Brie Larvan (Emily Kinney) is coming back to the television DC universe, but this time she's taking her robotic bees to Arrow.
After appearing in The Flash's Season 1 episode "All Star Team Up," the Bug-Eyed Bandit found herself imprisoned after being defeated by the Scarlet Speedster. Now she's broken out, and is tracking down the hacker who helped put her behind bars -- Emily Bett Rickard's Felicity Smoak -- in the March 30 episode "Beacon of Hope."
Kinney is best known for her time on The Walking Dead as Beth Greene, as well as her music career. (She been as busy promoting her latest album, "This Is War," as she has been with her recent TV projects.) Though this is her second time appearing in the Arrowverse, but she hopes it's not her last. In the interview below, she explains why she keeps wanting to return to the DC world, and what she gets from playing the Bug-Eyed Bandit that she wants to experience more.
IGN: Since we last saw Brie on The Flash, what happened to make you guys decide to bring her to Arrow?
Kinney: That episode that I worked on with The Flash, Felicity was guest starring in that episode as well and we were having this computer face-off. The last time I was on Flash, that set up that we were both computer hackers and could battle each other in that way. We come up against each other again in Arrow, so it made sense for me to come and find her and have another computer battle. This one is cool because we're not just behind computer screens. You get to see us actually interact with each other in scenes. That's what's going to be really cool about this one.
IGN: Considering we last saw her imprisoned, will we see how she gets out?
Kinney: You do see how she manages to get out of jail. Obviously Brie's really good with computer hacking so she's able to sort of -- well, you'll see. [laughs] You will see how she escapes from jail, and then she comes looking for Felicity. It takes her a little while to figure out that Felicity is the one she battled earlier in The Flash. She's mostly coming to look for Felicity because of the computer chip, because you find out Brie has a reason that she needs that computer chip.
IGN: Do you get to play into the darker tone Arrow has versus The Flash? Do we get to see any added layers of darkness to Brie?
Kinney: In this episode, you get to know her a lot better. I feel like in The Flash you just saw her as this evil character behind the computer controlling the bees. This episode, there's more actual scene work. You get to actually see where she's coming from and why she needs this computer chip. You see her interact in the same room with Thea and Felicity. Arrow is a little bit more of that dramatic, darker show, so you get to see a little bit more of that side of her. But there's elements of her character that I find kind of fun and silly, too. I mean, she is a computer hacker who controls evil bees. There's a fun comic book silly vibe to her too at certain moments.
IGN: How does the Bug-Eyed Bandit's storyline underline what is happening in the main storyline with Oliver and everyone else?
Kinney: There are moments where basically Arrow has to step in and help Felicity, and in that way you'll probably start to see how their relationship is doing and how they're interacting with each other. In times of crisis, they do come together. I can't speak as much to their characters, but I do know that they have to work together in order to defeat me. You do see them working together and interacting.
IGN: How much of a heads up did you get for your appearance on Arrow, and have they talked about bringing you back on one of the other shows in some capacity?
Kinney: I would love that. We've been talking about it for a while, actually. The idea of Brie coming back has been out in the atmosphere -- as far as talking with my agents, my managers -- for a while. There's always scheduling and timing and stuff, and also finding a way that it works with the story that they're trying to tell and the storyline and when it makes sense for Brie to come back. Who knows if she'll appear again.
After we did Flash, I had such a great time that I knew that if they asked me I would want to do it again. I love that group of people, those creators. I love going to Vancouver. They're still dramatic shows, but for me to get to play more of a character who is evil and sexy -- for me to get a more over-the-top character is really fun and something that I feel like I haven't gotten to do much of. For me as an actor, it's fun for me to jump into that world. It's a very different thing for me.
IGN: Do you have a dream way that she'd come back for another appearance?
Kinney: That's good! I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. I really loved this episode. You'll see she gets to capture some of the employees at the hive. It's really cool. But just to have her come back would be my dream. That would be awesome.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.