The Flash has been pretty great at bucking fan expectations over the years, particularly when it comes to its revolving door of villains. Season 5 introduced a major comic book baddie in the form of Godspeed, with Jurassic World's BD Wong supplying the voice. That said, it wasn't exactly the version that fans were hoping for, and Season 6's string of imposters didn't exactly right that wrong. So what about the future?
Earth-1 is a different place in the aftermath of the cameo-heavy "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover, though it obviously didn't eradicate all the meta-villains from Central City or anywhere else in the world. So The Flash fans have ample ground to stand on in hoping for Godspeed to return as a more canon-centric iteration. It apparently isn't happening just yet, but BD Wong spoke with CinemaBlend at this year's Television Critics Association winter press tour, telling me he is definitely down to return to vocally reprise the white-suited baddie. In his words:
I haven't talked about it. It's a very...these things come up at the very last minute sometimes, so I wouldn't be surprised if something came up, yeah. I don't know what their plans are for that. They didn't really say what was gonna happen. Yeah, sure, [I'd come back]. The fans really were into it. I didn't have as much of an understanding of what it was when I did it as I do now, and from the fans, I got an understanding that it was important, and that they were into it.
As it happens, BD Wong wasn't a Godspeed superfan/historian whenever he got the call from The Flash to take on the voice role. Of course, it doesn't take very long to realize just how beloved the villain is, considering he's become one of The Flash's most celebrated foes despite only being introduced to the comic book world in 2016. (by Joshua Williamson and Carmine Di Giandomenico). And it sounds like Arrow-verse fans were good about welcoming BD Wong into the Team Flash family, even if his particular iteration of August Heart's Godspeed was disappointingly short-lived (so far, anyway).
In Season 5, the episode "Godspeed" set up the deadly villain's story so that he first adopted the persona in 2049, when Nora West-Allen was on the rise as a speedster hero. August Heart was a Mercury Labs employee who duplicated Zoom's Velocity-9 formula and had plans on making the change permanent, though he was eventually defeated by the Reverse-Flash-influenced Nora. BD Wong supplied the intimidating voice work, while Kindall Charters did the physical acting.
Since the end of Season 5 eliminated Nora from the timeline, she wasn't around to stop that timeline's Godspeed, which likely played into the character's quasi-return in Season 6. It was revealed early on that a series of faux Godspeeds wreaked havoc in Central City, and that the humans inside those suits were incapable of proper communication and only emitted electronic-esque noises. Obviously not the kind of voice work one would seek out from BD Wong.
The onset of fake Godspeeds was a weird plot twist of sorts, and one that still hasn't been properly explained. Understandably, The Flash had to set up its placement within the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover, in which Barry's future fate was a major talking point. As such, there wasn't the most wide-open window in order to redevelop Godspeed's storyline. But now that the multiverse has gone through some thangs, perhaps it's time for showrunner Eric Wallace & Co. to bring the fan-favorite speedster back for more mayhem.
If BD Wong is down to return to The Flash, then that should be all anyone needs to know in order to set the wheels in motion to make it happen. There's no way The Flash can end its run in the future without featuring Godspeed as more of a season-long villain, right?
BD Wong will thankfully show up on the small screen much sooner than any potential returns as Godspeed. He was on hand at the TCA winter press tour to promote his upcoming Comedy Central series Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, starring the titular entertainment wunderkind and Jumanji: The Next Level star Awkwafina. In the show, Wong plays Nora's father, who welcomes his twenty-something daughter to remain living at home in a weed-smoke haze, all while his own mother (Lori Tan Chinn) also lives there.
Fans will be waiting a while until BD Wong reprises his role of the quasi-villainous Dr. Wu for Jurassic World's third film, with the Colin Treverrow-directed sequel hitting theaters at some point in 2021. Meanwhile, Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens will debut on Comedy Central on Wednesday, January 22, at 10:30 p.m. ET.
