Mark Hamill Shares Throwback Photos of Original ‘Flash’ TV Star and Trickster

Earlier this week fans of The CW’s Arrowverse were treated with the surprise that John Wesley Shipp will reprise his role as The Flash complete with his original 1990s costume for the upcoming “Elseworlds” crossover. Now, thanks to the Trickster himself Mark Hamill, fans are getting sweet throwback photos as well.

In a post to his Twitter account on Saturday, Hamill — who played the villain Trickster on 1990’s The Flash television series — shared a series of photos from the set of the one-season series, noting how Shipp was a “real-life” hero for taking the time to pose as The Flash with Hamill’s kids despite being almost out of costume. Check it out below.

“He was halfway back into his street clothes,” Hamill wrote. “He could have been on his way home! Instead, @JohnWesleyShipp took the time to pose with my kids & be a real-life hero. Not just a wonderful actor, a wonderful person & such a mensch! (+Bonus pics of Trickterette Chelsea).”

The photo with Shipp features the actor wearing the upper portion of the iconic red super suit paired with blue jeans as he poses with the kids and while it’s certainly a sweet moment, it also shows just how strikingly similar Shipp looks, some 18 years later, all suited up for “Elseworlds.” A photo shared by Arrow star Stephen Amell earlier this week shows this off particularly well — and highlights the actor’s continued kindness.

“Who said you should never meet your heroes?” Amell captioned the all-smiles photo.

Shipp first played Barry Allen/The Flash on TV for a single season beginning in 1990. Years later, he returned to The Flash when the show was revived on The CW. This time around, he played Henry Allen, Barry’s father. After Henry’s death at the hands of Zoom, it was revealed that Henry’s Earth-3 doppelganger was in fact Jay Garrick, the “Golden Age” Flash from the comics, giving Shipp another chance to ride the lightning.

Fans haven’t seen much of Garrick in recent seasons and it’s unknown if Shipp is playing a version of Garrick, a version of Barry Allen, or something else entirely in “Elseworlds”. What is certain, though, is that Shipp donning his classic 1990s Flash costume pays off on a tease from The Flash’s first season. In that season, Barry Allen’s first trip into the timestream gave him glimpses of the past, future, and alternate Earths — glimpses that included one where Shipp’s Barry was rocking the classic suit.

Whatever the explanation for Shipp’s Flash suit, it’s sure to be interesting.

“The crossover is f—ing bananas,” Amell explained during a recent Facebook Live. “It’s crazy… I think that this will be the best crossover event that we do. And not just the best but the best by a really, really wide margin. And I think that last year was fantastic.”

The three-night “Elseworlds” event will begin with Supergirl on Sunday, December 9th, before carrying over to December 10th’s Arrow and December 11’s The Flash.