The Flash: Hartley Sawyer talks Ralph’s journey and the arrival of Sue in season 6

Cutluress sat down with The Flash star Hartley Sawyer at an SDCC press round-table to discuss Ralph’s journey so far, his chances at a new costume this year, and Sue’s arrival in season 6.

When we first met Ralph Dibny on The Flash two seasons ago, he was hardly what you’d call a hero. But with time, Elongated Man not only grew to become a key part of Team Flash, but a welcome source of both heart and comic relief on the show.

Now, with the gang still reeling from West-Allen daughter Nora being basically unwritten from reality, Cisco’s decision to take the metahuman cure, and at little impending disaster known as “Crisis on Infinite Earths” looming in the distance, there’s every reason to hope that this season may be Ralph’s time to truly shine in his own right.

Culturess got the chance to catch up with actor Hartley Sawyer, who plays Ralph, during a San Diego Comic-Con press roundtable, and he sounds genuinely excited to see where season 6 will take his character. Apparently, in the wake of Cisco’s decision to give up his metahuman powers, we’ll see Ralph out in the field with the team more often.

“Cisco still has tremendous abilities as an intellect, as a genius, a prodigy and all that stuff. But him not being in the field? You’re a team member down, and that creates different adjustments and different threats for Barry and the rest of Team Flash,” Sawyer explained. “You need numbers out there, to be able to combat these threats that are coming.”

[Insert your own Crisis joke here, folks. Everyone else did.]

“I think [Ralph] will be out there more, and will step it up in terms of being in a leadership position. You know, he’s at a point where he’s ripened enough where he knows how to do all this stuff. Barry taught him all that stuff in season 4, and he had to work [on it] all through season 5. It’s just part of him now.”

We’ll also see more of Ralph in private investigator mode this season.

“We’re going to continue the progression into the detective aspect [of his character] that we started last year and ended with him figuring out Thawne and the dagger and all that stuff,” Sawyer said.

“I think he’s gonna be a little more independent this year,” he elaborated. “We’re going to finally see more of what he does when he’s doing that private eye stuff, and how good he really is at it.”

But for the character of Ralph Dibny – and Sawyer repeatedly mentioned this – all stories eventually lead to Sue. That’s Sue Dearborn, of course, the character who eventually becomes Ralph’s wife in the Flash comics.

At the end of season 5, we saw Ralph find a file for a case subtitled “Dearborn,” indicating that Sue’s Arrowverse debut can’t be too far away.

“Sue Dibny is going to come in at some point this season, and that’s gonna change him forever,” Sawyer declared.

When asked about whether he was excited to portray this iconic relationship from the comics, however, Sawyer did admit to feeling some nerves about it.

“I am excited,” he said. “But I’m also nervous, because I feel like ever since I started this show that all roads have been leading to that. I think with Ralph Dibny, all roads lead to Sue, right?”

“I want that to be good. I want it to be really good. And I’m excited. But, boy, that’s a big thing,” Sawyer admits. “It’s like when you meet the Joker in a Batman movie. This is a big, big thing for this character. So you want it to be amazing, to be great.

“And I think it’s going to come down in a lot of ways to the casting,” he said, before admitting that no one has yet been given the role that he knows of. “Whoever ends up playing Sue Dibny, I think that’s going to be a very interesting thing, to see what happens.”

One thing that probably won’t be happening for Sawyer’s character this season, unfortunately, is a new costume. (Spoiler alert: Elongated Man’s look could really use an update, if you ask me.) But, despite the fact that Barry and Caitlin/Killer Frost will be sporting new duds this season, it doesn’t sound as though Ralph will. At least, not anytime soon.

“That’s something we haven’t talked about yet,” Sawyer admitted. “It’s tricky, because when I look at the Ralph Dibney costumes, you know, the orange one? I just really don’t see the orange one working. It’s a little too “walking highlighter”. I love the purple/kind of mauve thing. And then the other one I really love is the red one. But we’ve got a guy that kind of has the market cornered on red. And it’s his show!”

“I think if anything happens with a new suit, it’s going to be after Christmas,” Sawyer said.

The Flash returns for its sixth season this fall on The CW.