‘The Flash’ Spoilers: Season 4’s Non-Speedster Villain Revealed

“The Flash” Season 4 big bad has been revealed.

Sources told TVLine that the villain Barry (Grant Gustin) and his team will face next season is none other than Clifford DeVoe a.k.a. The Thinker. DeVoe’s arrival in Central City was first teased in Season 3, episode 18, in which Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian), an Earth-19 technologically-enhanced villain from the 64th century, talked about The Flash’s most dangerous foes, mentioning Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh/Matt Letscher), Zoom (Teddy Sears), Savitar (also played by Gustin) and DeVoe.

In last month’s Season 3 finale, Savitar also mentioned DeVoe’s name while roaming around S.T.A.R. Labs’ interiors. “This is where we came up with the cerebral inhibitor… to use against DeVoe,” he said moments before the final showdown between him and Team Flash. When Barry asked who DeVoe is, Savitar shrugged before saying, “You haven’t gotten there yet.”

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According to Comicbook.com, DeVoe is one of the earliest villains of the Flash in the comics. Created by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard in September 1943, DeVoe faced off against three generations of Flashes before his ultimate demise in “The Flash #134” in 1998.

After his death, Mister Terrific used DeVoe’s mind control gadget Thinking-Cap to create an artificial intelligence (AI) based on his brain-patterns. The system, however, gained consciousness and took on a visual hologram form. As the new The Thinker, the AI teamed up with Johnny Sorrow’s modern Injustice Society, gave the villainous group intel about the Justice Society members, and turned the heroes’ own headquarters against them. When he was defeated by the Star-Spangled Kid, the AI retreated into the cyberspace.

The Thinker later showed up in Keystone City in an attempt to control every brain in the city to increase his power. When Cyborg defeated it, the AI retreated into cyberspace again.

During the “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow” panel at PaleyFest last March, executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed that Season 4’s big bad will not be another speedster. “Next season we’re not going to have a speedster as the villain,” Kreisberg said.

Executive producers Todd and Aaron Helbing also revealed at the same event that they are planning to dial down the time travel and alternate reality concepts in Season 4. “We haven’t really talked that much about Season 4 yet, but I don’t think we’re going to do as much time traveling,” Todd said.

“We like playing with the timelines and the different time periods and future and past. [But] for now, I think we’re going to focus on the present,” added Aaron.

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“The Flash” Season 4 premieres in the fall on The CW.