Tom Felton will not be returning as a series regular in the upcoming fourth season of The Flash. The former Harry Potter actor was first introduced in the season three premiere of The Flash last year, a rival CSI expert named Julian Dorn, who was also a byproduct of Barry's (Grant Gustin) altering of the timeline, and even stuck around after Barry went back to try and correct the timeline. And while Julian may have initially had ties to one of the show's main villains last season, he wound up sticking around as a seemingly permanent member of Team Flash and had even emerged as a viable love interest for Danielle Panabaker's Caitlin Snow.

However, the season three ending - which involved Barry being trapped in the Speed Force and a time jump ahead at least six months - what exactly The Flash would look like when it returned with its fourth season was a complete mystery. And after being missing from The Flash season 4's Comic-Con trailer last week, it looks as though Felton's Julian won't factor in (initially at least) into the main ensemble when the series returns later this October.

EW is reporting that despite filming being underway on The Flash season 4, and his character's apparent importance to the team at the end of the last season, Felton will not be returning as a series regular in the new season. The report goes on to state that while it's possible Felton could reprise his role as Julian sometime down the line, the actor has yet to be booked for a return appearance in any of the already filmed and written episodes up until this point, casting his possible inclusion in the future of the series into question.

Felton's omission from the season's main ensemble also comes following a wide array of casting announcements of The Flash's fourth season over the past few weeks. In addition to the recent announcement that Neil Sandilands would be playing Clifford Devoe a.k.a. The Thinker, the new season has also cast Kim Engelbrecht as The Mechanic, a highly intelligent engineer who designs devices for Devoe, Danny Trejo as a feared bounty hunter from Earth-19 named Breacher, and more.

While The Flash's third season was its most decidedly mixed, most fans and critics would agree that Felton's performance as Julian was not a contributing factor to the season's overall quality, which makes Felton's disappearance from the season as a series regular that much more peculiar. And whether or not his exclusion was a part of the creative team's plan to move The Flash back into a lighter tone in the fourth season, will just have to wait to be seen.

MORE: The Flash Season 4 Comic-Con 2017 Trailer

The Flash season 4 will premiere on Tuesday, October 10, 2017, on The CW.

Source: EW