‘The Flash’ Brings In A New Villain And Joss Whedon
As the Season 3 premiere of The Flash nears, new details are emerging about this installment, including the introduction of a new, big villain, someone just as menacing as Dr. Alchemy. This new evil force is a staple of DC Comics and The Flash showrunners are bringing this familiar bad guy onto the show in a way that will be respectful to the character’s DC history. What may be more exciting than the reveal of a new enemy for The Flash is news that Joss Whedon may direct the big Supergirl crossover episode. Whedon’s experience in directing musical numbers may explain The Flash showrunners interest in bringing in Joss for the crossover.
The Flash Doubles Up On Its Villains
Joining Dr. Alchemy in wreaking havoc for The Flash in Season 3 will be Savitar, a villain who International Business Times reports comes directly from the pages of DC comic books. Introduced in 1995, Savitar was originally a pilot during the Cold War, until his plane was struck by lightning, granting him powers similar to those possessed by Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), A.K.A. The Flash. From there, that Cold War era pilot devoted his life to learning more about his powers, specifically concentrating on how to enhance his abilities. He renamed himself Savitar, drawing the name from the Hindu god Savitr, and endeavored to become just as invincible as that Hindu god. Eventually, Savitar learned how to create a null force field around himself and also learned how to heal himself at a highly accelerated rate. In essence, Savitar was now undefeatable.
Fans of The Flash won’t have to wait long for the live action adaptation of this particular villain because he will be introduced in the premiere episode of Season 3. The first episode of The Flash will be named “Flashpoint,” which refers to the similarly titled event in the comic book responsible for creating Savitar. It will be an explosive episode, used to introduce a new major villain for Season 3, but that’s not to say the Savitar story arc will be a long-running event.
“[Flashpoint] won’t necessarily last as long as some people are expecting it to last, but there are permanent effects on the rest of the show,” Gustin said. “There’s not a complete departure from all the relationships that have existed.”
The Flash Showrunners Are Hoping To Attract Joss Whedon With Their Supergirl Crossover Musical
The upcoming two-part musical crossover for The Flash and Supergirl is exciting for a number of reasons and now we can add Joss Whedon to that list of reasons, reports IGN India. The Flash showrunners may have interest in bringing Whedon in to direct the episodes, due the high success he has had in injecting musical numbers into another CW action series.
During his time running Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the CW, Whedon directed a musical episode of the series, entitled “Once More, With Feeling,” and it remains one of the most memorable and popular episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s entire run. It would make sense that The Flash producers would bring Whedon in to hopefully re-create that past success.
While the word is still unofficial, the hope is that Whedon will agree to direct both parts of The Flash crossover with Supergirl, but, even if plans fall through, The Flash executive producer Todd Helbing revealed that there will still be a heavy Joss Whedon/Buffy the Vampire Slayer influence. In writing the episodes for The Flash, Helbing says his writers began by looking at “Once More, With Feeling,” basing their ideas on that Whedon – driven episode.
“The amount of times that Buffy is brought up in our writers room is crazy,” Helbing said.
The Season 3 premiere of The Flash is set to air on October 4 on CW.
[Image via CW]
