The Flash is known for having — after the Batman and Spider-Man — the best rogues gallery in comic book history, including Captain Cold, Heat Wave, and the Reverse-Flash. Fortunately, he’s also got some of the best super-powered allies to lend him a helping hand, among them Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein, who together are known as Firestorm. All of these four-color icons — as embodied by TV favorites like Prison Break‘s Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell as the aforementioned temperature-based titans and Robbie Amell and Alias‘ Victor Garber as the nuclear-powered pal — joined Flash stars Grant Gustin and Tom Cavanagh, and executive producers Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, on a special “Heroes and Villains” panel presented by the CW at this week’s TCA Winter Press Tour. Here’s what they had to say about their casting, the identity of the Reverse-Flash, and the super-speed action to come when The Flash returns on January 20th.

On the epic Flash/Arrow crossover episodes…

Grant Gustin: For Flash it was still very early on. So it was incredibly overwhelming to be shooting two shows at once. But we made it work, and we had a lot of fun in the midst of the craziness, and it turned out great, because everybody loved it…

On the casting of Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell as Captain Cold and Heat Wave…

Andrew Kreisberg: Well, it was Greg’s idea to go after Wentworth. And I believe Dominic is here because of Wentworth. Because we asked Wentworth if he had any ideas for Heat Wave.

Dominic Purcell: I’ve often said that Wentworth and I have an intuitive understanding of each other as human beings, firstly. That resonates with us on screen. The last time we worked together has been five years back, and I remember the first day on the set it was just there, the magic was there, the ease, the flow. We just work really well together. I mean, I wasn’t sitting back home saying, “God, I want to do The Flash.”

AK: Oh, man. [Laughs.]

DP: But I got a call from Wentworth saying, “Hey, I’m doing this show, The Flash,” and I said, “Oh, that’s great. Congratulations.” Then he said, “Would you come on board,” and I said, “Absolutely.” I’d love to work with Wentworth. I’m pretty naive to the whole comic book world. I, of course, have done my research now. My kids think it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my fucking life. [Laughs.] I’m having so much fun with this character. I mean, he allows me to be bold and big and broad and explosive, and things that I really appreciate and enjoy… I mean this is my best role beside Lincoln in Prison Break. This is the most fun I’ve had as an actor, because we were allowed to not be so serious. You know, we get to play and we get to be broad and we get to kind of be like Heath Ledger and The Joker. I mean, it’s just so much fun.

Wentworth Miller: One of the best things about working with Dominic is that we’ve got chemistry, we’ve got intimacy, we’ve got history. And these are qualities that our characters share as well. You’re meant to believe that Heat Wave and Captain Cold have spent time in the trenches together. We just had that inherently as actors the moment they yelled “Action.” So that was a real advantage.

On whether or not Wells is the Reverse-Flash…

Tom Cavanagh: Yes, I am Reverse-Flash… He’s the Reverse-Flash, but also Harrison Wells, you know. And his agendas don’t necessarily make him a mustache-twirling bad guy. He needs Barry to do well, and essentially, Barry needs him to further his own powers.

On Victor Garber’s casting as Professor Martin Stein…

Victor Garber: The three gentlemen to my right were involved in a show a few years ago called Eli Stone, and it was one of the best experiences I ever had. So as soon as I got the call about this, I basically said ‘Yes,’ before I really knew anything about it. Because I knew I was in good hands. Then, unfortunately, I have to work with Robbie Amell, but that seems to be working out. [Laughs.] No, I was so impressed with the pilot, and the people that I’m sitting on the stage with, I’m literally kind of in shock that I’m even sitting here, really. I just think they’re amazing. So I’m really happy to be doing it.

Robbie Amell: We worked together a couple years ago, and I had a great time with Victor. We only worked for a couple weeks. But my fiancée was a huge Titanic fan. [Laughs.] And before Victor and I had really spent any time together, he found that out. She came to set, and before I even saw her he beelined to her and couldn’t have been a more amazing person, just hung out with her. Then I was cast as Ronnie before Victor as Martin, and Greg mentioned that he wanted to cast Victor, and I told him we had worked together and how excited I would be if that worked out.

On two actors sharing the persona of Firestorm…

VG: We have a great sense of chemistry too. We just enjoy each other’s company a lot. And you know, we’re never actually we’re never actually conjoined. [Laughs.] So, I don’t know how that would work out. We’re two separate people who happen to be enjoying it.

On the speculation that Eddie Thawne will turn out to be Reverse-Flash since he shares the name of the character’s comic incarnation…

AK: Rick Cosnett very amazingly plays Eddie Thawne, and his name is not an accident. We’ve been really blessed with the “Flash”. Greg and I were talking about this the other day, that so many of the sort of plans that we had set up early on do that. You have a plan, and sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t. But a lot of things seemed to have really worked out. And Eddie’s connection to the Reverse-Flash lore is going to pay off big time in the back half of the year.