Over the last six seasons of The Flash, Tom Cavanagh has worn a lot of different hats. He began the series playing Harrison Wells, disguised as Eobard Thawne, a.k.a. Reverse-Flash. He then went on to play several more iterations of the original Harrison Wells, all of whom hailed from different earths. Having played so many Wellses and the villainous Thawne, Cavanagh revealed which of the many characters has been his favorite to portray on The Flash.
If three different versions of Wells wasn’t enough already, The Flash introduced the Council of Wells in Season 4, which was made up of a variety of different Wellses who occasionally offered advice to Team Flash. There was even Wells the Grey, a clear parody of Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Somehow, Tom Cavanagh has made them all feel distinct from each other, while maintaining the believability that they were all just different versions of the same character. Speaking with Smallville alum Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside of You podcast, The Flash actor revealed which of the characters was his favorite, and there was a very clear winner. Here’s what Cavanagh said:
There's HR Wells and he's kind of like, if you know who Owen Wilson is, he's kind of like that. He loves you man. ‘You're amazing, The Flash is so fast, bro.’ So that guy's great, and then there's Harry who hates everybody; anti-social, heart of gold. That's funny. Sherloque, he's great. 'Ask me how I'm doing, I'm unbelievable.' Herr Wells was also good, but kind of, you know, he's German, so there's a whole bunch of them and there's no favorite. The reason I'm there is the guy that wears the yellow suit so that's my favorite thing to do, play the Reverse-Flash.
Is anyone surprised that Tom Cavanagh’s favorite character to play is Reverse-Flash? I’m certainly not. The actor does some great work bringing the petty and villainous Thawne to life on the show. That said, of all of Cavanagh’s characters on the show, my personal preference is definitely Harry Wells of Earth-2. Who doesn’t love a good “anti-social, heart of gold” type of character, am I right?
Interestingly enough, Tom Cavanagh wasn’t the only actor to have played Reverse-Flash on the superhero series — Matt Letscher played Thawne in several episodes of The Flash and was also a primary villain in Season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow. However, Cavanagh has made a memorable mark as the character regardless of who else has played him.
Tom Cavanagh last played Reverse-Flash in the latter half of Season 6. Team Flash worked to exorcise Thawne from the mind of Harrison “Nash” Wells, the archaeologist version of the character who harbored the many versions of Wells following the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. Where Reverse-Flash is now or what he’s up to is anyone’s guess. Here’s hoping that Season 7 will provide some answers.
The Flash will return for Season 7 in January 2021. For more on what to watch in the meantime, be sure to check out our 2020 summer TV premiere guide.
