The Flash Star Tom Cavanagh Opens Up About Playing So Many Versions of Harrison Wells

One of the hallmarks of The CW’s Arrowverse is that everything regularly changes and that’s especially true on The Flash. Over the seasons the DC TV series has seen Barry Allen break and then attempt to fix the timeline multiple times, take on a number of villains each with their own ideas of how the universe should work, and even saw a visitor from the future in Nora West-Allen. But for all of the shifts and changes one thing has remained consistent and that’s the numerous versions of Harrison Wells. Six seasons in, fans have seen at least a dozen versions of Wells and while some are more prominent than others, fans have come to look forward to what new versions may pop up season to season. Now, the man behind all those versions of Wells, Tom Cavanagh, is opening up about all those different versions of the fan-favorite character.

In a recent appearance on Michael Rosenbaum‘s Inside of You podcast, Cavanagh explained a bit about how the idea of multiple Harrison Wellses came to be after the Season 1 reveal that he was also the Reverse-Flash.

“I thought like well, that’s it because you can’t have him every four episodes going like ‘you’ll never get me Flash!’ I just can’t do that, you can’t repeat that, you have to, like good storytelling is you want to invent some new stuff and so I thought well that’s it for me,” Cavanagh said. “But then Greg [Berlanti] and I had this idea of like what if because there’s a multiverse, there’s many versions of [Harrison Wells] we thought well what if we could create a different guy every season and still be the Reverse Flash when we need.”

It’s a decision that has led to a whole world of versions of Harrison Wells including the much-loved Earth-2 Harry Wells and the more divisive Earth-221 Sherloque Wells, but while fans have their favorite version of Harrison Wells, Cavanagh says he doesn’t. He enjoys them all, but at the end of the day it’s the Reverse-Flash that is his favorite.

“There’s HR Wells and he’s kind of like you know, if you know who Owen Wilson is, he’s kind of like that. He loves you man, you’re amazing, The Flash is so fast bro, so that guy’s great and then there’s Harry who hates everybody, anti-social, heart of gold, that’s funny,” Cavanagh said, supplying the voices for each Wells. “Sherloque, he’s great. Sunny, well, ‘ask me how I’m doing, I’m unbelievable.’ Herr Wells was also good, but kind of, you know he’s German, so there’s a whole bunch of them and there’s no favorite. The reason I’m there is the guy that wears the yellow suit so that’s my favorite thing to do, play the Reverse-Flash.”

As for what version fans may see next, however, for the moment that’s a fairly direct answer. Thanks to “Crisis on Infinite Earths” ending the Multiverse as we know it, the remaining Harrison Wells — Nash — is the only one tangibly left, though as the only surviving Wells he’s fused with all of the other counterparts, giving fans hope they may see more Wellses in the future.

Which version of Harrison Wells is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

The Flash is expected to return in January 2021.