Tom Cavanagh has found a niche for himself in Hollywood over the last few years, regularly starring in multi-episode arcs of various TV shows, but with his addition to the cast of Flash he's hoping to once again achieve the status of "series regular." The Wrap reports that the Ed star has become the latest actor to sign on for the Arrow spin-off pilot, set to play a very important figure in the title character's life.
Arrow and DC Comics fans will remember that the Scarlet Speedster was created due to an accidental explosion at Central City’s S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator. Well, Cavanagh will be playing Harrison Wells, the "man and money" behind the decimated facility. The Wrap says that the character becomes an outcast following the devastating explosion of his business, but "redeems himself when he discovers that his failed experiment accidentally created the world’s fastest man."
Grant Gustin, who first played Flash's alter-ego Barry Allen on two episodes of Arrow, will be the pilot's star, while the supporting cast includes Jesse L. Martin, Rick Cosnett, Danielle Panabaker, Iris West and and Carlos Valdes. Production is scheduled to start up soon and if everything goes according to plan we will hopefully start seeing the Flash show air on the CW next fall. Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and David Nutter are all working as executive producing and with Berlanti and Kreisberg are writing the script with DC Comics' Geoff Johns.
While Cavanagh started acting all the way back in 1991, he didn't get his big break until 2000 when he landed the title role on the series Ed. The show, which had the actor starring as a big city lawyer who returns to his Midwest hometown to woo his high school sweetheart and buy a bowling alley, was cancelled after four seasons due to low ratings. His next big TV gig was starring on the eight-episode-long show Love Monkey, which he followed by the almost-as-short Trust Me. He also had recurring roles on Scrubs, Eli Stone, and Royal Pains. He most recently appeared in an episode of the series Blue Bloods. Those of you unfamiliar with Cavanagh can watch a sampling of his work below:
At this stage in the game we're not exactly sure what ground is going to be covered in the Flash pilot, but I'm willing to bet that it begins in a hospital bed. After all, it's going to take the eponymous hero a little while to recover from this:
Where it goes from there I don't know, but I'm excited.
