There's a new villain in Central City. In "News Flash," tonight's episode of The Flash, Kiana Madeira will make her debut as Spencer "Spin" Young. Set to recur, Spin hopes to become famous by being the first to report the biggest news in Central City -- even if by nefarious means. Armed with meta tech, she is out seize the opportunity that is Nora West-Allen, aka XS.

Speaking with CBR, Madeira introduced her "charming," "personable" and competitive character. She revealed Spencer's goals, the character's dynamic with Iris West-Allen as well as Nora and her favorite scene. She also teased a major mystery surrounding Spin's powers, her interaction with the Scarlet Speedster himself and more.

CBR: How would you describe Spin in your own words?

Madeira: In my own words, Spin is a very charming young social media influencer who takes advantage of the day and age that we're living in and seizes the opportunity to make herself famous.

When your casting was announced, your character was described as an "aspiring social media influencer." Can you talk a little about her relationship with social media?

Originally, Spin -- Spencer Young -- actually worked with Iris at CCPN [Central City Picture News] and, from there, she's starting her own blog. So now she's kind of working on her own and she's using her social media platform to pretty much be the first one to report the biggest news in Central City.

Spin isn't the only influencer in Central City. What can you tell us about her dynamic with Iris West-Allen?

There's definitely some competition between them, which you will see, and I'm excited for that to be introduced. Yeah, there's a little bit of a competition in their relationship, and Spencer Young is a little bit younger than Iris, so there's that kind of vibe between them as well. I would say mostly it's competition.

It looks like Spin is really drawn to XS. What is it about Nora that really caught her attention?

Well, Nora -- XS -- is new. She's a new superhero and everyone is so excited about anything that's new. So, for Spencer, this is such an amazing opportunity for almost like fresh meat in Central City.

Which character were you most excited to interact with coming into the show?

Oh, I was definitely excited to interact with Flash. [Laughs] And Grant [Gustin] is so amazing. Honestly, the whole cast was so welcoming and accepted me with such open arms and it was a very comfortable vibe on set. Yeah, I got to do a little bit of work with Grant as the Flash. My parents are huge fans of The Flash as well and so am I, so it was pretty surreal and I was very excited to get to work with him.

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The synopsis for tonight's episode describes Spin as "armed with meta tech." What can you tease about that?

Hmm! I don't want to get too specific, but I do want to play on the big reveal that happened last season, when we realized that not all of the metahumans developed their abilities from the particle [accelerator] explosion. So this is kind of exciting now. We kind of opened the doors to make us wonder, how did Spin get her abilities? So I don't want to get to specific and tell you where they come from, but I'd like people to start using their imagination and just know that it can be from anything. We know that it's in the realm of meta tech, but just know it really can be anything after the reveal from last season.

What aspect of Spin's character do you relate to the most?

I think that Spin is very personable and very present when she speaks to people, which allows her to be charming, and she does have a villainous dark side. So I don't think I have that in real life, but I can relate to the fact that she likes to get to know people on a personal level. She's really relatable, you know? She has a really successful social media platform. She's very in tune with the way things are today, really relevant. Being around the same age, which is crazy, because -- me as an actor -- I normally play a lot younger. I'm 25 and Spencer Young is mid-20s as well, so this was such a cool opportunity to be like, "Yeah, I know this girl. I know this character." So it was a lot of fun to play with.

What kind of research did you do to prepare for the role?

I guess I checked out Spin in the comics, mostly online. I didn't read any of the comic books, but I've also been watching The Flash and just getting a sense of the tone, like watching some interviews with the actors because I like to see their opinions about the show as well and what they think about it. So that really helped going into it.

As I'm sure you know, Spin is a male character in the comics. How did the genderbend affect the way you approached the character?

You know, it's so crazy. When I read for the character, when I auditioned, I had no idea that first of all the character was actually Spin, because my audition just said Spencer Young. So I didn't even know that I was actually going to be playing a villain, that it was originally a male character and that it was a villain. When I got cast, all of these were news to me as well. So it didn't necessarily affect the way that I played Spencer Young originally, but then after being cast, I was like, "Wow, I'm in a very powerful position right here, and I'm very grateful!" So yeah, it didn't necessarily affect the way that I approached it. It was all new to me as well.

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Can you tease your favorite moment or scene from the episode?

There's a really cute and fun scene between Spencer Young and XS. I know that there's been some photos of behind-the-scenes, so there is a photo of us there as well. I mean, Jessica Parker Kennedy is so amazing and her character is so charming and so cute and charismatic. There's a really nice scene that I'm excited for everyone to see between the two of us.

How does this role differ from your past experiences?

Besides the fact that I'm actually getting to play my own age, which is amazing, it's different because Spencer Young has another side to her personality, but she's so good at just being so charming that that's all that I really had to focus on. A lot of times, the characters that I play are very tough and have a really hard exterior and it was so liberating to play Spencer because she has such a nice, beautiful, free energy about her. So it was nice to just kind of surrender like to how I am, how I see myself in my real life. So it was nice to actually bring a lot of myself to the character, as opposed to digging in deep to try find that hard exterior, which is a lot of the characters I've been playing.

If you could choose your own metahuman power, what would it be?

If I could choose my own metahuman power, it would definitely be time travel. Whenever I look at old photos, let's say, the street that you're on -- sometimes they have an old photo of a bridge that was built in this year and it's a black and white photo, I feel innately so scared, almost, seeing that. It's very surreal for me. So just the thought of actually being able to go back in time really excites me and scares me, but I would be really down to do that. [Laughs]


Airing Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, The Flash stars Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Carlos Valdes, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanaugh, Jesse L. Martin, Danielle Nicolet, Hartley Sawyer, and Jessica Parker Kennedy.