Posted in: CW, Preview, TV | Tagged: cw, john wesley shipp, season 8, The Flash

The Flash Season 8: John Wesley Shipp Wants to Be Bart's Mentor

When The CW's The Flash returns for Season 8, they'll have a little something called "Armageddon" waiting for them- a five-part special event that finds a powerful alien threat arriving on Earth under mysterious circumstances. But this threat isn't like any Barry (Grant Gustin), Iris (Candice Patton), Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), and the rest of our heroes have faced before, being pushed to their limits in a desperate battle to save the world. Joining them are Javicia Leslie's Batwoman, Brandon Routh's The Atom, Cress Williams' Black Lightning, Chyler Leigh's Sentinel, Kat McNamara's Mia Queen, and Osric Chau's Ryan Choi. On the big bad side, we have Tom Cavanagh's Eobard Thawne aka Reverse-Flash, Neal McDonough's Damien Darhk, and Tony Curran's Despero. Another familiar face who would like to be more of a regular fixture during Season 8 is none other than John Wesley Shipp, who is set to play a version of Jay Garrick aka The Flash on tonight's flashback episode of DC's Stargirl. During an interview with EW, Shipp revealed the role he would like to play during the upcoming season and how it would impact Bart Allen's (Jordan Fisher) future.

I have high hopes, and there have been discussions, on Flash with Bart [Jordan Fisher] coming on. I didn't get to play the mentor episode, which I thought would have been so interesting with Wally [Keiynan Lonsdale], because Joe [Jesse L. Martin] became Barry's mentor/father figure, and how did Henry feel about that? How interesting it would have been if Jay had become closer to Wally than Joe? Well, we missed that opportunity; we went down the road of Savitar, and that never happened with Wally," Shipp explained. "But with Bart coming on, we kind of set up in the last two episodes that he has a profound feeling for what he calls "Uncle Jay." And in some ways they're alike and they get along in some ways better than he does with his own father, who in our version is Barry. That, I would love to explore, and I hope that we do. It's been talked about; I've talked to [The Flash showrunner] Eric Wallace about it. A lot of it depends on Jordan Fisher's availability and we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I played the other side of it, like I was with the great Jason Bernard who was our Nightshade in the 1990 Flash. And I would love to play the other side of that mentoring relationship. [Laughs] So I would like to be Jason Bernard in 2021."

Created by Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky and first appearing in the DC Comics' Justice League of America #1 (1960), Curran's Arrowverse take is a powerful and intelligent alien possessing incredible telepathic powers who left his homeworld—Kalanor—under mysterious circumstances. Now he's facing a deadly mission on Earth, one whose outcome will decide the fate of humankind and put him on a collision course with Team Flash. Here's a look back at director Eric Dean Seaton offering a look at how work on Season 8 kicked off (along with some folks you might recognize):

"Simply put, these are going to be some of the most emotional Flash episodes ever. Plus, there are some truly epic moments and huge surprises that await our fans. And we're doing them on a scale that's bigger and bolder than our traditional Flash episodes," said executive producer Eric Wallace. "So yes, "Armageddon" is a lot more than just another graphic novel storyline. It's going to be a true event for Flash and Arrowverse fans, old and new. Honestly, I can't wait for audiences to see what we've got planned."

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