The Flash sped into its hiatus following a game-changing Season 5 finale that saw the departure of several characters, although some more heartbreakingly than others. Cisco's (and actor Carlos Valdes') future on the show was somewhat ambiguous. Unlike Nora, he wasn't killed off, and unlike Sherloque, he didn't have a parallel Earth to call him home. He just had the chance for a normal life with a young woman outside of STAR Labs. Now, details about a new Season 6 character raise the question: is Cisco leaving?
For Season 6, The Flash is looking to cast a new scientist, and some of his skills sound like they would compensate for the hole in the team left if Cisco does indeed depart. TVLine reports The Flash is looking for an African-American actor to play a "socially awkward" genius in both science and math.
He's also "a bit obsessed" with aliens and alien technology. It's not clear at this point if he'll have the engineering skills of Cisco Ramon, but a genius-level intellect in math and science combined with interest in alien tech could make him as good a replacement as possible.
Of course, the addition of a new scientist doesn't 100% mean that one of the existing scientists has to leave, as both Tom Cavanagh and Tom Felton played scientist characters who joined Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry in the past rather than replacing them. Still, would The Flash add somebody whose skills seem to overlap so significantly with Cisco's if both were to remain on board?
Cisco and Caitlin will both meet this new scientist, so Cisco will apparently be on board for at least part of Season 6. Will he be a recurring character? Or will he drop in and out to give his blessing on the future of Team Flash, similarly to what Wally West did before Keiynan Lonsdale left the Arrow-verse?
At least the end of the Season 5 finale apparently proved that The Flash isn't interested in killing Cisco off, and that he will meet this new scientist indicates that Cisco Ramon won't go the way of Winn Schott on Supergirl and never return despite the door seeming wide open.
Not much is known about the Season 6 big bad at this point, although rumor has it that The Flash is looking for a "diverse" man to play the part. The Season 5 finale had so much going on that there wasn't really time to introduce the new baddie, and that he evidently hadn't yet been cast makes it all the more obvious that the end of Season 5 wasn't the right time to introduce him.
The Season 5 did after all have to drop a key detail about the upcoming "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover on top of everything else.
In fact, all of the Arrow-verse shows ended with a nod to the "Crisis" crossover, with Arrow kinda sorta revealing Oliver Queen's fate. Legends of Tomorrow really only had the Monitor show up to observe the Legends in action, so it should be interesting to see how he interacts with them next season. After all, they weren't part of the "Elseworlds" crossover with the Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl casts. We'll just have to wait and see if the Flash cast continues to include Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon.
The Flash will return to The CW in the fall for the 2019-2020 TV season, and it will become the longest-running Arrow-verse series still on the air following the end of Arrow. For some viewing options while we wait for the heroes of the Arrow-verse to return (including Batwoman), swing by our summer TV premiere schedule.
