In the upcoming season of "The Flash," Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) will pit his mental and intellectual strengths against a new villain called The Thinker a.k.a. Clifford Devoe (Neil Sandilands).
Showrunner Todd Helbing said in a recent interview that the Thinker will offer a psychological component to the show as compared to other villains who were mainly noted for their speeding abilities like Reverse Flash (Matt Letscher), Zoom (Tony Todd), and Savitar (Tobin Bell).
Helbing explained that the Thinker "literally is the smartest guy on the planet, so there's a lot of chess pieces that he's moving around simultaneously. As our team is figuring out who he is and what they think the plan is, there's a lot of fun [as we] show the audience information and then have our team catch up to that information or surpass it. It's a big mystery."
In the comics, The Thinker was a genius who invented a wide array of technological weapons including one he called the Thinking Cap. This gave him formidable mental powers which allowed him to project it. He first appeared in the 12<sup>th issue of "All-Flash" back in September of 1943.
It remains to be seen how much of the Thinker's comics' origins that the show's writers will use in the fourth season. Needless to say, Team Flash will have their hands full trying to contain the shenanigans of the genius villain.
However, the Flash will have to return first from the Speed Force where he is currently stuck. In last season's finale, Allen had to sacrifice himself to save Central City by entering the Speed Force dimension to stabilize it. The absence of a speedster was causing earthquakes, therefore Allen will not be able to leave it. It remains to be seen how he will be able to escape it without causing any destruction.
"The Flash" season 4 hits the airwaves on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.
