The Flash: Major Villain Confirmed to Return in Series Finale

There have been a lot of familiar faces in the final season of The CW’s The Flash and it looks like there will be one more before the Scarlet Speedster ends his final run. On Monday, EW confirmed that Tom Cavanagh will return as Eobard Thawne/Reverse-Flash one last time for the series finale on May 24th, “A New World, Part Four.” According to EW, Cavanagh will return as his original, Season 1 villain, as confirmed by showrunner Eric Wallace.

“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.”

Earlier this year, Wallace teased such a major return to ComicBook.com as well, saying that the return would have a major impact in Barry’s story dealing with the past.

“I will say, in the series finale, the person who comes back, and it’s not just the actor and the performer themselves, it’s why they have come back,” Wallace told ComicBook.com. “It’s the. most exciting thing in the world for me, because it impacts Barry’s story about dealing with the past in such a big, big way. So, that’s a spoiler there. But I will say this: there is somebody who has. not been announced yet who will be a surprise, or maybe we’ll announce it, I don’t know, but there’s a character I’ve been waiting to come back to this show since day one I got on it, and I think we’re going to be able to pull it off, so fingers crossed, in the series finale.”

As for how Cavanagh’s Thawne will return, that could be interesting to see play out. The last time fans saw Cavanagh as Thawne was at the end of Season 8 when the villain became the avatar of the Negative Forces and was seemingly killed by the massive power. However, as we saw in last week’s first part of the four-part finale, there’s been a little bit of time travel going on courtesy of the Negative Speed Force, something that could facilitate the villain’s return. You can check out the synopsis for this week’s second part of the finale, “A New World, Part Two” below.

BELIEVE IN THE IMPOSSIBLE; KAYLA COMPTON DIRECTS – Iris (Candice Patton) is alarmed by Barry’s (Grant Gustin) disappearance and Cecile (Danielle Nicolet) assures her everything will be ok, but does she know that for certain? Team Flash is affected by a mysterious substance and Khione (Danielle Panabaker) develops a better understanding of what she can and cannot control. Kayla Compton directed the episode with story by Lauren Fields and teleplay by Kristen Kim. 

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW. “A New World, Part Two” airs May 10th. The series finale airs May 24th.