Eobard Thawne (Arrowverse)

Origins Born in the year 2151, Professor Eobard Thawne idolized a superhero speedster known as the Flash. Thawne grew bitter and jealous when the Flash, having traveled through time, saved a crowd that he had intended to rescue and, upon learning that he was destined to become the Flash's greatest enemy, grew obsessed with ruining his life as the Reverse-Flash. "Wells", along with Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, mentors Barry in defeating metahuman criminals caused by the particle accelerator explosion. Thawne pushes Barry into getting faster with the goal of using Barry's pure connection to the Speed Force to return to his own time period. To that end, Thawne also taunts and bests Barry as a tachyon-enhanced speedster—initially referred to as the "Man in Yellow" before he is dubbed the Reverse-Flash by Cisco. After Thawne's secret is discovered, Barry captures him with the help of Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein. Thawne offers Barry a chance to travel back in time to save Nora in exchange for a time machine to return to the future once the Speed Force wormhole is open, but Barry ultimately refuses and destroys Thawne's Time Sphere. Before Thawne can kill Barry, his ancestor, police detective Eddie Thawne, shoots himself which seemingly erases Thawne from existence, but not before reverting him to his original likeness. Return Thawne survives his erasure following Eddie's sacrifice due to his connection to the Negative Speed Force, which renders him immune to timeline changes. During the final battle, Barry defeats Thawne, but spares his life which allows him to speed off while his allies are killed. Imprisonment in 2049 In 2034, Thawne is captured and imprisoned in Iron Heights Penitentiary, Barry and Iris West-Allen later have the Speed Force reconstitute Thawne's corporeal form in exchange for his aid in subduing Godspeed. After he incapacitates Godspeed, Thawne double-crosses Barry and attempts to kill his nemesis, but he is easily defeated. Seeing that Barry is now faster than he is, Thawne vows vengeance and speeds off. Armageddon and final showdown To seize control of Barry's life, Thawne uses the Negative Still Force to alter the timeline and create a "Reverse-Flashpoint" reality in which he is the Flash and Barry is the Reverse-Flash. However, Barry reconnects to the Speed Force to avert the impending "Armageddon" and restores the timeline, resulting in Thawne beginning to fade from existence. To save Thawne's life, Barry severs his connection to the Negative Speed Force and has him remanded into A.R.G.U.S. custody. Thawne absorbs the Negative Forces of Nature's power which transforms him into their avatar, the Negative Reverse-Flash. Barry absorbs the Positive Forces of Nature's power to be Thawne's equal, and the two speedsters engage in a fight that threatens to bring about Armageddon. Barry realizes that neither can win, tricking Thawne into unleashing his full power, only to redirect the negative energy back into him which destroys Thawne for good. == Other versions ==

Time remnant Barry travels back in time to save Nora from Thawne after Henry's death, creating an alternate "Flashpoint" timeline in which Thawne is imprisoned. Barry later realizes this mistake and allows Thawne to kill Nora to restore the timeline. Seeking to cement his existence, Thawne forms a legion of villains to locate the fabled Spear of Destiny and rewrite reality to their whims. Thawne and his allies are initially successful before the Legends travel back in time to depower the artifact, causing Thawne to be vaporized by the Black Flash. The Speed Force later revives the time remnant (albeit powerless) to defend a certain fixed point, but Thawne aids the Legends before he is killed by Sara Lance's android doppelgänger and Nate Heywood's android doppelgänger gets tricked in his place as the fixed point's defender. As a reward for his sacrifice in protecting the timeline, Thawne's time remnant is offered an opportunity for redemption when the Speed Force resurrects him without his memories. Feeling inexplicably compelled to be a speedster, he works with Fast Track Labs' CEO Meena Dhawan to create an artificial Speed Force device. Thawne falls in love with Meena and gives up his dream when he uses the device to save Meena's life, inadvertently connecting Meena to the Negative Speed Force. Thawne works with Barry to free Meena from its influence and works alongside them against the Negative Forces who ultimately sacrificed him so that his original doppelgänger can be restored in his body. == Concept and development ==

On February 10, 2014, Tom Cavanagh was set to join The Flash as Harrison Wells. To play Harrison Wells, Cavanagh opted to homage Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs by dressing in black to make clear his character was someone with a visionary vision like Jobs. The producers of the show said the following about the character: 'There's obviously more that meets the eye when you see Harrison Wells. ... His motivations are a big mystery, and tracking that through has been a very interesting ride with Mr. Cavanagh.' In episode fifteen, Cavanagh was revealed to be playing Eobard Thawne. Regarding this, co-creator Andrew Kreisberg said the character Eddie Thawne served as a red herring so that comic book fans would suspect the latter is the Reverse-Flash because of their same surname without realizing it is actually Wells. Letscher was offered the role in December 2014, being cast due to his previous collaboration with Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti in the ABC television series Eli Stone. Cavanagh and Letscher had discussions about playing the character, with Letscher learning how Cavanagh pronounced their character's last name and taking notes by looking at past episodes on how the latter plays Thawne in public and then when Thawne is alone with Gideon, Cavanagh would continue to primarily portray Thawne on The Flash, while Letscher subsequently played a time-displaced version of the character on The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. For the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover event, only Cavanagh returned to play Thawne; Letscher confirmed on his Twitter account that he was not asked to return. Letscher was similarly not contacted to reprise the role for the fifth season of The Flash, a decision showrunner Todd Helbing credited for Cavanagh's Thawne making sense in a "weird, time travel way" and being applicable to the season's "legacy" theme. Cavanagh would later be reported to appear as Thawne in the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover event, which aligned with the allusion in the first season of The Flash that Thawne would have a role in a potential adaptation of Marv Wolfman's and George Pérez's 1985 comic book storyline of the same name. However, Thawne ultimately did not feature in the crossover. In an interview with TVLine, executive producer Marc Guggenheim attributed the decision of not having Thawne included to the newspaper headlines hinting at his involvement in the show's first season having been written by showrunners, like Kreisberg, no longer involved in the shows or the crossover, plus Thawne's already prominent presences in previous crossovers like "Elseworlds", citing Thawne's exclusion as a "hard story choice" to make given his fondness for the character. While the character has cheated death numerous times in the Arrowverse, Thawne's demise was intended to be permanent in the season eight finale of The Flash, which was written to serve as a series finale should the show not be renewed. When the series was renewed for a ninth and final season, however, both Cavanagh and Letscher's versions of the character returned in the four-part series finale. Letscher was brought back for the first part, an episode that closes the time loop where Thawne gets trapped in the past, while Cavanagh reprised his role in the fourth and final episode. Eric Wallace (showrunner of The Flash since 2019) stated that Barry Allen's story had to end with one final confrontation with his archenemy and that bringing the Reverse-Flash back for the series finale was always part of the show's plan. == Characterization ==

Portrayal Cavanagh has stated many times that he enjoys playing Eobard Thawne as the character is interesting, complex, and challenging. When speaking with the Television Academy about playing the character, Cavanagh said: 'The Reverse-Flash has what I like to a call timeless way of speaking. He doesn't use colloquialisms from 2016, he's a little more formal, and he takes joy in destroying people. He has a larger perspective because he comes from 100-plus years in the future and has seen it all. It's easy to play a character like that. He's the arch in arch-villain.' Kreisberg insisted that Thawne was not entirely evil because his fatherly affection for Cisco was genuine, and "he has a reason for doing what he's doing and he has an agenda and he thinks of himself as the hero ... bad people are capable of incredible amounts of kindness and generosity". == In other media ==

• Cavanagh reprised his role as the Reverse-Flash in The CW's Superhero Fight Club promotional video, which was released in April 2015. • Cavanagh's portrayal of the Reverse-Flash was added as a playable character in the mobile version of the video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. • Cavanagh reprised his role and voiced Thawne masquerading as Wells in the Robot Chicken episode "Ants on a Hamburger". == Reception ==

Critical response Tom Cavanagh's portrayal of Eobard Thawne has received critical praise since the first season. Erik Kain from Forbes stated that Cavanagh "is uncanny, a perfect fit for the ominous yet likable villain. All his lines and statements connect with audiences precisely because of how well Cavanagh pulls off the role, and how well that role is written". Collider chose Tom Cavanagh as the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015. Chancellor Agard from Entertainment Weekly wrote "No matter how many ups and downs The Flash has had over its run, it has never faltered when it comes to its characterization of Thawne". Accolades The Flashs Eobard Thawne was ranked number 35 on Rolling Stones list of the 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time. He also topped Entertainment Weeklys list of 20 "best" villains on superhero TV in 2015, and was included on Collider's list of Best TV Villains of 2015. Cavanagh received an IGN Awards nomination for Best TV Villain for his portrayal of the character in The Flash. He was also nominated for Choice TV Villain at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. Screen Rants Jason Berman ranked Cavanagh fifth on his 2016 list 20 Best Actors in the Arrowverse. The entertainment website Collider chose Tom Cavanagh as the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015. == References ==