Grant Gustin as The Flash
“The Flash” Season 3 stars Grant Gustin and Candice Patton compared Savitar’s big identity reveal to previous villain reveals on the show. The CW

“The Flash” Season 3 stars Grant Gustin and Candice Patton said that the upcoming reveal of Savitar’s real identity is unlike any other reveals the show has done before.

“It is a very different and jarring kind of reveal,” Gustin, who plays The Flash/Barry on the CW series, told The Hollywood Reporter. “I can't really tease much other than it’s going to be the hardest big bad to take down or even come up with a way to take down. It creates problems for us when we find out his true identity.”

Patton added that Savitar’s big identity reveal will match, if not top, the Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh/Matt Letscher) shocker from Season 1.

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“One of our best villain reveals was Reverse-Flash and we're always trying to live up to that,” said Patton, who plays Iris on the show. “And I really think that this is on par with that. Without giving away too much, fans are going to be shocked. I was shocked when I found out. I was wondering how they could do it and make it work and keep it a secret, but I think fans are going to be really surprised. You won’t see it coming.”

Executive producer Todd Helbing also pointed out that there’s a reason why they decided to reveal Savitar’s identity later in the current season. “Normally we have shown the identity of the villains a lot earlier in the season,” Helbing said. “[But] there’s a specific reason why we waited for this reveal until now.”

While Savitar’s big identity reveal has yet to take place, Helbing’s fellow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg made it clear that they know who Savitar is long before filming for Season 3 started.

“With Savitar, we know who he is under there,” Kreisberg said (via Entertainment Weekly) during the “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl” and “Legends of Tomorrow” panel at PaleyFest last weekend. “We’ve been planning this for a while and we’re really excited about it.”

Next week’s Season 3, episode 18 will introduce Abra Kadabra (David Dastmalchian), a villain from Earth-19 who claims to know the real identity of Savitar. According to the synopsis for the episode, Abra Kadabra is willing to reveal Savitar’s true identity to Barry if he releases him from captivity. Desperate to save Iris, Barry considers taking the deal, but Gypsy (Jessica Camacho) travels from Earth-19 to Earth-1 to capture Abra Kadabra and make him pay for his crimes.

Will Barry let go of Abra Kadabra to get some clues to Savitar’s real identity in episode 18? Only time will tell.

“The Flash” Season 3, episode 18, titled “Abra Kadabra,” airs on Tuesday, March 28 at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.