Team Flash’s resident stretchy P.I. superhero will be sticking around Central City for an extended stay.
Hartley Sawyer – aka Ralph Dibny aka The Elongated Man – has been promoted to series regular on The Flash for the series’ fifth season. Before The Flash, his previous series regular role was that of Kyle Abbot on CBS’s The Young And The Restless.
Introduced during the fourth season last year, the show’s take on the character was that of a disgraced CCPD officer for evidence tampering with a grudge against a then-rookie Barry Allen for busting him. After being empowered with dark matter energy from Barry’s return from the Speed Force, the now-rubberized Ralph was recruited by his former rival and trained as a hero. Although the handling of Elongated Man had its share of high and low points, his inclusion contributed much to the lighter tone of the season after its previously dark years. Further, Elongated Man proved multilayered in character and integral in the final defeat of Clifford DeVoe aka The Thinker (Neil Sandilands).
Given that Ralph has been made a permanent fixture of Team Flash, it leaves the viewer to expect the writing to remain light in tone for better or worse. The news comes shortly after former series regular Keinyan Lonsdale aka Wally West aka Kid Flash announced his departure from both The Flash and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Besides Sawyer, Danielle Nicolet’s Cecile Horton – D.A. and Joe West’s new baby mama – has also been promoted to series regular.
The Flash returns for its fifth season on the CW on its regular in early October.
