Every '90s Flash Actor To Appear In The Arrowverse | Screen Rant - Screen Rant

While Grant Gustin’s The Flash series has been on the air for almost 7 years, CBS actually brought Barry Allen to the small screen in the ‘90s prior to the Arrowverse version. In 2014, The Flash premiered on The CW and began a whole new chapter for the network as it brought in superpowers, metahumans, and the larger DC Universe into the shared universe, started by Arrow. For its 6 seasons, the speedster-led series has been The CW’s highest-rated drama and it continues to get more and more popular. The Flash was also partially responsible for bridging the Arrowverse and Warner Bros.’ DCEU together in Crisis on Infinite Earths as Flash of two worlds came face to face.

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Ezra Miller’s infamous cameo became one of the highlights in The Flash’s entire history as Gustin’s Barry got to meet his cinematic counterpart. However, before Gustin donned the iconic suit and began running for several years, The CW wasn’t actually the broadcast network to do a Flash television series. In 1990, John Wesley Shipp was cast as the Scarlet Speedster on CBS’ incarnation of The Flash. While the CBS adaptation only lasted for one season, the 30-year-old Flash series has maintained a cult following over the years. When The CW first brought Barry Allen back to television, the creators didn’t waste any time in paying homage to the ‘90s series by casting Shipp to play Barry’s dad, Henry.

Shipp has even gone on to play Earth-3’s Jay Garrick, as well as getting to reprise his version of Barry from the CBS show. Over the course of The Flash, the producers have continued to honor the short-lived DC series. Following Shipp’s casting, the show kept bringing in multiple actors from the CBS incarnation. By the time the Elseworlds crossover took place, the Arrowverse made Shipp’s show canonically part of the same multiverse by, cleverly, placing it on the now-destroyed Earth-90. The following is every actor that has boarded The CW’s The Flash from CBS’ version of the series and become part of the Arrowverse.

John Wesley Shipp

Shipp became the first actor from the '90s The Flash to enter the Arrowverse, portraying the wrongfully-incarcerated Henry Allen who was framed for the murder of his wife Nora Allen. By the start of the second season, Henry's name was cleared and he was finally released from Iron Heights. Once he was out of jail, Henry went on to catch up on life before returning in the second half of the season. Unfortunately, Henry ends up being murdered by Zoom as Hunter Zolomon was determined to prove that Barry was just like him. However, that didn't end Shipp's time in the Arrowverse. The season finale revealed that the real Jay Garrick was a speedster from Earth-3 — played by Shipp (a doppelgänger of Henry).

For the next few seasons, the Golden Age Flash reoccured every once in a while to help Team Flash out. Jay retired after season 4 and was actively training his successor. The last appearance he made was in The Flash season 6 when Barry came to Earth-3 to gain more information about the coming Crisis. Shipp also portrayed the Earth-90 version of Barry Allen who protects Central City as the fastest man alive — in a way, making the CBS series canon in the Arrowverse. That iteration of the character resurfaced in 2018 and 2019, and this version of Barry sacrificed himself to destroy the anti-matter cannon in Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Amanda Pays

While Iris West-Allen is Barry's iconic love in most Flash stories, including The CW series, CBS had Shipp's Barry end up with a different love interest. As Earth-90's Iris was Barry's ex-girlfriend in the show, the writers had him paired up with Tina McGee, played by Amanda Pays. On the CBS show, Tina was a STAR Labs scientist that would help Barry explore his abilities and help him fight crime. While never seen in the first and only season, Tina and Barry got married at some point before Earth-90 was destroyed. Tina is the only person Barry thinks about during his sacrifice in the Crisis before he destroys the anti-matter cannon.

Pays was later added to The Flash on The CW where she got to portray the Earth-1 version of Tina McGee. In this reality, Tina is portrayed as having previously been friends with Harrison Wells before Eobard Thawne began posing as him. Becoming a rival to "Harrison," Tina runs Mercury Labs as its director and has had a number of appearances between seasons 1-3. Pays and Shipp get a brief moment of screentime together during the 22nd episode of The Flash season 2 where Tina and Henry get introduced to one another.

Mark Hamill

The closest fans will ever get to see Mark Hamill play The Joker in live-action is through his Flash villain The Trickster. While the '90s show featured multiple of the infamous Rogues members, Hamill's James Jesse was by far the most popular one out of all of them. Hamill appears in two episodes of the only season as one of Barry's most challenging opponents. Barry even gets brainwashed by the Trickster during Hamill's second episode as the psychotic Flash foe. However, despite the cancellation from CBS, Hamill wasn't entirely done portraying the Trickster.

Over 20 years later, Hamill was brought into the Arrowverse where he got to play the Earth-1 version of Trickster. Through archived footage, the writers implied that their take on James pretty much had the same history as the Earth-90 version. But there was one major change as James is revealed to be the biological father to Axel Walker who becomes the second Trickster in this universe. In The Flash season 3, Hamill plays another doppelgänger as Earth-3's Trickster that looks more like the Joker than the infamous Flash villain.

Alex Désert

While Shipp's Barry had Tina as his romantic love interest, he also had a best friend that was a big part of the '90s The Flash show. Similarly to Gustin's Barry, Shipp's version of the hero also worked for the Central City Police Department as a forensic scientist. In the CBS show, Barry was always working with his good friend Julio Mendez, played by Alex Désert in the first and only season. However, despite the show only running for one season, the Arrowverse gave Désert another chance to be part of The Flash world in the third season for two episodes.

Désert appears in the season premiere "Flashpoint" as well as in the 12th episode "Untouchable" where he plays two versions of Earth-1's Julio. In Flashpoint, Julio was CCPD's police captain before Barry resets the timeline which changes Julio's role in the Post-Flashpoint world. In "Untouchable," Julio is now a lounge singer that ends up being murdered by Clive Yorkin one night. Being constantly arrested in the Flashpoint timeline, Clive was taking out one cop after another who had ever captured him in the other version of Earth-1. That is where, unfortunately, Julio came into play as Clive had a grudge with him.

Vito D’Ambrosio

Another recurring face from the '90s series that ended up in the Arrowverse as early as The Flash season 1 was Vito D'Ambrosio who played CCPD officer Tony Bellows. Despite the show only being on the air for 1 season, Bellows was one of the more frequent characters that viewers would see. Not much is really revealed about Officer Bellows, at least as far as Earth-90 goes. However, on Earth-1, D'Ambrosio was given a bigger part as he played a different version of Bellows. In the first four seasons, Bellows is the mayor of Central City who originally served as an officer of CCPD.

Similarly to Hamill’s Trickster, Earth-1’s Bellows seems to have a similar history to his Earth-90 doppelgänger, which is a clever nod to the CBS show. However, unlike his Earth-90 counterpart, Bellows ends up taking a villainous path in the fourth season. During the introduction of Elongated Man, it was revealed that not only had Bellows cheated on his wife, but he was being blackmailed by Ralph Dibny. This is how he turns into a foe as Bellows tries to have Ralph killed, as well as Joe and Barry after he confesses why Ralph was trying to contact him constantly. Bellows is eventually stopped and is currently serving his sentence at Iron Heights.

Corinne Bohrer

Last, but certainly not least, there is Corinne Bohrer, who appeared in Shipp's The Flash series as the second version of Prank, the Trickster's sidekick. In the short-lived series, Bohrer appears as Zoey Clark who becomes the second person to carry the Prank mantle after Megan Lockhart. She ends up joining James after having been obsessed with the supervillain and even helps him get free. However, like most of Flash's villains, Zoey and James eventually get locked up. However, thanks to the Arrowverse, Bohrer got to join The CW universe over 2 decades later in The Flash season 4 during the second half of the season.

Bohrer appears in the 11th episode "The Elongated Knight Rises" where she is revealed to be Axel's mother. Just like with Hamill's Trickster, most of the history of Earth-90's Prank is included in the Earth-1 doppelgänger, with the exception of James and Zoey have a child together. Having committed to no longer living a life as a criminal, Zoey eventually breaks Axel out of prison after she stopped taking her pills for her psychotic behavior. While she becomes Prank again, she along with Axel is eventually stopped as Elongated Man defeats them before they get sent to jail. That is the latest actor from the '90s The Flash show to appear in the Arrowverse and probably the last one fans may ever see from the CBS drama.

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Andy Behbakht (443 Articles Published)

Andy has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, mostly superheroes and comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast, Titans Podcast while running the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015.