Eobard Thawne (Arrowverse)

In season one, Harrison Wells is introduced as the director of S.T.A.R. Labs, Central City on Earth-1. He activates a particle accelerator which explodes, allowing dark matter energy released to transform various people, including Barry Allen, into metahumans. Months later, Wells has become a recluse and a pariah of Central City while he and his assistants Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow help Barry as the Flash; Wells pushes Barry to run faster to increase abilities as a speedster by taking down metahuman criminals. Unknown to the rest of the team, Wells is faking paralysis and has a hidden futuristic time vault within S.T.A.R. Labs, from which he conducts surveillance on his co-workers.[2][3] He demonstrates a desire to keep Barry safe from harm, and murders Simon Stagg for seeking to exploit the Flash's powers.[4] He ultimately appears as a tachyon-enhanced speedster who is dubbed the "Reverse-Flash", and bests Barry in combat.[5][6] "Wells" is later revealed to be Eobard Thawne, the Flash's archenemy from the 22nd century and a descendant of police officer Eddie Thawne.[7] Traveling to the 21st century to erase the Flash from history by murdering Nora Allen and framing Henry Allen, Thawne is left stranded with his Speed Force connection severed so he killed the real Wells and assumed his identity.[8] As Wells, he then founded S.T.A.R. Labs and created the particle accelerator to turn Barry into the Flash, hoping to use Barry's pure Speed Force connection to return home.[9] After being exposed and later captured by Barry with help from Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein,[10] Thawne offers Barry a chance to travel back in time to save the Allen family in exchange for a time machine to return to the 22nd century. Barry ultimately refuses and destroys Thawne's machine. The two speedsters then fight, with Thawne prevailing until Eddie shoots himself, seemingly erasing Thawne from existence.[9]

In subsequent seasons, Thawne makes sporadic appearances. In season two, a flash drive containing Thawne's will as Wells bequeathes S.T.A.R. Labs to Barry and a video-recorded confession to Nora's murder which allowed for Henry's exoneration.[11] Barry later travels back in time to season one's timeframe to obtain Thawne's help with tachyon equipment.[12] In season three, Barry saves Nora from Thawne's true form who is locked up in a prison. After the Flashpoint timeline's dangers, Barry realizes the mistake and releases Thawne to kill Nora again hoping the timeline will revert to normal.[13] In season four, Thawne is revealed to clearly know of and admired Clifford DeVoe.[14]

In season five, Thawne – still with the appearance of Wells – is revealed to be the secret mentor of Nora West-Allen, Barry's and Iris West-Allen's future daughter. Imprisoned in Iron Heights in 2049[15] under a death sentence and routinely tortured by a corrupt prison guard,[16] he professes to Nora that he helps to ensure a better legacy for himself than simply being known only as an evil speedster.[17] Nora first approached Thawne for his help in capturing Godspeed after Nora's own speed powers are discovered, and believed him to be the only person to be trust after learning that Iris deliberately suppressed Nora's powers. Thawne agreed to train Nora in the use of speed, revealing Barry's identity.[16] It was Thawne's suggestion that Nora help Barry with DeVoe's crashing satellite,[18] and the pair routinely keep in touch through Nora's journal.[15] Barry ultimately returns Nora to 2049 after learning of Nora's connection with Thawne and goes to confront Thawne personally. Thawne asks Barry not to hold the secrecy against Nora as a condemned man's final request.[16] Thawne later reveals to Nora the existence of a negative Speed Force, one that allows time travel without alerting other speedsters, which Nora is unable to access until being enraged by the assumption of no longer being loved by Barry much to Thawne's consternation. Witnessing Thawne's interaction with Nora, Iris relates to Barry that Thawne, although clearly manipulating Nora, also displays an almost paternal concern and seems to genuinely care.[19] However, it is later revealed that Thawne's powers were negated by Cicada's dagger, and that the whole reason he mentored Nora for traveling to the past was to destroy the dagger and free himself. After the dagger is destroyed, Thawne is freed moments before his execution. He briefly fights Nora and Barry before Team Flash gets distracted when Nora began to be erased from existence. After the two ran away to enter the Negative Speed Force at Thawne's fervent suggestion, Thawne makes his escape.[20]

In season six, Thawne is turned into a being of negative tachyons fused with Nash Wells following the Crisis. Over the course of several months, Thawne is able to assert control. However, as he had yet to regain his speed, Team Flash catches and imprisons him at S.T.A.R. Labs.[21] After he slowly regains his connection to the Negative Speed Force, Team Flash builds a device to "exorcise" him. Despite his best efforts, Thawne is defeated once more and expelled from Nash's body. As an energy being however, he is not killed; only left without a body to possess.[22]

After escaping the Flashpoint timeline,[13] Thawne's true form appears on season two traveling through time. Due to his own nullified state of existence being an aberration, he was hunted by the Black Flash,[23] forcing him to seek out the Spear of Destiny in order to restore his natural existence.[24] Unable to find the object and outrun the enforcer at the same time, Thawne formed a supervillain alliance, intending for his 'allies' to help him search for various items that will lead him to the Spear when he can't remain in one point in time without being caught by the Black Flash.[25] Thawne and his co-conspirators eventually retrieve the Spear of Destiny, which they use to rewrite reality to their whims.[26] Despite initially succeeding, his plan was foiled by the Legends travelling back in time and de-powering the object, causing Thawne to be vaporized by the Black Flash, being restored to the timeline and his original events as Wells.[27]

During the crossover, Thawne is revealed to be an ally of the Nazi-dominated Earth-X leaders Dark Arrow and Overgirl.[28] Claiming to have resumed the appearance of Wells "for old times' sake", Thawne implies to Barry that he survived his erasure from existence due to time travel vagaries.[29][30] He assists Dark Arrow in saving Overgirl's life, along with their intent to invade Earth-1. During the final battle, Barry defeats Thawne but spares his life, and Thawne departs while his allies are killed.[31][32]

During the second part of the crossover, Barry and Oliver are hit with hallucination gas in which the two fight each other; at this time, Oliver sees the face of Thawne and Barry sees the face of Malcolm Merlyn.[33]

Cavanagh has stated many times that he enjoys playing the character of Eobard Thawne as the character is interesting, complex and challenging to portray.[39][40][41] When speaking with the Television Academy he had this to say about playing Thawne: '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.'[42] He also sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss his supervillain voice in which he said: "If you're doing it right, you can be charismatic, you can win people over, and you can have so much fun. You build a cage and then you just rattle that cage more than the leading guy can a lot."[43] Kreisberg insisted that Thawne was not 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".[44]

When asked by the Television Academy about wearing the Reverse-Flash suit, Cavanagh replied with "That’s a lot of what acting is. Often times, you’re tapping into the things you did as a youth. You pretended. A lot of us pretended to be Batman, to be our favorite super-hero. A lot of times, you pretended to have the power of imagination at your side. And the first time you put it on, the cameras are rolling, and off you go at superspeed. I’ve gotten to do some great, great thrilling stunts in the suit. It is a dream come true. I understand that it’s a job, and I’m getting paid, but the second that a director yells, “Action”, all that disappears, and you're a guy in a supersuit. It's extremely thrilling. I’ve said before that I wish that anyone who is a legitimate comic book fan could have this opportunity. It really feels like a privilege."[42] Cavanagh also said "I benefited from all the trial and error that went into that. … I think they did a marvelous job with the suit, I’m always very flattered and honored to put it on," when speaking with Access Hollywood.[45]

The critical response to Cavanagh's version of the character has been sky-high since his debut.[2] The American business magazine Forbes praised Cavanagh for his role in The Flash season 1 with Erik Kain stating "Tom 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."[46] The entertainment website Collider chose Tom Cavanagh has the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015.[47] Rotten Tomatoes ranked Tom Cavanagh's Reverse Flash as the Scariest Character on Comic Book Television as of November 2019.[48] Chancellor Agard from Entertainment Weekly praised the character of Thawne saying "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."[49]

The Flash's Eobard Thawne was ranked number 35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time.[50] He also topped Entertainment Weekly's list of 20 "best" villains on superhero TV in 2015,[51] and was included on Collider's list of Best TV Villains of 2015.[52] Cavanagh received an IGN Awards nomination for Best TV Villain for his portrayal of the character in The Flash.[53] He was also nominated for Choice TV Villain at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards.[54] Screen Rant's Jason Berman ranked Cavanagh fifth on his 2016 list 20 Best Actors in the Arrowverse.[55] The entertainment website Collider chose Tom Cavanagh as the Best TV Actor of the Week on May 18, 2015.[47]