FLASH FACT: Original Flash TV Actor John Wesley Shipp To Appear In New CW Series Pilot

The first actor to play the Flash on film will have a role in the DC Comics' superhero's newest TV venture.  TV Guide reports that John Wesley Shipp will appear in an as yet unrevealed role in the Flash pilot, a spinoff of the network's popular Arrow series, also based on a DC superhero.

The news was affirmed via social media by DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, who described the news "a big deal to Flash nerds everywhere."

Johns is not wrong. Although it lasted just one season in 1990, Shipp's Flash series was the proverbial gateway drug for new Flash comics fans of the time. The show starred Shipp as Barry Allen, a police scientist who found himself possessed of super-speed after a lightning bolt struck his crime lab and he was doused with electrified chemicals. Subsequently, Barry created the identity of the Flash and fought criminals like the Trickster, played very memorably by Mark Hamill. The series was an earnest and frequently funny depiction of a classic superhero, featuring cameos or other roles by cult favorites and character actors including Richard Belzer, Jeffrey Combs, David Cassidy, Bill Mumy, Dick Miller and M. Emmett Walsh.

That Shipp will continue to be associated with the character on television is pretty cool, and TV Guide indicates that the secret role has the potential to become recurring should the network send The Flash to series.

Developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Geoff Johns, 2014's Flash stars Grant Gustin in the title role based on the comic book hero created by Robert Kanigher and John Broome and Carmine Infantino.