The Flash: Who will become the new Firestorm?

Image
Photo: Cate Cameron/ The CW

With Professor Stein's health deteriorating in the wake of Ronnie's death in the season premiere of The Flash, the team will be on the hunt for a new match to fill the Firestorm void.

During Tuesday's episode, the options are basically narrowed down to two candidates: Henry Hewitt (Demore Barnes) and Jefferson "Jax" Jackson (Franz Drameh). The least spoilery spoiler alert ahead: Drameh was long-ago tapped to star in the Arrow-Flash spin-off DC's Legends of Tomorrow, so it should come as no surprise that he'll be the next Firestorm — he's even wearing the Firestorm matrix in the photo above. Plus: The name Henry Hewitt should ring a bell for comic book fans as the alter ego of Tokamak, a famous Firestorm villain. So, there's that.

The real challenge isn't whether either of the candidates are compatible with Stein (Victor Garber), but how Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) will feel about them since the former Firestorm, who tragically lost his life saving Central City, was her husband. "That's what's especially hard for Caitlin, and maybe ultimately cathartic about this experience, is she's so connected to Stein and cares so deeply about him and for him, because he's the last connection to Ronnie [Robbie Amell]," Panabaker tells EW. "She's particularly invested in taking care of him, getting it right, not messing this up, and making sure that his next partner is just as good, if not better than Ronnie was."

As Caitlin comes to terms with her loss, the intrepid scientist will be stepping up at S.T.A.R. Labs, teases executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, who praises Panabaker's performance in Tuesday's episode. "Even though we did have the episode where Ronnie died and moved past it, this was really the episode where she dealt with it," he says. "Because it's The Flash, and it's about science fiction, she can grieve through wanting to protect her dead husband's co-superhero. This episode makes me cry."

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

Related Articles