Flash Pilot Adds Broadway's Carlos Valdes

Like Arrow, we expect that the upcoming Flash spin-off will be filled with all kinds of different characters from the DC Comics universe, and today we've learned that the pilot has added yet another name to that list. Right on the footsteps of the news that Candice Patton has joined the show as Iris West, Variety is now reporting that Broadway’s Carlos Valdes has signed on to play Cisco Ramon - best known to comic book fans as Vibe.

The character, created by Gerry Conway and Chuck Patton back in 1984, was the leader of a street gang in Detroit for most of his youth who decided to turn his life around and become a superhero. He has the ability to generate and emit powerful shockwaves from his hands that are so powerful that they can shatter steel. At this time it's unclear how the character's origin story will be portrayed in the new televisions series.

Valdes is likely unfamiliar to those who only watch film and television, but he has becoming a growing name on the stage in Broadway. He currently stars as Andrej in Once, but his previous credits also include the touring version of Jersey Boys. We can imagine that he probably has an excellent singing voice, but that probably won't factor in too much while playing Vibe.

With shooting scheduled to start in the next few months, Flash has been slowly putting together its cast. Set to play the series lead is Grant Gustin, who actually played Barry Allen in a few episodes of Arrow leading up to the spin-off. Jesse L. Martin of Law and Order and Rent fame is attached to play Detective West, Barry's surrogate father, while Rick Cosnett and Danielle Panabaker are set to play the villains known as Professor Zoom and Killer Frost, respectively. Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg of Arrow are writing the pilot alongside DC's Geoff Johns, while David Nutter is attached to direct.

To get yourself caught up on exactly what's going on with Barry at the start of the Flash pilot I would recommend checking out the video below, but be warned that it's kind of an Arrow spoiler (although not for those who are already familiar with the Barry Allen backstory.

Are you excited for Flash? What other characters else would you like to see become regulars, and who would you like to see play them? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Eric Eisenberg
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.