Despite constantly bragging about being “the fastest man alive,” Barry Allen’s Flash finds himself outpaced and outmatched by speedster Big Bads quite often (every season so far), but executive producer Andrew Kreisberg has confirmed that Season 4 will not feature a speedster as the primary villain.
During a panel about the broader Arrowverse at PaleyFest, Kreisberg said the show was going to slow its roll with its villains, according to Entertainment Weekly “Next season we’re not going to have a speedster [as the villain],” he remarked. That means that after this season’s conflict with the speedster god Savitar wraps up, Season 4 might just follow a plotline that doesn’t involve anybody struggling to get faster.
Barry tried so hard to get faster than both Reverse-Flash and Zoom in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively, and a significant portion of Season 3 has focused on training Wally to be fast enough to save Iris from Savitar (whose identity we still don’t know). And don’t forget that time Trajectory was the “freak of the week” or the horribly dressed and cringeworthy-named Rival earlier this season. Speedsters are ubiquitous, and tactics for gaining speed involved complex mathematics, harnessing tachyons, super drugs, good ole fashioned training, and heartfelt trips into the Speed Force itself. But now there’ll be no need for any of those things.
Barry does math to get fast.
The Flash historically has many other villains in the comics, and though Season 4 might feature the return of Rogues like Captain Cold, Mirror Master, or the Weather Wizard — each of whom has been on the show previously — it remains to be seen how things will play out in the back-half of Season 3 to set up a season that is, for once, not about Speed. If nothing else, the news once again confirms that we’ll know the truth about Savitar before the finale, and he won’t be showing up again — at least, not as a speedster.
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.
