Tomorrow’s episode of The Flash sees Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor Mark Hamill reprising the role of James Jesse, a.k.a. The Trickster, who he originally played in the 1990 Flash series. James will be helping Barry Allen and Joe West track down Trickster copycat Axel Walker, played by Dexter’s Devon Graye, but will eventually escape to cause his own brand of chaos in Central City. While we don’t know how Flash’s battle with these two kooky villains will go, fans can rest easy knowing that Hamill’s Trickster won’t be killed off. The showrunners are already working on a way to bring back the gag-obsessed supervillain.
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg told THR that when Hamill eventually returns, there are plans to team up his Trickster with other Flash villains. This could mean adding Trickster The Rogues, Flash’s team of adversaries, in Season 2. Kreisberg admitted he likes the idea of the “zany Trickster meeting the cool and calculating Captain Cold,” so perhaps we’ll see these two radically different villains working together at some point to defeat the Scarlet Speedster. However, if the unnamed Arrow/The Flash project gets off the ground, Cold would have to join forces with Trickster as soon as possible before he and his partner Heat Wave head off on their own adventure.
Hamill is notable for being the only actor from the original Flash series to play a villain for more than one episode, appearing in ‘The Trickster” and “Trial of the Trickster.” The Flash’s incarnation of the villain has been locked away for 20 years following his terrorist rampage in Central City (wearing the same spandex costume), and from what we’ve seen in the previews, he’s spent that time coming up with the “perfect trick.” One of his tricks will be strapping a bomb to Flash that will go off if he runs below 600 piles per hour. Talk about an unorthodox way to take down a speedster!
Hamill is the third actor from the ‘90s series to appear in The Flash. Amanda Pays played a new version of her character Tina McGee in “The Man in the Yellow Suit,”while original Barry Allen, John Wesley Shipp, has a recurring role as the protagonist’s imprisoned father Henry Allen. Fan of the ‘90s series can also look forward to an on-screen reunion between Shipp and Hamill in “Tricksters,” which will involve James taking Henry hostage.
You can catch The CW's The Flash on Tuesdays at 8/7c.
