lived a better life than him. He ended up turning to magic for his powers, using a talisman as his means by which to get what he wanted—specifically revenge on Barry—and became the villain Cobalt Blue.

It sounds like such a far cry from the Eddie Thawne that we've seen on The Flash, but during the Season 1 finale, fans spotted a ring on a necklace Eddie was wearing when he died to stop Eobard Thawne, and many assumed it was a nod to Cobalt Blue's talisman. However, the show's never really picked up on that possible thread. But with Cosnett returning for a multiple episode arc in Season 8 and Wallace saying that the appearance will offer a new side to Eddie that "honors the character's past, but also takes it somewhere unexpected", it seems like the opportunity for Eddie to be Cobalt Blue is there—especially since we're dealing with a post-"Crisis on Infinite Earths" world.

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" made just enough changes to reality as we know it when Earth Prime was created that familiar characters can be very different. We've already seen some differences in previous villains and their histories so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to make a change to Eddie, or at a minimum use it as an avenue to explore this aspect of the character. Even if "Crisis" isn't utilized to make this change, we've already seen in previews for the show's return that something is off with the timeline, prompting Barry (Grant Gustin) and Iris' (Candice Patton) children from the future to go back to 2014 and the start of their father's journey as The Flash. Considering that Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) and Bart (Jordan Fisher) appeared in a 2014 photo of the Central City Police Department and Eddie Thawne worked at the CCPD in 2014, maybe Eddie's identity as Cobalt Blue and the threat he poses to Barry is exactly the reason Nora and Bart are there. After all, in the Season 7 finale, Bart did tell his children to keep the future safe.

Whatever plans The Flash has for Eddie Thawne, fans will have to wait a bit to find out what those plans are. The series is set to return for Season 8 in just over a month on Wednesday, March 9th on The CW.

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