'The Flash' stars Danielle Panabake, Carlos Valdes and Candice Patton talk about the show at Wondercon 2015

On the final day of Wondercon at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, fans of the hit CW show The Flash packed the arena to see the stars of the cast discuss various topics surrounding the first season of the show. Before the rest of the attendees of Wondercon got to see the cast however, I was able to talk to the cast more intimately in a press room setting.
Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg and stars Danielle Panabaker, Carlos Valdes and Candace Patton all were kind enough to sit down with the press and answer any questions we had for them. Many of their answers were rather revealing in the best way possible and they all gave great insight into the first season of the series and what to expect for the next season.
First up for interviewing, Danielle Panabaker, who plays the smart and strong character, Caitlin Snow, in the show revealed some important information regarding the future of her character and what we can expect in future episodes and next season. Panabaker was asked about her character’s feelings on Dr. Wells, who fans have come to find out is actually the Reverse Flash, an evil nemesis of the Flash. In the upcoming episodes Caitlin is going to find out through Barry and others that Dr. Wells isn’t exactly who she thinks he is. “It is going to be hard for her to believe,” said Panabaker. “She is going to push back a little bit.”
One of the questions asked was regarding Caitlin’s fiance, Ronnie (aka Firestorm) and whether or not he would return or if Caitlin would have any other romances in the upcoming episodes. First off Panabaker confirmed, “Ronnie will definitely be back, we haven’t seen the last of Firestorm so that’s really exciting.” She also was able to say that between her character and Barry Allen (The Flash), “There is definitely a chemistry there that we will continue to explore as the years go on...there will be some Barry/Caitlin scenes that a lot of the ‘SnowBarry’ fans will be excited by.”
For any fan of the Flash comics, they will know that Caitlin Snow actually turns out to be the villain, Killer Frost. Panabaker stated that she would be “thrilled” if the show runners made Caitlin into Killer Frost for the TV show and she revealed a huge piece of information by basically saying that Killer Frost was in the near future for the fans.
“The truth of the matter is, it will be sooner then I expected,” said Panabaker. “My expectation was that we would not see Killer Frost for a couple seasons and you will see her sooner then you think.”
Another villain discussed with Panabaker was Grodd, the gorilla, who has been seen briefly in previous episodes. She said how incredible it is to work with Grodd and that she thinks the writers have been so ambitious in bringing him into the first season.
“He is more then you could ever imagine. He is scarier then you could imagine and also funnier then you could imagine. It’s great, I can’t wait to see him.”
I was also able to ask her as a fun question; what she would want her Metahuman power to be if she was able to choose one, and she chose the power to be invisible.
“I feel you could get a lot of good information; or maybe just an invisibility cloak too, maybe Cisco can make me one of those.”
The next star to come over for interviewing was Cisco himself, Carlos Valdes, who seemed just as fun and light-hearted as his character. Just like Caitlin’s character evolving into the Killer Frost in the comics, Cisco’s character in the comic story line evolves into someone else as well called, Vibe. When asked about the possibility of Vibe being introduced in the show, Valdes responded with an immediate “yes” and went on to say that anything is a possibility in comic book shows.
“The possibility for it is very strong and it is being heavily considered. Ultimately it is up to them [the writers], and I’m just happy to be hear,” said Valdes.
Because Cisco is such a fun loving and high energy character who provides a lot of comic relief to the show, I talked to Valdes about his character’s habit of often naming all of the Metahumans on the show and giving them fun nicknames which, eventually turn out to be their super hero or villain name that they go by. When I asked him what he would nickname himself, he responded by saying he gets asked that question a lot and still has yet to have an answer for that one.
“I don’t know,” laughed Valdes, “it’s like Funkmaster or something like that. I never take myself too seriously.”
Since Cisco is usually the comedic character of the show, it has been rare to see him find romance at all this season, which turned into the question regarding if Cisco would get any romance eventually.
“In general, yes. There will be many romantic escapades in Cisco’s life. He is developing courage and bravery in so many aspects of his life and that includes his romantic endeavors. So you can definitely expect some adventures within the romantic sphere, but I can’t say how or who,” said Valdes.
Much like Caitlin, Cisco is also unaware at this point about Dr. Wells’ true identity. When questioned on whether Cisco and Caitlin’s relationship would be changed when they find out the truth, Valdes said, “It will be tested. All sorts of relationships are going to be tested to the maximum.”
We also asked the stars how they felt about working with the cast of Arrow since the two shows do a lot of crossovers. Valdes responded by saying that he loves it, especially working with Brandon Routh, who plays Ray Palmer (The Atom) on Arrow.
“In the episode, there is definitely some bro-mancy stuff going on. We have shared interests in technology and the stuff that we do and we’re both so passionate about it. I think to a certain degree Cisco looks up to Ray Palmer and the stuff that he does,” said Valdes. “I loved being able to channel that with Brandon. Brandon is such a jovial and great guy to work with. It’s really nice to be a part of that energy.”
The next person we were able to interview knew all about crossovers and Arrow as well, was one of the executive producers and writers for the show, Andrew Kreisberg. Kreisberg is an amazing talent who works on both CW shows, Flash and Arrow, and is also going to be working on the new spinoff of The Atom and Supergirl. When talking about some of the most important themes of the show, Kreisberg stated that it was definitely time travel.
“Time travel has always been apart of the fabric of the show; from the very first episode when you saw that newspaper,” said Kreisberg. “Whether or not people realized it, this whole show is about time travel.”
He also wanted to emphasize that fans shouldn’t consider Barry at ‘full Flash-mode yet.’
“They are really not watching the Flash they are really watching the Flash Begins,” said Kreisberg.
Already CW has two major hits with Arrow and The Flash and Kreisberg will play a huge roll in the spinoff [The Atom]. When asked if the plot of The Flash, especially with the Rogue’s Gallery of villains, will play into the spinoff, Kreisberg confirmed that not only will the plot of The Flash play into the spinoff but Arrow as well.
“What you’ll see on both shows will be building up to the spinoff. As much as The Flash and Arrow are interconnected, The Flash, Arrow and the new show will be interconnected as well. So you’ll be seeing the evolution of some of these characters,”said Kreisberg.
Kreisberg was also very excited between the upcoming interactions between Barry Allen and Leonard Snart (Captain Cold). He stated that Snart’s plot line would be continuously growing and on a certain trajectory for the upcoming seasons and spinoff.
Going back to the theme of time travel, Kreisberg revealed that viewers will find out a lot about what will happen in the future for certain characters in upcoming episodes.
“That in a way is almost more interesting than going to the future, because then it becomes a question of ‘Well is it true and if they are telling you the truth can you do anything to change it’,” said Kreisberg. “So a lot of the characters are going to hear about where they end up and a lot of these last five or six episodes are going to be about accepting it or fighting against it.”
Finally the last big star of the show we got to talk to was Candace Patton who plays the main love interest of the Flash, Iris West.
What she first talked about was how Iris seems to be the character that is most in the dark about everything going on around her and that everyone she loves is keeping secrets from her. Patton revealed that Iris will find out “sooner than later” about many of the secrets being kept from her.
“I think when she finds out she is going to be super angry. The most important people in her life have been keeping a huge secret from her, so I think she will be extremely devastated,” said Patton. “More so angry, and we haven’t really seen that from Iris yet.”
Viewers just also found out the Eddie (Iris’s boyfriend) now knows Barry’s secret about being the Flash, and Patton discussed how in upcoming episodes Iris is going to begin to notice.
“In episode 18 which is airing two weeks from today, Iris notices Eddie is being a little strange and even says to him ‘You are solving too many cases and doing better than you usually do; are you working with the Flash?’ So she is starting to figure out that maybe there’s more than meets the eye with Eddie as well.”
Patton revealed that Iris will begin moving towards S.T.A.R. Labs a bit more as well and interacting with Dr. Wells, Caitlin and Cisco which is something Patton says she had been looking forward to since she rarely gets to work with those actors. When asked who has been her favorite guest star to work with, Patton immediately responded, “Mark Hamill.”
“I mean, its Mark Hamill. Sorry to every other guest star but, Mark Hamill is Mark Hamill. He is amazing,” said Patton. “He has energy for days. We were shooting kind of late into the night and he could out energize me. I don’t know how he does it. He’s so entertaining and so kind to his fans. It kind of reminds me that no matter how big you get there’s no reason not to be cool. It Mark Hamill is cool, you should be cool.”
When asked what it was like to be basically the lone female among a cast of male actors a majority of the time, Patton said that Iris could definitely use some girlfriends but being around men her whole life is what she was used to without her mother in the picture.
“I think it’s really important that Iris has a female friend but at the same time also really indicative to the fact that she never had a mother. So I think it’s natural that she gravitate more towards men and she feels comfortable with Joe and Eddie and Barry,” said Patton.
She even went on to say that she would like to see her mother’s story line in a future episode and what happened there and that it would be a fantasy to do that story line and hopes the writers add that in eventually.
Patton also wants her fans to know that she always appreciates whenever she gets fan mail and that she always tries to respond to it as much as she can.
“The least I can do is sign something and send it back. It’s really great to see people from Germany and Belgium and Turkey and Japan and its amazing to see how international our show is. It never ceases to humble me,” said Patton.
After Patton finished her interview the group went off to the big Arena to talk to the rest of the Wondercon attendees. All together, interviewing the four stars who work on The Flash was an incredible experience. Each person was able to reveal great pieces of information that fans and viewers of the show will certainly be excited about.