The Flash Season 3: 8 New Villains You Need To Know About
New season, new evil speedsters.
As comic book TV series go, The Flash enjoys a great advantage over many of its competitors: one of the best rogues galleries in comics history.
Distinct and varied, it's led to a lot of fun, challenging, and memorable villains on The CW show, and the strength of any given season lies - in part - with that of the villain(s).
Going down the villain-of-the-week route, it can deliver compelling standalone episodes that really test the main character and give a great example of just how good the show can be (e.g. Grodd), or make an episode feel like a complete waste of time (e.g. Geomancer).
For the Big Bad it's even more important to get right: Reverse-Flash gave the show high stakes, a personal battle, and a satisfying conclusion; Zoom became less interesting the more we got to know about him, going from a mysterious and menacing speedster to a slightly confusing character with unconvincing motivations, and it's no coincidence that Season 1 was, on the whole, better than Season 2.
Looking ahead to Season 3, then, The Flash needs to raise its game, both in terms of Big Bads and villains-of-the-week. There'll be some returning faces, such as Eobard Thawne, and Grodd (with a couple of episodes exploring Gorilla City!), and they'll be joined by these new faces (or masks).
8. The Rival
Making the jump from one CW series to another, Todd Lasance is joining The Flash after previously appearing on The Vampire Diaries (as Julian), with the actor set to play Edward Clariss, aka The Rival.
Lasance has been cast in a recurring role for Season 3, starting in the premiere Flashpoint. He's the black-suited speedster that everyone was speculating about after set photos emerged, and is likely to tie into the mythos of the show: in the comics, Clariss is a professor at the university attended by Jay Garrick, and claims to have invented the speed-giving Velocity 9.
Although Velocity 9 has already been dealt with on the show, it's likely that The Rival will still be a self-made speedster here, and has been shown facing off with Kid Flash.