The Flash: CW Casts (Probably) Reverse Flash and Killer Frost

Deadline reports that The Vampire Diaries‘ Rick Gosnett and Danielle Panabaker of Piranha 3DD [...]

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Deadline reports that The Vampire Diaries' Rick Gosnett and Danielle Panabaker of Piranha 3DD fame have been cast in The CW's pilot for The Flash. The pair apparently play villains opposite heroes Grant Gustin (who plays Barry Allen, The Flash, reprising his role from Arrow) and Jesse L. Martin (appearing as Detective West, a father figure to Barry and the biological dad of Iris West, who in the comics is Barry's true love). The project, from Warner Bros TV and Berlanti Productions, is an origin story about Barry Allen aka The Flash (Gustin), a Central City assistant police forensics investigator who arrives in Starling to look into a series of unexplained robberies that may have a connection to the bizarre and seemingly extranormal death of Allen's mother years ago, for which his father is falsely imprisoned.

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Cosnett will play hotshot Detective Eddie Thawne, a recent transfer to the Central City Police Department whose past is a mystery and who harbors a dark secret. In the comics, Eobard Thawne is the Reverse Flash, a distant ancestor to Barry's biological twin brother Malcolm Thawne, raised by strangers after a mix-up at the hospital. The Thawne and Allen families are in opposition for years, with Malcolm Thawne himself operating as a villain called Cobalt Blue. Panabaker has been cast as Caitlin Snow, a highly intelligent bioengineering expert who lost her fiancé during an explosion at S.T.A.R. Labs (seen in Arrow and likely to be the source of many superhumans' powers, like the asteroid strike in Smallville). In the comics, Snow eventually becomes Killer Frost, a villain with ice-based powers. She has connections to H.I.V.E., an organization that's been referenced in Arrow, and is most closely associated with the hero Firestorm, whose stepmother in the comics was Felicity Smoak, a regular character on Arrow. The original plan was to film a backdoor pilot in an episode of Arrow but with the network high on the project and big ratings for Barry's Arrow appearances, the producers elected to film a regular pilot directed by David Nutter instead, presumably with an eye toward a quick series pickup like Arrow got.

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