Mark Hamill is up to his old tricks — and probably not for the last time.
The actor heads to The Flash Tuesday to play The Trickster, the flamboyant villain he also played in CBS' 1990 version of The Flash. In the CW show, The Trickster (AKA James Jesse) has been incarcerated for 20 years, when a younger man (Devon Graye) going by the same name starts to terrorize Central City. Barry (Grant Gustin) and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) seek out The Trickster's advice on how to stop the younger villain.
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg says the plan is for Hamill's Trickster to team up with other members of The Flash's rogues gallery in the future. He particularly likes the idea of the zany Trickster meeting the cool and calculating Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller).
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"What was cool about the Trickster on both series is he was smart," Kreisberg said at a recent press screening attended by The Hollywood Reporter. "No matter how crazy he was, he was so smart and he thought four steps ahead."
Tuesday's episode features a number of goodies for Hamill fans. There will be a Star Wars line, as well as an onscreen reunion for the actor with 90s Flash lead John Wesley Shipp (Barry's father, Henry), whom Hamill squared off against on the CBS show.
Hamill said when he got the call that The Flash wanted him, he never thought he'd be playing a villain, instead imagining he'd have a more "age appropriate" role, like a college professor.
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"I'm not getting back into the one piece jumpsuit. I'm not getting back into that spandex deal," Hamill said.
But he called up Kreisberg, who pitched him the idea of playing an older version of the character, and he quickly signed on.
Kreisberg didn't reveal when Hamill might return to The Flash, but the show has already had multiple villain teamups, most notably featuring Prison Break alums Miller and Dominic Purcell (Heatwave). Both are set to star in the Arrow/Flash spinoff starring a mix of characters from both shows. Season two of The Flash is also set to introduce other speedsters, with Wally West and Bart Allen among the possibilities the producers have tossed around.
The Flash Tuesdays at at 8 p.m. on The CW.
Email: Aaron.Couch@THR.com
Twitter: @AaronCouch
