Eobard Thawne (Arrowverse)

Eobard Thawne
Arrowverse character
Tom Cavanagh as Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash in The CW's Superhero Fight Club promotional video[1]
First appearance	"Pilot" The Flash October 7, 2014
Based on	Eobard Thawne by John Broome     Carmine Infantino
Adapted by	Andrew Kreisberg
Portrayed by	Tom Cavanagh Matt Letscher Other Victor Garber (as Martin Stein) Sean MacLean (as Jack Swigert) Grant Gustin (as Barry Allen)
In-universe information
Alias	Reverse-Flash

Eobard Thawne, otherwise known as the Reverse-Flash, is a character appearing in television series set within The CW’s Arrowverse. Based on the DC Comics supervillain of the same name, he is portrayed by Tom Cavanagh and Matt Letscher. Letscher plays Thawne's original likeness while Cavanagh portrays the character in the form of Harrison Wells. Introduced and featured most prominently on The Flash, the character has also appeared in spin-off shows set within the shared fictional universe. As in the comics, Thawne is depicted as a scientist-turned-time travelling criminal from the future and the archenemy of the superhero the Flash. Cavanagh's performance has received praise from both critics and fans.

Storylines[]

The Flash[]

In a flashback in season one, Barry Allen's (who will later become the speedster known as the Flash) mother Nora is murdered by a yellow blur and his father Henry wrongfully convicted.^[2][3] In the present, the murderer ultimately appears as a tachyon-enhanced speedster who is dubbed the "Reverse-Flash", and bests Barry in combat.^[4][5] It is later revealed that Barry's mentor Harrison Wells, who was training Barry after he became a speedster, is actually the murderer Eobard Thawne, the Flash's archenemy from the 22nd century and a descendant of police officer Eddie Thawne.^[6] Traveling to the 21st century to erase the Flash from history by murdering Nora and framing Henry, Thawne was left stranded with his Speed Force connection severed so he killed the real Wells and assumed his identity.^[7] As Wells, he then founded S.T.A.R. Labs and orchestrated events to turn Barry into the Flash, hoping to use Barry's pure Speed Force connection to return home.^[8] After being exposed and later captured by Barry with help from Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein,^[9] Thawne offers Barry a chance to travel back in time to save the Allen family in exchange for a time machine to return to the 22nd century. Barry ultimately refuses and destroys Thawne's machine. The two speedsters then fight, with Thawne prevailing until Eddie shoots himself, seemingly erasing Thawne from existence.^[8]

In subsequent seasons, Thawne makes sporadic appearances. In season two, a flash drive containing Thawne's will as Wells bequeathes S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry and a video-recorded confession to Nora's murder which allows for Henry's exoneration.^[10] Barry later travels back in time to season one's timeframe to obtain Thawne's help with tachyon equipment.^[11] In season three, Barry saves Nora from Thawne's true form who is locked up in a prison. After the Flashpoint timeline's dangers, Barry realizes the mistake and releases Thawne to kill Nora again hoping the timeline will revert to normal.^[12] In season four, Thawne is revealed to clearly know of and admired Clifford DeVoe.^[13]

In season five, Thawne – still with the appearance of Wells – is revealed to be the secret mentor of Nora West-Allen, Barry's and Iris West-Allen's future daughter. Imprisoned in Iron Heights in 2049^[14] under a death sentence and routinely tortured by a corrupt prison guard,^[15] he professes to Nora that he helps to ensure a better legacy for himself than simply being known only as an evil speedster.^[16] Nora first approached Thawne for his help in capturing Godspeed after Nora's own speed powers are discovered, and believed him to be the only person to be trusted after learning that Iris deliberately suppressed Nora's powers. Thawne agreed to train Nora in the use of speed, revealing Barry's identity.^[15] It was Thawne's suggestion that Nora help Barry with DeVoe's crashing satellite,^[17] and the pair routinely keep in touch through Nora's journal.^[14] Barry ultimately returns Nora to 2049 after learning of Nora's connection with Thawne and goes to confront Thawne personally. Thawne asks Barry not to hold the secrecy against Nora as a condemned man's final request.^[15] Thawne later reveals to Nora the existence of a negative Speed Force, one that allows time travel without alerting other speedsters, which Nora is unable to access until being enraged by the assumption of no longer being loved by Barry much to Thawne's consternation. Witnessing Thawne's interaction with Nora, Iris relates to Barry that Thawne, although clearly manipulating Nora, also displays an almost paternal concern and seems to genuinely care.^[18] However, it is later revealed that Thawne's powers were negated by Cicada's dagger, and that the whole reason he mentored Nora for traveling to the past was to destroy the dagger and free himself. After the dagger is destroyed, Thawne is freed moments before his execution. He briefly fights Nora and Barry before Team Flash gets distracted when Nora began to be erased from existence. After the two ran away to enter the Negative Speed Force at Thawne's fervent suggestion, Thawne makes his escape.^[19]

In season six, Thawne is turned into a being of negative tachyons fused with Nash Wells following the Crisis; Nash became the 'repository' for the consciousnesses of all the versions of Harrison Wells who died during the Crisis, which includes Thawne due to the time he has spent in Wells' form. Over the course of several months, Thawne is able to assert control of Nash's body. However, as he has yet to regain his speed, Team Flash catches and imprisons him at S.T.A.R. Labs.^[20] After he slowly regains his connection to the Negative Speed Force, Team Flash builds a device to "exorcise" him. Despite his best efforts, Thawne is defeated once more and expelled from Nash's body. As an energy being however, he is not killed; only left without a body to possess.^[21]

In season seven, Thawne regains his body when Barry has the Speed Force reconstitute his form in order for him to gain the latter's help in stopping the speedster Godspeed. Though they stop Godspeed, Thawne double crosses Barry, incapacitates Godspeed and makes an attempt on Barry's life. However, Barry manages to outsmart him by quickly outrunning him, revealing he is now faster than Thawne. Shocked and angered by this, Thawne vows revenge before speeding off.^[22]

Legends of Tomorrow[]

After escaping the Flashpoint timeline,^[12] Thawne's true form appears on season two traveling through time. Due to his own nullified state of existence being an aberration, he was hunted by the Black Flash,^[23] forcing him to seek out the Spear of Destiny to restore his natural existence.^[24] Unable to find the object and outrun the enforcer at the same time, Thawne formed a supervillain alliance, intending for his 'allies' to help him search for various items that will lead him to the Spear when he can't remain in one point in time without being caught by the Black Flash.^[25] Thawne and his co-conspirators eventually retrieve the Spear of Destiny, which they use to rewrite reality to their whims.^[26] Despite initially succeeding, his plan was foiled by the Legends travelling back in time and de-powering the object, causing Thawne to be vaporized by the Black Flash, being restored to the timeline and his original events as Wells.^[27]

Crisis On Earth-X[]

During the crossover, Thawne is revealed to be an ally of the Nazi-dominated Earth-X leaders Dark Arrow and Overgirl.^[28] Claiming to have resumed the appearance of Wells "for old times' sake", Thawne implies to Barry that he survived his erasure from existence due to time travel vagaries.^[29][30] He assists Dark Arrow in saving Overgirl's life, along with their intent to invade Earth-1. During the final battle, Barry defeats Thawne but spares his life, and Thawne departs while his allies are killed.^[31][32]

Elseworlds[]

During the second part of the crossover, Barry and Oliver are hit with hallucination gas in which the two fight each other; at this time, Oliver sees the face of Thawne and Barry sees the face of Malcolm Merlyn.^[33]

Concept and creation[]

On February 10, 2014, Tom Cavanagh was set to join The Flash as Harrison Wells.^[34] The producers of the show said the following about the character: 'There's obviously more that meets the eye when you see Harrison Wells. ... His motivations are a big mystery, and tracking that through has been a very interesting ride with Mr. Cavanagh.'^[35] In episode 15 of the series, Cavanagh was revealed to playing Eobard Thawne. Regarding this, co-creator Andrew Kreisberg said: "There are the people who read the comics and know everything, and then there are the people who know nothing and you have to make the show for both of those people and that’s one of the things we did very early on: oh, if we name Eddie ‘Eddie Thawne’ then immediately a whole bunch of comic book fans are going to go ‘obviously he’s the Reverse Flash,’ so I get it and hopefully they were surprised when that turned out not to be the case".^[36] Two episodes later featured the debut of Matt Letscher in the role, which shocked viewers. The executive producers had not planned this twist from the start, with Kreisberg saying, 'We were talking about, 'well what if Wells wasn't Wells? What if he stole Wells' body?'^[37] While Cavanagh would continue playing Thawne on The Flash, Letscher subsequently went on to portray a time-displaced version of the character in season two of Legends of Tomorrow.^[38]

Character development[]

Characterization[]

Cavanagh has stated many times that he enjoys playing the character of Eobard Thawne as the character is interesting, complex and challenging to portray.^[39][40][41] When speaking with the Television Academy he had this to say about playing Thawne: 'The Reverse Flash has what I like to a call timeless way of speaking. He doesn't use colloquialisms from 2016, he's a little more formal, and he takes joy in destroying people. He has a larger perspective because he comes from 100-plus years in the future and has seen it all. It's easy to play a character like that. He's the arch in arch-villain.'^[42] He also sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss his supervillain voice in which he said: "If you're doing it right, you can be charismatic, you can win people over, and you can have so much fun. You build a cage and then you just rattle that cage more than the leading guy can a lot."^[43] Kreisberg insisted that Thawne was not evil because his fatherly affection for Cisco was genuine, and "he has a reason for doing what he's doing and he has an agenda and he thinks of himself as the hero ... bad people are capable of incredible amounts of kindness and generosity".^[36]

Costume[]

When asked by the Television Academy about wearing the Reverse-Flash suit, Cavanagh replied with "That’s a lot of what acting is. Often times, you’re tapping into the things you did as a youth. You pretended. A lot of us pretended to be Batman, to be our favorite super-hero. A lot of times, you pretended to have the power of imagination at your side. And the first time you put it on, the cameras are rolling, and off you go at superspeed. I’ve gotten to do some great, great thrilling stunts in the suit. It is a dream come true. I understand that it’s a job, and I’m getting paid, but the second that a director yells, “Action", all that disappears, and you're a guy in a supersuit. It's extremely thrilling. I’ve said before that I wish that anyone who is a legitimate comic book fan could have this opportunity. It really feels like a privilege."^[42] Cavanagh also said "I benefited from all the trial and error that went into that. … I think they did a marvelous job with the suit, I’m always very flattered and honored to put it on," when speaking with Access Hollywood.^[44]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

The American business magazine Forbes praised Cavanagh for his role in The Flash season 1 with Erik Kain stating "Tom Cavanagh is uncanny, a perfect fit for the ominous yet likable villain. All his lines and statements connect with audiences precisely because of how well Cavanagh pulls off the role, and how well that role is written."^[45] The entertainment website Collider chose Tom Cavanagh has the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015.^[46] Rotten Tomatoes ranked Tom Cavanagh's Reverse Flash as the Scariest Character on Comic Book Television as of November 2019.^[47] Chancellor Agard from Entertainment Weekly praised the character of Thawne saying "No matter how many ups and downs The Flash has had over its run, it has never faltered when it comes to its characterization of Thawne."^[48]

Accolades[]

The Flash's Eobard Thawne was ranked number 35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time.^[49] He also topped Entertainment Weekly's list of 20 "best" villains on superhero TV in 2015,^[50] and was included on Collider's list of Best TV Villains of 2015.^[51] Cavanagh received an IGN Awards nomination for Best TV Villain for his portrayal of the character in The Flash.^[52] He was also nominated for Choice TV Villain at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.^[53] Screen Rant's Jason Berman ranked Cavanagh fifth on his 2016 list 20 Best Actors in the Arrowverse.^[54] The entertainment website Collider chose Tom Cavanagh as the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015.^[46]

Other appearances[]

• Cavanagh voiced Thawne masquerading as Earth-1 Wells in the episode "Ants on a Hamburger" of the animated series Robot Chicken.^[55][56]

References[]