Our John Wesley Shipp Flash Exclusive Confirmed
Our exclusive report that John Wesley Shipp is returning to The Flash for season 9 has been confirmed.
One month ago we here at Giant Freakin Robot provided the exclusive report that John Wesley Shipp, star of the 90’s The Flash show and Jay Garrick (among others) in The CW’s The Flash. Today TV Line has confirmed our report, adding that fellow season 2 speedster Teddy Sears will be back as Hunter Zolomon aka Zoom. This is our third confirmed exclusive in the last week and also the first one that fans get to experience this year.
The Flash starring Grant Gustin as Barry Allen was the second show set in the Arrowverse, spinning out of the success of Stephen Amell’s Arrow during the show’s second season. An immediate hit that far surpassed John Wesley Shipp’s original The Flash, The CW’s updated and more comics-accurate take (sort of, it was compared to the original series at least) became the new center of the Arrowverse in its final seasons. Now starting its ninth, and last, season the team behind the show is bringing back every character still alive, and even a few that are long dead.
A previously confirmed report of ours revealed that Stephen Amell is coming back, The Legends of Tomorrow are returning, and Reverse-Flash will be a large part of the season’s final plot. Among all of the returning faces it can be hard to stand out but John Wesley Shipp took the mostly unknown character of Jay Garrick (the original Flash in the comics) and made him a hit. Not many actors can make the character’s trademark silver hat into a dramatic prop, but the veteran actor managed to do just that.
Further characters coming back alongside John Wesley Shipp for The Flash season 9 include Bloodwork, Arrow’s John Diggle (hopefully finally becoming his universe’s Green Lantern in the process), and Kid Flash. Played by Keiynan Lonsdale, Kid Flash in the Arrowverse was a controversial character at the time thanks to DC’s New 52 line of comics rebooting almost all of the universe. Originally Wally West was the original Kid Flash and then the 90’s Flash after Barry gave his life during the original Crisis, but the New 52 continuity changed the character’s race, family, and origin.
Just as John Wesley Shipp made audiences care about Jay Garrick, Lonsdale took the character of Wallace West and made it his own, ending his run as a fan favorite. Some times actor’s portray characters in such a way that the comics adjust to the on-screen portrayal, it happened with Ray Park’s Toad in the first X-Men film, and it happened again during Lonsdale’s time on The Flash.
Before John Wesley Shipp and others make their grand returns, the cast of The Flash was already an enormous ensemble, including series regulars Iris West (Candice Patton), Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett), Joe West (Jesse Martin), and Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy). The last three are returning in season 9 after having either left the show previously or been briefly written off and brought back thanks to Barry’s frequent time-travel storylines.
John Wesley Shipp has yet to appear in season 9 of The Flash, which is focusing on the Red Death and the Rogues so far, but there’s only 10 episodes left so it could be any week now. The Flash airs on The CW Wednesdays at 8:00 PM Eastern.
