CW's The Flash Panel Highlight of St. Louis Wizard World

Amid a somewhat tamer St. Louis Comic Con this year, one of the highlights was the Behind the scenes with CW's The Flash with Liam McIntyre and Rick Cosnett panel. Rick (Eddie Thawne) and Liam (The Weather Wizard) were all smiles when they entered the room and immediately started joking with the crowd. Rick even sent Liam into the audience saying this was his panel, but Liam quickly returned to the microphone.

Liam started by asking Rick, "I hope you can talk a lot, because I can talk a lot." Rick continued on by asking who had seen the season finale to which most the hands in the room went up. Then he apologized to those who hadn’t because he was sure there would be spoilers.

And spoilers there were. (**SPOILER WARNING** if you haven't seen The Flash season finale you might want to stop reading until you have).

And there was some continued banter between Rick and Liam until Liam looked up and said, to his surprise, "Oh look people have questions." to which Rick responded, "Now you're going to have to shut up, Liam."

And so the questions began. The entire panel was filled with fun and laughter that didn't stop for nearly the span of the questions and answers.

We started off with a question about crossovers and if Rick could cross over to the Arrow who would he want to work with?

Without a pause he responded Felicity. It’s an eye for an eye Barry. He wanted to get him back for trying to steal Iris. But he did say that he really enjoyed the Iris/Eddie relationship even if Felicity and Eddie would be a blond power couple. But I think a lot of fans out there ship Olicity (myself included) so sorry Rick, I don’t think we’ll be seeing a blond power couple any time soon (present finale happenings excluded). And if I had my say it’d be Eddie and Iris.

Another question came about Liam and Rick’s future roles on The Flash. Rick said he was looking for work, but The Flash wanted him back in some capacity. “If they can afford me,” he joked. Liam said he’d love to come back, but was pretty tight lipped overall coyly stating “An actor’s whole job is lying so you never know.” Then he joked, “Next season Barry goes on vacation and the weather wizard takes over. Is Tahiti nice? Of course it is because I make the weather there.”

Rick did say he found out about Eddie’s fate back in January, and he was the first to know. The cast slowly found out as time went on, but he’s had to lie about it to everyone else up until now. He also joked that he hadn’t seen the season one finale… “Thanks for spoiling it for me.”

Liam was asked about what other weather related powers he’d like to see explored. He reiterated some of the existing powers which included earthquakes that aren’t necessarily weather, but then diverged into some jokes about possible powers. “A light fog? Grant’s conflict can be, ‘Do I wear a sweater or not?’” He also joked about how his contract must state that he can only have weather related roles because Spartacus was the bringer or rain.

When an audience member asked what the pair geeked out about Liam let Rick answer first. And after some blushing, Rick said “Downton Abbey.” He loves Mrs. O’brien. Liam on the other hand geeks out about everything including Warhammer figurines! He was just playing some Magik The Gathering in his hotel a few days ago, lot of video games and loves comics among other things. If it’s geeky he probably loves it!

On whether or not Rick and Liam had read the comic prior to being cast:

Rick said he'd never heard of The Flash, but that it sounded like a classic comic book hero. And it turned out it was! When he started doing research he found out that his character turned into the Reverse Flash. He thought it was cool that he'd get to play the villain. It wasn't until the night before the pilot shot that Rick found out he wouldn't in fact play the Reverse Flash.

Rick said it was a big effort all around to keep Eddie nice. He likes playing the villain but appreciated that Eddie really was a good guy at his heart. Rick on the other hand joked that he’s not a nice guy (except he’s exceptionally nice because I met him in the autograph line.) That said, he enjoys playing the villains and based on how he acted in school, his teachers encouraged him to stick with what he was good at.

Liam was familiar with The Flash before joining the cast. He’d read some of the comics and was excited to play a villain.

Here’s a clip where Rick explains about his familiarity with The Flash:

We all know everyone likes a good villain!

When asked if Rick enjoyed punching Barry, he replied “No one ever sees my lovely looks; the camera is never on me! Damn you Grant! Punching Barry felt pretty good.” We all know he meant from Eddie’s point of view of course.

Someone also asked about the possibility of the original Flash showing up. Rick said that we all saw the helmet in the finale so it’s a possibility. There’s been a lot of talk about the original Flash coming on. So stay tuned Flash fans, we might be in for a bit of a surprise one day!

And the panel concluded with one final question, which DC superhero would Liam and Rick both want to work with? Each responded BATMAN!

Who wouldn’t pick Batman?

That’s all for the highlights on The Flash panel at St. Louis Comic Con. It was a ton of fun and both actors are so genuine and hilarious. They really seemed to enjoy spending time with the fans.

And if their panel wasn’t enough indication, I met Rick in his autograph line and he is truly a sweet person. He signed a picture for me, let me lament about Eddie’s fate. He even wrote don’t cry on the picture he signed. I also got the chance to ask him about his thoughts on a musical Flash episode after his participation with costars Jessie L. Martin, and Carlos Valdes in the Ballad of Serenity video. Based on that and the fact that we all know Grant can sing, I think this would be an awesome possibility.

Rick without hesitation replied that he’d love to see a musical Flash episode and would love to come back for it. He also said to stay tuned, there would be a music video coming soon of him, Jessie, and Carlos from the movie they just did together. So more signing to come!

And on that note (pun intended), I leave you with Rick’s rendition of what he thinks Eddie’s theme song would be: