When The Flash returns next week, Barry Allen and the S.T.A.R. Labs team will pick up where they left off amidst the trials and tribulations of Central City. Though the series' second season has already introduced the terrifying Zoom as the Big Bad, other comic book antagonists continue to trickle in. One of the newest additions, as played by Aaron Douglas of Battlestar Galactica fame, is a legacy villain from The Flash comics known as The Turtle.

As EW reports, the Turtle will appear in the show's mid-season premiere. The comics' version of the character began as a 1940s antagonist of Jay Garrick's Flash (Teddy Sears) who used tricks to slow down the speedster. The next iteration was a scientific genius by the name of "Turtle Man" who developed speed-slowing devices in order to battle Barry Allen (Grant Gustin). On the show, however, the team is expected to hunt down a meta-human take on the Turtle who can slow down time itself.

Image via NBC Universal Television[/caption]

As executive producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed:

“In a surprisingly funny twist, Cisco [Carlos Valdes] has actually been hunting The Turtle the entire series. To Barry’s surprise, everybody knows about Cisco’s hunt for the great white whale, which is The Turtle; he’s the only one who didn’t know about it. We love the idea that there was a villain out there that they knew about, but they just haven’t bothered to tell the audience about yet. All Barry wants to do is get faster, because if he can get faster, he can take on Zoom. He’s going up against a villain who is literally slowing him down. This is one of our best episodes coming back that we’ve ever done. It feels big and emotional.”

Meanwhile, as CBR reports, The Flash/Arrow spin-off series Legends of Tomorrow will enjoy an extra-long runtime for its premiere. The series debut on Thursday, January 21st, will receive an additional few minutes, running from 8:00 p.m through 9:02:50 p.m.

You can also watch a new promo for Legends of Tomorrow below: