For those who don’t know, Tom Cavanagh (who plays Eobard Thawne/The Reverse Flash on CW’s The Flash) has a podcast with comedian Michael Ian Black called “Mike and Tom Eat Snacks”, of which the premise is that both actors eat, rate and review a different snack food each episode.
During San Diego Comic Con, in the same press room where I pestered Grant Gustin regarding Jay Garrick and a possible Flash musical episode, I decided to beat my fellow reporters to the punch and open the volley of questions for Cavanagh with a query regarding just what sort of snack food a time traveler from our distant future might find appealing. His answer was enthusiastic to say the least:
I love the fact that you are just bridging The Flash with my podcast, “Mike and Tom Eat Snacks”! My god, I love you! All I want to do is talk about that thing, and you just led me into it…my gosh! You know, it’s a really good question, Eobard Thawne’s favorite snack would involve some kind of cow-based, meat product because cows don’t exist where he’s from. They’re out of cows. They’re out of cows! So maybe some beef jerky? I like the fact that in my head that while everyone here is waiting to talk about The Flash, I’m wondering: ‘would it be beef jerky?’.
But listen to this podcast, you won’t be disappointed! “Mike and Tom Eat Snacks” with Micheal Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh! It’s very funny and it’s very blue! It’s not what you’re used to seeing, agreed?
I, of course, answered in the affirmative!
While the rest of his time with us, he couldn’t answer much, having to, as he said himself: “dodge and weave and bob and duck questions like crazy”, other than revealing that he will be a part of the cast in the second season.
In an attempt to get around that, the question was posed about how the second season provides an opportunity to reinvent his character:
My starting point has always been, and will always be, Reverse Flash. That is the starting gate to the track I’m running. I thought they did a really great job with that last year. We ended with a well earned season finale…sometimes with a season finale (showrunners) go “well we have to have this big thing” and you work hard and formulate it, but it’s not organic. I feel like with Rick Cosnett sacrificing himself with the death of Eddie Thawne, coming a little out of left field, I feel like we actually earned that big moment. The job now is to try and vault the high-bar that Rick and the season finale set for the second season.
What’s nice about it is…our writing has been unafraid of the challenge from the beginning, to the point where (Executive Producer) Greg Berlanti last year…this is my third show with Greg…we came out of the gate so fast last year around Episode 7. I said ‘are we at all worried about story?’ because we were coming out with Captain Cold and Plastique and here comes Grodd and you’re unveiled in Episode 9 as the “Man in the Yellow Suit”. Verbatim, Greg’s answer was: ‘there’s always more story’. They’re unafraid, which I like, they’re fearless. They’re not trying to repeat a pilot that worked. And so, in Season 2, we’re not trying to repeat Season 1. We’ve got twists and turns and we’re going to open in a much darker place picking up where we left off last year. I’ve read the first few episodes and it’s accelerated, and it’s not going to be “let’s try and follow a model that worked in Season 1”. I think if you’re a fan of the show what we have in store will keep you a fan.
In other words, Cavanagh has to keep pretty mum about what’s coming for his character, though he did let us know that he will be continuing some of the dual affable/”success at all costs” nature of his character.
Anyone have any guesses as to how Thawne returns next year? Hit me with them!
Did he say he’d be back as Thawne, or just that he’d be back? Because it’s possible he’ll be back as Harrison Wells somehow not dead anymore due to Eddie’s sacrifice.
Sadly, he couldn’t say much at all other than: “I’m coming back”. Either way, I thought Cavanagh was the best part of the show, so I’ll take him however one can get him!
Assuming that Eddie’s sacrifice holds, then Wells was never killed by Thawne, so theoretically still be alive. How that affects the accelerator explosion and its affects will be interesting to see how they handle it. From what had been said by Thawne, the accelerator may have still blown up, creating the Flash and others, but at a later date than his accelerated schedule. They’ve indicated they will definitely be dealing with parallel universes going forward, so they’ve got plenty of options. At least they don’t seem to be going the way of the Witchblade TV series.
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