Each season of The Flash has seen a new version of Harrison Wells played by Tom Cavanagh, but season 4 promises to dig a little deeper into the mind of Earth 2’s Harrison Wells from season 2.
Having spent most of his time finding ways to protect his daughter from the evil Zoom, Wells didn’t build relationships or a life for himself. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg explained:
He’s a genius, and his daughter is safe, and she’s The Flash on Earth-3, and he’s one of those people who’s realizing that he doesn’t have a life. So Season 4 for Harry is really realizing what he’s missing in his life and what it is he needs to become a better, more complete person, and so he’s going to be going on a fairly epic emotional journey this season that is tied to The Thinker’s plan.
We don’t know much of what The Thinker’s arc will be, but considering the character, whose real name is Clifford DeVoe, is an evil genius, it’s obvious the writing team wanted to go a different route then another speedster.
Season 4 picks up 6 months after the defeat of Savitar and of Barry entering the speed force. Wally West is filling the void left by Barry in Team Flash. But according to producer Todd Helbring The Thinker’s methods are different than the past villains.
We always want to try to top ourselves whenever we can. But you know we’ve had three speedsters in a row, so we wanted to do something a little different, so this year it’s The Thinker, and it’s ‘The Fastest Man Alive’ versus ‘The Fastest Mind Alive’.
Considering The Thinker is a genius and Harrison Wells is a genius, this season’s brain vs. brawn theme might actually come down to Wells vs. DeVoe more than The Flash vs. The Thinker.
The Flash returns to The CW on Tuesday, October 10 at 8 p.m. ET.
