The Flash: Tom Cavanagh Always Knew He'd Be Back for the Finale (Exclusive)

By Nicole Drum

Over the course of The Flash's final season, The CW series saw the return of several familiar faces, both from various seasons of the series itself and from across the Arrowverse writ large with appearances from Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, Javicia Leslie as Ryan Wilder, Andy Mientus as Hartley Rathaway, Keiynan Lonsdale as Wally West, and Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ramsey Rosso just to name a few. The series finale, unsurprisingly, also packed in several familiar faces including Tom Cavanagh. Cavanagh reprised his role as Reverse-Flash/Eobard Thawne one last time for The Flash series finale, but while the OG villain's return may have felt a little like a surprise for fans of the series given Thawne's fate at the end of Season 8, for Cavanagh, there was never a question that he'd be back for the final run.

Speaking with ComicBook.com's Nicole Drum, Cavanagh said that he always knew he'd be part of The Flash's series' finale because, as Cavanagh said, "Batman needs the Joker".

Well, it's funny, it sort of felt like season one. You hope for a nine-episode run. And so, we came in, Greg Berlanti's idea, and I'm him quoting saying to me, 'I like the show so much, I just want to have season one of Flash DVD on my desk,'" Cavanagh said. "I think the success of Arrow gave us some breathing room going in, but you don't know. But when we started filming the show and telling the story of season one, you don't know that the audience is going to come, you don't know that you're going to be canceled. And so that story that we told for season one was very T-A-U-T, taut storytelling, I thought. Very good writing. It was Flash versus Reverse-Flash, the audience knows who the villain is, but the show characters don't, and then it becomes unveiled and then we kill then we kill Cisco. And then Iris falls for Barry, and Barry falls for Iris, and then Flash versus Reverse-Flash and Flash prevails because it's called The Flash. And now we're invited back for season two. And so, then you're like, well, you can't do that again. You can't do Flash versus Reverse-Flash, so what will you do? But in those discussions, it became obvious that well Flash will have to end with Reverse-Flash in some fashion."

He continued, "And so I always knew that I'd be suiting up. And in a strange way, when I decided to leave the show when Carlos Valdes and I left the show in season six, I also knew that Batman needs the Joker. And so, in a strange way, even though I decided to leave, I knew that I would be brought back because Reverse-Flash just wants to blow up Central City and kill Barry now and again. So that's what happened here in Season 9, and so I understood that that would also happen in the series finale, of course."

The inevitability of the return of Reverse-Flash to challenge Barry one last time is something that series showrunner Eric Wallace spoke about when it was announced that Cavanagh would return as the OG villain.

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"This is Barry Allen's final race, so you can't tell that story without including his most infamous adversary: The Reverse-Flash," Wallace said. "And having brilliantly played the character since Season 1, bringing Tom back as our show concludes its run was always part of the plan. Tom's exciting portrayal of Eobard Thawne has been unforgettable for nine years and fans will be delighted to know that he's brought that same wonderful intensity to our finale, too."

What did you think about Cavanagh's return as Reverse-Flash? What did you think of The Flash series finale? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!

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