If The Flash had gone to college, it obviously wouldn't have missed the class Introduction to Villainy. With Season 3 still a short ways away, Flash news has been dropping left and right, and a lot of it has centered on the variety of threats that Barry will face both during and after his Flashpoint excursion. One newly arriving threat will be played by Vampire Diaries actor Todd Lasance, who has been confirmed to be portraying the comic speedster The Rival Flash for the third season.
Some weeks back, Todd Lasance was seen causing some havoc through set photos from The Flash production, and at the time, it wasn't entirely clear which character he was meant to be playing. Normally, a costume helps in that sense, but Flash's mythos has a surprising amount of characters in black suits with a bolt of lightning on the front. Black Flash was ruled out, since Teddy Sears wasn't involved, and some fans thought that perhaps Black Racer was the answer. But it's The Rival, whose real name is Dr. Edward Clariss.
According to TVLine, Todd Lasance signed on for a recurring role with The Rival, and he is set to show up in the season premiere. And that "recurring" part probably means he won't outlast Flashpoint, but stranger things have happened. Among the thousands of theories floating around the Internet during Season 2 of The Flash were some that had The Rival as another Earth's version of Zoom or another version of Harrison Wells, so I can't wait to see if either of those instances gets incorporated into the alternate timeline Barry set up by saving his mom.
One of Flash's older fast-footed antagonists, The Rival Flash zipped into existence in 1949 as university professor Edward Clariss, who attempts to recreate Jay Garrick's speed with the formula Velocity 9 (which should sound familiar to everyone). Clariss doesn't react well to his failures, and he uses his short-term formula to begin his criminal path as The Rival, and eventually got lost in the Speed Force before reappearing a couple more times to do some pretty dark deeds. It's unclear how close to the comics the show will stick with The Rival, but I expect them to play around with it accordingly.
Earlier today, reports were going around that Todd Lasance would be playing that other speedster villain, the big bad Savitar. But DC TV ringleader Greg Berlanti jumped on Twitter to address those concerns, and instead of playing coy, he straight up said that Savitar hasn't been cast yet. So I guess that means we shouldn't expect to see him for the first chunk of the season.
Australian actor Todd Lasance got his big break in the soap opera Home and Away, which he starred in for several years, along with other projects like Rescue:Special Ops, Cloudstreet and Crownies. American audiences will know him best as the sporadically seen Julius Caesar from Spartacus: War of the Damned and as the Tyler-possessing Traveler Julian in Season 7 of The Vampire Diaries.
The Flash and his merry band of speed demons will return to The CW for Season 3 on Tuesday, October 4, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Everything we know about it can be found in our Season 3 guide. To see when everything else is heading to your televisions later this year, check out our fall premiere schedule.
