The Flash: Danielle Panabaker Says Her New Character Reminds Her of a Sky High Fan-Favorite

Last week’s episode of Khione. The latest Snow “sister” if you will, Khione was revealed to be the alter ego to emerge from the cryo pod that Caitlin Snow entered at the end of Season 8 in her effort to bring back the late Frost. Khione’s arrival came with the news that Caitlin is really and truly gone, but also established a very different character than fans had seen before. Khione is very empathetic and connected to nature — something that reminded both fans and Panabaker of the actor’s character from Sky High.

“I did think that at the beginning,” Panabaker told E! News. “I was like, ‘All right guys, where are we going with this?’ Because they’re definitely getting Layla vibes.”

Panabaker went on to acknowledge that fans will get to see more of the similarities between Khione and Layla as the season continues.

“She definitely is connected to nature in a variety of different ways,” she said.

Who is Layla and what is Sky High even about?

For those who aren’t familiar, released in 2005, Disney’s Sky High followed Will (Michael Angarano), son of the world’s most famous superheroes as he starts high school along with Layla and others at a special school for teens with superpowers. The school is literally in the sky. Will initially believe he has no powers but discovers otherwise when a dangerous villain Royal Pain (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) attacks the school in an act of revenge. The film was well-received by audiences and critics and was a commercial success as well.

In the film, Panabaker played Layla Williams, a pacifist who can animate and control plant life. The character has long remained a fan-favorite and the film has well, with fans hoping for a sequel for years. The film’s director previously explained that there were, at one point, plans for a sequel, but those plans never came to fruition.

“I am hugely proud of it, and they should make it a franchise,” the filmmaker explained. “In fact, the same writers that didn’t get credit on it, [Jonathan] Aibel and [Glenn] Berger, they did a lot of writing on that film, and we have a whole sequel that’s called Save U [which stands for] Save University.”

Is Caitlin really gone on The Flash?

With Khione now here to stay, it means that Caitlin is really and truly dead and for Panabaker, while the idea that someone else would be coming out of the CRC is something she knew, the idea that it was the end of the line for Caitlin wasn’t exactly that simple — though she told us that she welcomes the challenge of creating and playing this brand-new character.

“The idea that someone else would be coming out of the CRC was something that Eric had pitched sort of at the end of season eight when it became finalized that we were going to do a season nine,” Panabaker said. “The end of season eight was always meant to be Caitlin doing whatever it took to get Frost back. And then with the idea of taking it another season, Eric’s idea was to have a different character come out of the CRC. At the time, I did not know that that also would mean that that was the death of Caitlin. But as always, I’m excited for the challenge of creating a new character on this show.”

She continued, “I think the intention, or the hope was that there would be seasons nine and ten of The Flash. So, the idea of playing Khione, I didn’t know that that was only after Caitlin had died, and I wasn’t sure how many episodes that would be, and I didn’t know that would be that this would be the end of the series. These revelations are sort of coming one after another and I think all I could do was process them one at a time. Obviously really excited to get to play another character and get to explore another character, that’s a real gift on a show that’s been running for nine years, that I’ve gotten to do so much and try and play so much on this show. Obviously sad to say goodbye to Caitlin because that was how everything on The Flash started for me was with her. Not only on The Flash, but in this Berlanti-verse, this Arrowverse.”

The Flash airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.