With the onus on the Arrow team of Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and David Nutter to create a new TV version of The Flash that can distance itself from the previous, failed TV version of The Flash, the show has now added the star of the latter, John Wesley Shipp. The network has yet to say what Shipp’s role will be, besides the fact that it’s “recurring” and, implicitly, that he’ll really know how to rock a turtleneck. Though, some fans are already speculating that Shipp could play one of the older, alternate incarnations of the superhero—possibly Jay Garrick, possibly acting as a friend and sort-of mentor to the new show’s Barry Allen. Whoever his character ends up being, it’s a bold move by producers to openly draw comparison to the last time this didn’t work out. Or perhaps this is some sort of Crisis On Infinite Earths thing, where smashing those two parallel universes together is the only way for everyone to move forward.

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