John Wesley Shipp’s Jay Garrick Is His “Version Of Barry, 25 Years Later”

The Flash actors have had the pleasure of playing more than one version of their characters. For John Wesley Shipp, who played Barry Allen in the 1990 TV show of the same name, he’s gotten to play both Henry Allen and more recently, he was revealed to be the real Jay Garrick, The Flash from Earth-3.

The elder speedster will be back in The Flash’s season three, making his way back to Central City somehow in the season’s second episode, “Paradox”.

Recently, Shipp spoke with ComicBook.com about playing Jay Garrick and how he compared him to the way he played Barry twenty five years ago.

“I figured Jay is my version of Barry, 25 years later, essentially. So I went back and I watched a couple of episodes of the 1990/91 version to kind of remind myself what I did. [Jay] is much more reminiscent of my Barry Allen from 25 years ago than my Henry Allen. I went back and I was amazed how much attitude my Barry Allen had in some situations. I went back and I picked up that thread and I brought it forward 25 years, and tried to weave it in. I think that’s fun for the audience, too — that they will see elements of my Barry Allen in my Jay Garrick.”

For a long time in season two, many fans speculated who the man in the iron mask really was. The real Jay Garrick was constantly brought up and when the mask finally came off, it was revealed to be, in fact, the real Jay. Much to Barry’s dismay, Jay has the same face as his father Henry, who recently died at the hands of Zoom.

“Grant Gustin’s Barry Allen is the speedster of the show, so everything is discussed in terms of how it affects Grant’s Barry. When the iron mask comes off, and he sees essentially his dad, that’s kind of like a one-two punch because it’s his dad but it’s not. If the iron mask comes off and it was Henry by another name, what would be the interest in that? In conjunction with Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, we wanted to make Jay very different from Henry.”

Why Shipp’s Jay Garrick is back in Central City is a mystery, but perhaps he’ll be bringing back with him some advice for Barry, or maybe even Earth-2 Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) and his daughter Jesse (Violett Beane).

The Flash season three premieres Tuesday, October 4 at 8/7c on The CW.

Source: ComicBook.com