"The Flash" Casts Wally West

[CBR News]

Wally West -- the main Flash of DC Comics for many years -- will join the cast of "The Flash" season two, as played by Keiynan Lonsdale.


Full article here.

[xMatt]

Hey! This guy's Australian! He was on a teen-drama called "Dance Academy" over here, which I'll admit was a guilty pleasure!

THIS IS GREAT NEWS FOR HIM!

[Robotman]

the show is probably the main reason why they changed Wally's ethnicity in the comics. Once they show runners decided the West family was going to be African American DC was probably told to make the change with New 52 Wally West. Diane Nelson wants cohesion between the brands.
i'm not a fan of Wally's ethnicity change. i wish they would've just created a new character if they really wanted to add diversity.

[King's_Gambit]

the show is probably the main reason why they changed Wally's ethnicity in the comics. Once they show runners decided the West family was going to be African American DC was probably told to make the change with New 52 Wally West. Diane Nelson wants cohesion between the brands.
i'm not a fan of Wally's ethnicity change. i wish they would've just created a new character if they really wanted to add diversity.

Doesn't help that the New 52 Wally West is a genuinely terrible character. Utterly unlikable, incredibly annoying, and pretty much useless.

there's always a chance that another, better writer could redeem the character but what Venditti and Jensen are doing just is not working.

[Dark Soul # 7]

Wally is my favourite Flash and I'm happy that he's going to be in the show.

When it comes to his ethnicity. I'm honestly too excited that he's on the show to really care.

[Jim Kelly]

I wonder how he will be related to Joe and Iris.

[Vakanai]

I've heard terrible, terrible things about new52 Wally West. But the TV show is great so I trust this version of Wally will be awesome.

[Triple J]

the show is probably the main reason why they changed Wally's ethnicity in the comics. Once they show runners decided the West family was going to be African American DC was probably told to make the change with New 52 Wally West. Diane Nelson wants cohesion between the brands.
i'm not a fan of Wally's ethnicity change. i wish they would've just created a new character if they really wanted to add diversity.

I don't care about the ethnicity - but I don't like is how it affected Wally's character in new 52 (following race stereotypes for instance). Hope they don't make the same mistake in the tv show.

[Frontier]

Awesome to finally have Wally cast, and I hope that on the show they have him actually act as Wally West and not like the New 52 version. Judging by the comments on his casting, and the show's track record, sounds like that will probably be the case .

So he has a recurring role, and his once being Kid Flash is directly mentioned in the description, so I wonder if that's pretty much confirmation that they intend for him to become Kid Flash on the show?

[Agent Z]

Hopefully, he's handled better in the show than in the comics.

[Outside_85]

the show is probably the main reason why they changed Wally's ethnicity in the comics. Once they show runners decided the West family was going to be African American DC was probably told to make the change with New 52 Wally West. Diane Nelson wants cohesion between the brands.
i'm not a fan of Wally's ethnicity change. i wish they would've just created a new character if they really wanted to add diversity.

This. Along with:

I kinda have to wonder with those who argue that Wally's color doesn't matter to the character (which kinda ignores the fact that Wally is, or was, the Blue Valley kid, he was more midlands American than anyone in DC including Clark Kent, which included a nasty streak towards communists).
But if this is ultimately true, then would it bother them if they had made the same change to Barry?

Aside that I am wholeheartedly in agreement that they should just have invented a new character for this and just put the effort into making people care.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Oh boy, the fanboys are gonna have a field day with this one. I'm pretty neutral when it comes to Wally's race/ethnicity change, but I do understand why some people would be married to a particular image they have of the character.

For a long while, DC really did play up the whole Midwestern redhead with freckles image for Wally. Hell, part of me thinks that if DC just slapped red hair and freckles on this version of Wally, people would be more accepting.

[Dr. Skeleton]

The New 52 version.

...great...

[Cmbmool]

That's funny, they didn't even mention the BACKLASH THAT THE NEW 52 Wally Brought to the comics when he was introduced in the article.

[FlashingSabre]

As long as he's written like Wally, and not generic street punk #567(like in the Venditti Flash run), this is awesome.

Great to see my favorite superhero on screen.