The Flash's Newest Flash: How Will Wally West Handle His New Responsibility?

Keiynan Lonsdale sounds off on Wally West's newfound confidence.

By Lauren Piester Feb 07, 2017 9:27 PMTags
The FlashThe CW

Wally West is finally the superhero he's been dreaming of being, and Kid Flash is officially on his way to saving the world. 

It was somewhat of a long road for The Flash's newest speedster (Keiynan Lonsdale) to finally be allowed to suit up and run alongside Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), but in the past two episodes, Kid Flash has finally been able to let his superhero flag fly. In last week's episode, Barry even realized that perhaps the secret to saving Iris (Candice Patton) from Savitar is to let her brother be the one to do the saving, meaning the Kid is going to have to do a lot of growing up in the next few months. 

That means that we're in for some superhero lessons as Barry takes Wally under his wing. 

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"It's that classic side-by-side team-up," Keiynan Lonsdale tells E! News of what's to come now that Barry has given Wally such a big responsibility. "We get to see the Flash training Kid Flash, and I think that's so much fun. It also, for Wally, it gives him confidence in himself, because a lot in the season, he felt that even when he didn't have powers, with or without powers, people were questioning his ability to be responsible and to take care of himself. The fact that Barry has made that decision, it tells Wally that Barry believes in him, and that's such a huge thing."

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While Barry believes that Wally is capable of being the hero who takes down Savitar and changes the future, he still has a long way to go before he's on Barry's level. 

"He hasn't come across all these villains and had them take all these things away from him," Lonsdale says of Wally's shortcomings. "He hasn't dealt with that sort of tragedy, so because of that, he has this sort of cockiness to him, and I think at first, this is very exciting that he gets to learn new things and become faster and he's got fans, and he loves that, but he definitely needs to learn a lot outside of just becoming faster, for sure." 

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Becoming faster isn't the only thing that Wally needs to learn to do, but that doesn't mean we won't see Wally struggling with the classic Flash problem of not being fast enough. Promos for tonight's episode show Wally dismayed at not being fast enough to prevent Iris from being injured by the latest metahuman, and Lonsdale says that he's not going to take it easy on himself. 

"I think he will very much blame himself," he tells us. "I think as much as he is confident, he does struggle with self-confidence at the same time, feeling like he's not good enough, feeling like he's not fast enough, feeling like people don't believe in him, or he can't do something because he can't be trusted." 

As for how Kid Flash will fit into The Flash as he gets better and better at doing his new job, executive producer Aaron Helbing explained that the show is no stranger to the mentor/mentee relationship, reminding us that this is not the first instance of two Flashes.

"When we started the series, we had the Reverse Flash and we had the Flash, but ironically the Reverse Flash served as a mentor to the Flash," Helbing told us, referring to that entire season where Barry had no idea that his hero and mentor, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanagh) was the villain in disguise who was determined to help Barry become faster for his own purposes. "Now it's kind of a role reversal where Barry is kind of the seasoned veteran, and he gets to help teach and mentor Kid Flash." 

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"I mean, the thing about Kid Flash that we really set up last season is that he loves speed, he loves danger, and he's kind of cocky," Helbing says. "What he has to realize, and what Barry will teach him, is that to be the fastest man alive, sometimes you actually have to just slow down and get your bearings and that will help you become a better Flash, which ironically Barry learned from Oliver, so Barry's now started to become almost like a father figure to Wally in that respect."

Helbing also says that as much as we're going to be seeing Barry mentoring Wally, the show will also be exploring the "friendly rivalry" between the two speedsters.

"I think that's kind of inevitable, because of one, Wally's personality, and two, I mean, he does want to be the fastest man alive. There's now someone faster than Wally. He's used to being the best, when he was a drag racer, and so he's always going to push himself to be the best." 

Hopefully, friendly rivalry or not, the two Flashes can get their heads together in time to prevent Iris' death, because that's one tragedy we refuse to suffer. 

The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.