THE FLASH Casts 'Zoom' For Season 2 With A Surprising Twist; Suit Details Also Revealed
Season two of The Flash will need to do a lot to top Reverse-Flash, but that's the plan as they look set to introduce the villainous Zoom. The actor playing the speedster has been revealed today, but there's a pretty surprising twist. The suit meanwhile sounds very unique indeed...
The mystery surrouding the Reverse-Flash made up a large chunk of The Flash's first season, and it sounds as if we'll all soon be arguing and debating the identity of Zoom as well. Variety reveals that Candyman star Tony Todd has been cast as the voice of Zoom and will make his first appearance in the second episode (titled "Flash of Two Worlds"). "Last year, with the Reverse-Flash, we just modulated Tom Cavanagh’s voice, and this year we wanted to do something a little bit different," executive producer Andrew Kreisberg tells the trade. "Part of the mystery of the season is who or what is underneath the Zoom outfit, and so we wanted to do something like James Earl Jones as Darth Vader — this iconic voice coming out of this mask. Last year, we thought of the Reverse-Flash as a speed warrior; this year, Zoom is like a speed demon, and no one does demon-voice better than Tony Todd."
It sounds like we should take that "speed demon" description quite literally too, as Kreisberg goes on to compare Zoom's appearance to Venom, adding: "The Zoom outfit is much more organic than the Reverse-Flash suit. In a way, it’s hard to tell if it is a suit or alive… There’s no skin showing, for all you know there’s a robot underneath, or dark energy." Season one of The Flash revealed that Harrison Wells was Reverse-Flash in the first episode, but Harrison's true identity - later revealed to be Eobard Thawne - remained a hot topic of debate. There won't be any early reveals this year though, as Kreisberg claims that they'll be keeping us waiting to find out the mystery of Zoom "like a horror movie — ‘who’s the killer? Who’s under the mask?'"
As for the villain's motivations, he teases: "For us, the best villains are the ones who don’t have megalomaniacal ‘I want to rule the world’ motivations. Last year, the Reverse-Flash had a very simple goal which was, ‘I just want to go home, and if people need to die or cities need to get wasted for me to get that, so be it.’ And Zoom has a very similar, personal goal this season… simple and easy to understand, and very primal. And just as with Wells last year, Zoom doesn’t care who gets hurt or what gets destroyed in the service of him getting his goal." Now, if you're a comic book reader, you'll know that Zoom is really Hunter Zolomon. He was an ally of Wally West's and turned on him when the Scarlet Speedster refused to go back in time to save his wife. Using the cosmic treadmill, he gained the power to slow down time around him, thereby giving the impression that he's moving really fast. It may not be that simple in the series though! "[The] story of Zoom and who and what he is… hopefully comic book fans will be happy because we’ve come up with a clever way to spin the tale, but that also makes it exciting for the people who aren’t as familiar with the comics and are just enjoying the show on its own terms."