How 'Supergirl' Season 2 Welcomes Superman, Mon-El, Miss Martian -- and Lynda Carter
Supergirl may live in a parallel universe separate from other superheroes, like The Flash, Green Arrow, and the Legends of Tomorrow, but as she soars into Season 2, there'll be no shortage of super-powered people populating her world.
As her caped alter ego, Kara Danvers (Wonder Woman" star Lynda Carter, who makes her first appearance as the President of the United States.
Executive producer Supergirl's" newly expanding heroic pantheon:
Moviefone: With the show's take on Superman, how would you say it conforms to the various Supermen we've seen over the years in all media, and how are you making him your own for "Supergirl"?
Andrew Kreisberg: I think it's the same approach that we've taken to all of these characters, which is that we cherry-pick the best bits that we've liked over the years. So there's certainly a lot of Lois & Clark," there's a little bit of "Super Friends," there's a little bit of the animated show -- we're huge fans of Batman" and "Superman" and "Justice League." If you're watching these shows and you know those shows, we're frequently referencing those works as well.
This is our Superman. We're writing a theme for him. That's us. It's our version of our show, our Supergirl -- our Superman isn't tied into any other version. It's not an adaptation. It's not a continuation of Chris Reeve movies, and it's not a tie-in to the Zack Snyder-verse. It's its own thing.
How are you handling Superman so that he doesn't overshadow your leading lady?
We are so happy and grateful that we've got him for these two episodes. Not have him overshadow part of the fun of the episode is: people are in awe of Superman, just in the same way that the audience is. So part of what Kara is dealing with is he walks into a room and everybody gets real quiet and stares, and she's like, 'Oh God, oh brother. All right, it's my cousin. Get over it."
It's sort of analogous to if your cousin was a very famous movie star, and every time you walk into a restaurant with your goofball cousin who you're used to dealing with on a personal family basis, everybody else is like, "How can I help you, sir? How can I do this?" She's dealing with that over the course of the episode. So rather than sort of shying away from the fact that, in a way, he's sort of more famous than her, we're embracing it.
Why was Tyler Hoechlin the Man of Steel for you? The casting does seem perfect.
He is Superman. He walked in and he sat down and I'm, like -- I mean, I've known him for years, between "Road to Perdition" and "Everybody Wants Some!!" which is one of my favorite movies -- so good! But he just looks like Superman! In addition, he's a really sweet, nice guy -- I mean, he genuinely is!
So when you're sitting down and we sat down to talk to him about it, it's like, there was nobody else, because he embodies everything that you want in Superman: strength, kindness, soulfulness.
Right off the bat just sitting down with him, he was attracted to sort of what I call the quiet moments. Because the spectacle is always great. We love the flying and the explosions and heat vision and all, but it's always the quiet moments that are the things that you remember -- and it's certainly why the Richard Donnermovie has stood the test of time, because the quiet moments still resonate, even if the visual effects are a generation behind.
Do you get to have some fanboy fun with Superman and James Olson, and Superman and Cat Grant?
Oh, yeah! We established that Jimmy and Clark are best friends, so that sort of easy-going best friend camaraderie is part of the episodes. One of the fun bits that happens on the show is Cat's a little smitten with Clark. I don't know who wouldn't be un-smitten with Tyler. It's sort of a different color for Cat, and it's fun to see Clark actually use it to his advantage.
What can you say at this point about Mon-El? That's an interesting character to bring into the mix.
You know, what's interesting about Mon-El is that Supergirl spent so much of last season finding herself and finding her way as a superhero, and now she's got somebody who is new to Earth, new to this whole business, isn't sure which end is up. And she has the opportunity, the way Alex, the way Superman, the way J'onn, the way all of these people have been mentors to her, she now is put in the position of having to be the mentor, and having to teach somebody.
So it gives Kara a whole new way to deal with somebody. One of the things she says is, she wasn't sent to Earth to be a hero, she was sent to Earth to look after Clark. That was her original purpose. Ironically, now because of Mon-El, she's finally getting to do that, because she kind of got cheated out of that by destiny.
Miss Martian is an another intriguing character you're bringing in. What got you excited about bringing her to National City?
We love David Harewood. We love everything he's done with the character. And we love J'onn, so to have him have his own personal story this year, to find Meagan and have her become part of the universe and all of the feelings that brings up -- because for him, he suddenly has this connection to Mars that he thought he would never have again.
Why was Sharon Leal the right choice to play her?
She's just amazing. She actually auditioned for us, I think it was to play Amanda Waller, and we've always still wanted to work with her. She's just smart and beautiful and tough, and when we meet Miss Martian, she's in a rather tough predicament. So we needed somebody who could fight, who could be physical, but also had a soulfulness because of all the tragic backstory that they have. So we were excited that Sharon wanted to do it.
And best of all, tell me about what was fun about bringing Lynda Carter into the fold.
We actually wanted to have the President in the season finale, and we, unfortunately, couldn't work out Lynda's dates. So we wrote her out because we really wanted Lynda Carter to play the President. So we just decided we would wait a little bit.
And we're just so glad it worked out. We're so excited to have her on. We have a long tradition of having people, like Dean Cain and John Wesley Shipp, people who have formerly portrayed superheroes on the shows, and we're glad to continue that tradition.
"Supergirl" Season 2 premieres Monday, October 10th, on The CW.