The Flash: Exclusive first look at Tom Felton

Tom Felton is coming to The Flash — and EW has an exclusive first look at his debut.

With Tom Felton joining The Flash in season 3, one burning question remains unanswered: How will The CW’s super series now handle Harry Potter jokes? The Flash — particularly when it comes to the Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes) character — has always been ripe with pop culture references, Harry Potter being no exception. But now that Felton has been added to the cast as CSI tech Julian Dorn, will that throw a wrench in future jokes about the boy who lived? In short, no!

“Tom Felton is portraying a character on our show — he’s not portraying Tom Felton,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg tells EW. “Cisco will continue to make pop culture references. We’re, generally speaking, not afraid to have a little bit of a meta-moment.”

In fact, Felton hopes his character is the first to make a Potter joke in season 3. “I’m so excited for the references,” Felton says. “I don’t doubt the talent and creativity of the writers. I’ve got a feeling they’ll come up with some real good ones. I hadn’t thought about me saying it — I assumed it would come at me from Cisco — but maybe I should give it to Cisco. Maybe he should misquote something and I could correct him.”

Though Felton doesn’t appear in the premiere episode, executive producer Todd Helbing teases that he’ll act as a rival, of sorts, for Barry (Grant Gustin) this season. “He’s a direct result of Flashpoint,” Helbing says. “Barry’s had that lab to himself, but now he’s got to share it with this guy, who doesn’t really like him and is kind of prickly.”

The Flash returns Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.