DC's The Flash is known to have one of the most expansive and unusual galleries of enemies (traditionally referred to as "The Rogues") of any superhero, second perhaps only to the likes of Batman or Spider-Man. And while numerous members of that criminal menagerie have already made their way into the continuity of the character's popular live-action series on The CW, fans are always eager to see more Rogues turn up to shake things up for Barry Allen and company.
We recently learned that one of the villains being cast for the upcoming season was a version of classic Flash rogue Roscoe Dillon, also known as The Top, but the casting call described the character as being female. Now it seems that The Flash has found it's gender-swapped Top.
TVLine reports that Ashley Rickards has been cast as Rosa Dillon, a.k.a. The Top. The actress, a veteran of One Tree Hill and MTV's Awkward, will join the currently in-production season of the hit superhero series in a yet to be disclosed capacity, though she is described as a "guest-star" which likely means a one-off appearance or participation in only a fixed number of episodes.
The Top is considered one of the more unusually-powered supervillains in the DC canon - and with good reason. As a boy, Roscoe Dillon was obsessed with toy tops and, as an adult, taught himself how to spin his body fast enough to deflect bullets and achieve other superhuman physical feats. Donning a unique green and yellow striped bodysuit that allowed him to increase the potency and balance of his super-spinning abilities, he became a frequent thorn in the side of The Flash - and eventually achieved psionic/telekinetic mind powers as the physiological effects of constant spinning altered the chemistry of his brain. He also figured in a particularly grim storyline involving the desecration of the grave of Barry Allen's wife.
Fans will note that in the comics Dillon has led a fairly chaotic existence in terms of physical identity, so being gender-swapped is one of the least strange things to have happened to the character. At one point he died but returned to wreak havoc by possessing the bodies of coma patients as a ghost, and he figured prominently in the controversial miniseries Identity Crisis, where it was revealed that for a time a secret subgroup of Justice League members had conspired to use psychic-manipulation to alter the minds of certain villains in order to render them less threatening - at one point attempting to transform Dillon into a hero.
The Flash season 3 will premiere Tuesday October 4th at 8pm on The CW, Arrow season 5 will premiere in the same timeslot on Wednesday October 5th, Supergirl season 2 on Monday October 10th, and Legends of Tomorrow season 2 on Thursday October 13th.
Source: TVLine