The Flash Will Introduce a “New Wally West” in Season 6

The Flash has quite a lot of intriguing questions to answer in the rest of its sixth season, including exactly how Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) will be making his triumphant return. We do know that Wally will be making his post-“Crisis on Infinite Earths” debut in an episode titled “Death of the Speed Force”, which certainly sounds ominous in terms of the show’s mythology. But even then, Wally’s return will have some major positives, according to new comments from showrunner Eric Wallace.

“It’s going to be quite exciting,” Wallace told TVLine of Wally’s return. “When I first talked to Keiynan about it, he was very excited about what he called this ‘fresh take’ on Wally. And once on-set, he was loving ‘the New Wally West’ — and that’s not an exaggeration at all. It’s the same character that we know and love, but he has grown, deepened and changed. And he might even have some new abilities.”

When The Flash fans last saw Wally, he was essentially dipping in and out of the series, appearing in a handful of episodes in Season 5. Prior to that, he briefly left Central City to join the cast of Legends of Tomorrow, and even that was a stint that fans thought was too short-lived.

“I’m not coming back full-time, but I’ll still be like in the DC universe, just not like, I won’t be filming ten months of the year every year,” Lonsdale said in a 2018 interview. “It got announced and then I was like, I’ve got to make sure that people know it was my decision so that no one got too angry. I hope that everyone’s not too sad about missing Wally.”

It definitely will be interesting to see how Wally fits into the tapestry of a post-“Crisis” Arrowverse, especially considering the minor tweaks in canon that are expected to come with it.

“One would think the true fallout of ‘Crisis’ is the death of Oliver Queen and not having your mentor — you know, Obi-Wan is gone, Luke must rise up, become a hero — and that happens, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not the real fallout of ‘Crisis,’” Wallace said in another interview. “The real fallout of ‘Crisis’ has yet to be seen. That is the heart of our story, and that is the heart of what is going to lead Barry on a very emotional journey that he is not prepared for. That’s one of the things having Keiynan back as Kid Flash does for us: [It] directly addresses — because Keiynan will be in one of our episodes in ‘Graphic Novel #2’ — [and] is to help Barry deal with the real fallout of ‘Crisis.’”

Are you excited to see Wally West return on The Flash Season 6? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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