CWIn tonight's episode of The Flash, you'll see plenty of familiar faces. In fact, mostly everyone you've met before—but they'll be totally different as Barry (Grant Gustin), Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Harry Wells (Tom Cavanagh) head to a totally different, bizarro world when they travel to Earth-2 to rescue Wells' daughter from the grips of the evilest villain of them all, Zoom.
Having seen the episode, we can tell you that you should 100 percent be excited for the Gattaca-esque, futuristic-retro world of Earth-2. Don't believe us? Hopefully these teases from executive producers Todd and Aaron Helbing will help whet your appetite for Killer Frost, singing Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and more DC Comics Easter Eggs than you'll be able to spot on your first viewing. Here's what you can expect:
Things Won't Go According to Plan
What else would you expect? "Barry, Cisco and Wells—Harry—go over to Earth-2 with a definitive plan that goes awry and they are left having to improvise and find themselves in a completely different scenario than they anticipated and have a race for their life to get back," Todd teases.
Singing Joe
For a non-musical show, The Flash sure is stacked with musical talent (Glee alum Gustin, Broadway vets Martin, Cavanagh and Valdes, to name a few). So naturally the producers are always looking for an organic way to work in their cast's gifts.
On Earth-2, Joe West is a lounge singer—and yes, that means you'll get to hear Martin croon jazz standards like "My Funny Valentine." "We saw Grant sing last year, and Danielle [Panabaker]," Todd says. "Our cast, they're all extremely talented. Every time we see them do stuff like this it just blows our minds. But I think Jesse, it just felt the most organic. Wth the doppelganger aspect it just felt like the best way to introduce that ability that he has."
Doppelgangers Galore
One bonus to having an alternate universe is getting to show alternate versions of characters from the comics, or bring back characters who have died on Earth-1 (i.e. Wells or Robbie Amell's Ronnie Raymond, who shows up as Deathstorm in tonight's episode.)
"Especially with Deathstorm and Killer Frost, we teased that last year. This is very similar to getting Jesse to sing. It just felt the most appropriate and the most organic to go over there and meet Killer Frost and Deathstorm and get to see a completely different aspect of their superpowers—not really their superpowers, but their personalities that go along with those superpowers," says Todd. "Getting anybody to play a doppelganger that's evil is in some ways the most fun you can have."
A Beautiful Art Deco Aesthetic
"We have this amazing production designer, Tyler Harron, and I think the idea from the beginning was always this sort of art deco feel," Todd explains. They were going for "super retro with a modern tech aspect," adds Aaron. Once they handed the idea off to Harron, he took control. "That's basically all we have to say to Tyler and he blows everybody out of the water. He comes back with these amazing sketches of Earth-2 and what all the buildings were going to look like and it's amazing," Todd says.
Zoom Clues
It'll be a minute before we find out the true identity of Zoom, but Todd and Aaron promise that we'll begin to get more clues that will help determine the evil one's identity. "The next couple of episodes it starts to unravel," says Todd. "You get to see what's really going on." Promises Aaron, "It really starts to heat up."
Easter Eggs
If you're a DC Comics fan, you're going to love all the Easter Eggs the writers have packed into the hour—in fact, there are so many that it was hard to narrow down a list of references to include. "The ideas you have up on the board are endless so it's really hard to narrow it down, but you just try to pick and choose what you think is the best," Todd says, the ones that fans will love the most. Adds Aaron, "Hopefully we did that."
The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on The CW.