The fourth season of CW’s The Flash came to an end this month as Barry Allen faces off with the Fastest Mind alive in The Thinker. Last year, we at That Hashtag Show revealed the breakdown of the new characters of Season 4 which included The Thinker, The Mechanic, and the Elongated Man.

With a fifth season officially set to air this fall, it’s time to get all you speedsters out there excited for what’s in the store of the Scarlet Speedster’s fifth year. The show is currently casting for a major new player who will emerge in Season 5 and while we believe this is under a codename, let’s take a look at this character.

The show is casting “Desmond Paull,” an open ethnicity role for a man in his 40s. “Desmond” is a metahuman who, after a mysterious interaction with dark matter, was given not only immortality but also the gift to disable other meta-human powers. He blames metas for everything that has gone wrong in his life and because of that, his mission is to wipe Central City free of them in order to silence his own anguish. Whoever gets cast as “Desmond”, he would be a one year fractional series regular.

Now, as we mentioned above, “Desmond Paull” is most likely a cover name for a DC character that will be making his way from the page to screen. Based on the description, this sounds a lot like the Flash character of David Hersch a.k.a. Cicada! Created by Geoff Johns, Cicada first appeared in Flash #170 (volume 2) in March 2001, as he got his powers when being struck by a bolt of lightning while trying to end his own life.

Having murdered his own wife and being struck by lightning, Cicada strongly believed that he and the Fastest Man Alive were somehow connected, due to the fact that they gained powers by similar events. In the comics, he had the ability to absorb someone’s life-force which in turn would allow him to live up to 100 years. When he was struck by lightning, he saw a vision where he would one day, somehow, resurrect his wife.

This is what lead him to form the Cicada cult as the cult’s followers carried out the mission to kill anyone that The Flash had saved. They would use daggers that would be shaped in the form of a lightning bolt to murder these people. Cicada is one of Wally West’s villains when he was carrying the mantle of the Flash.

While the description doesn’t mention him being able to create lightning bolt daggers, it could simply be a change for the TV adaptation. The dampening of other meta-humans’ abilities definitely seems to be a creative choice as this could set up the arc of a big bad who wants to punish the meta-humans in Central City, should this be Cicada. It remains to be seen whether or not he would have his cult with him, but given that he would be trying to eradicate meta-humans of the city, a cult would work for the story.

It would also appear that this character will have his powers not come from Harrison Wells’ (a.k.a. Eobard Thawne) particle accelerator explosion. It will most likely be revealed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con who is portraying Cicada as they’ll hopefully release new details about the theme of Season 5. Production is set to start sometime in July in Vancouver, Canada, along with the other Arrowverse shows.

If this is Cicada, who would you like to see play this villain? What do you hope to see in The Flash Season 5? Sound off in the comments below and stay tuned here at That Hashtag Show for everything trending in geek pop culture!