There's a new Big Bad coming to Central City.
During yesterday's Warner Bros. Television/DC TV at San Diego Comic-Con 2018, the creators and cast of The CW series The Flash announced that Chris Klein has been cast as David Hersch, better known to DC Comics fans as the supervillain Cicada.According to Deadline, Cicada is described as "a grizzled, blue-collar everyman whose family has been torn apart by metahumans, Cicada now seeks to exterminate the epidemic — one metahuman at a time."
Klein, 39, is best known as Chris "Oz" Ostreicher in the American Pie films. His other movies include Election, Rollerball (2002), We Were Soldiers, Just Friends, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, and Authors Anonymous. In addition, he's appeared in episodes of the television series The Grinder, Raising Hope, Franklin & Bash, Wilfred, The Good Guys, and American Dad!
Created in 2001 by Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins, Cicada first appeared in The Flash (vol.2) #170 as David Hersch, a man who murdered his wife and sought to end his own life, when he was struck by a bolt of lightning. He discovered that he had gained the ability to absorb the lifeforce of others, extending his lifespan almost a century. He believed the accident was the same as Wally West's, the third Flash, and that they should be linked. The lightning bolt gave him a vision of his own immortality and foretold the resurrection of his wife. Over the following years, he operated as the cult leader Cicada, accumulating many followers planning for the day he would resurrect his wife.
The Cicada cult and its followers were dedicated to the murder of everyone that the Flash had ever saved using lightning bolt shaped daggers. He teamed up with the Flash's ex-girlfriend Magenta and managed to kidnap him. Cicada revealed to Wally that his wife was murdered and he was struck by lightning, giving him a powerful vision. By taking the energy left over from all the people the Flash has saved and from the Flash himself, Cicada succeeded in bringing his wife back from the dead.
However, his wife revealed that Cicada had murdered her. Cicada denied this and killed his wife once again by absorbing her energy through a kiss. He was eventually stopped by the Flash, along with Keystone City Police Detective Jared Morillo and Officer Fred Chyre, but not before he managed to slash Morillo with his knife. This gave Morillo the ability to heal rapidly from any injury, similar to Cicada's.
Cicada was put on death row in Iron Heights prison, pending confirmation by S.T.A.R. Labs that he could even be killed in the first place, but escaped during Gorilla Grodd's jailbreak. Cicada later appeared at Captain Boomerang's funeral and accepted an invitation to join Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s Secret Society of Super-Villains during the event known as Infinite Crisis.
The Flash returns to The CW for Season 5 on October 9, 2018.