Run, Wally, run — into the Waverider. With the departure of Firestorm, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow has room for another superhero, and the show has found a replacement: Kid Flash, played by Keiynan Lonsdale from The Flash.
In a Friday Entertainment Weekly story, the DC CW series formally announced the addition of Lonsdale’s Wally West/Kid Flash as series regular. Lonsdale previously appeared in a cameo in the third season premiere last fall. In a statement, executive producer Phil Klemmer said it was Lonsdale’s brief appearance gave the producers the idea to have him on full time.
“We loved working with Keiynan in our series premiere,” Klemmer said, “So when his character stepped away from Flash to go on walkabout, after being dumped and feeling somewhat estranged from his family and team, we knew that Wally West would fit in perfectly on Legends.”
Lonsdale first appeared as Wally West in Season 2 of The Flash and gained super speed to become the Flash’s sidekick, Kid Flash, in Season 3. This season, Wally began feeling out of place in his own home and went soul-searching outside of Central City. Wally briefly returned for the wedding of his sister Iris, which became the annual mega-crossover “Crisis on Earth-X.” But in spite of the demand for heroes, Wally was still benched from fighting the Nazi invaders.
With the departure of Victor Garber (“Professor Stein”) and Franz Drameh (“Jax”), both of whom made up the superhero duo “Firestorm,” there is now space for Wally West to finally come into his own. Klemmer says that Wally’s current arc of feeling like an outside makes him, ironically, a perfect fit for Legends of Tomorrow. “After all, our show is about a collection of unlikely heroes who all began their journeys questioning who they are and where they belong — only to find those answers while traveling through time and having wacky adventures,” he says.
Klemmer also teases some conflict when it comes to one other member of the Legends: Dominic Purcell’s Mick Rory/Heatwave. “By the end of this season, Wally will learn that the Legends have a different definition of what it means to be a hero.”
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to The CW February 12 at 8 p.m. Eastern.
