September 26, 2017 | Arts / Entertainment

Russell Tovey to don tights in new gay superhero role

Out actor Russell Tovey will be taking on the role of gay superhero The Ray in a four-part, live action mini-series to be aired on The CW Network this fall.

The television event will involve four CW shows -- Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow -- and is being called Crisis on Earth-X. The mini-series will take place over two nights in November, and will flow through the four shows. 

The premise: a superhero's wedding is interrupted by super-villains from an alternate universe. 

Tovey will play a reporter who is exposed to a "genetic light bomb," which gifts him with the special light-based powers of The Ray.

Tovey will also provide the voice for The Ray in the animated series Freedom Fighters: The Ray, which will debut on The CW’s digital channel this year. This will be the first animated super-hero series to feature a gay character in the lead role.

This is not the first time Tovey has played a homosexual character.  In 2013, he appeared in the American television series Looking, about a group of gay friends living in San Francisco. He also has a role as a gay man in the TV series Quantico, about young government agents dealing with terrorism.

While no promotional pics for Crisis on Earth-X have yet been released, we're hoping for some close-up crotch shots of The Ray in Spandex; now that would be TV worth watching! Until then we'll have to settle for nearly naked pics from Tovey's past: