CBS Casts Supergirl, Pilot To Film In March
Glee‘s Melissa Benoist will play Kara Zor-El in the new CBS superhero drama.
A new TV take on Supergirl looks to be moving full-steam ahead at CBS, which has already made a series commitment to the DC Comics show from creators Greg Berlanti (Arrow and The Flash) and Ali Adler (Chuck, No Ordinary Family).
Casting has been underway for several weeks, with the lead role going to actress Melissa Benoist. She played Marley for two seasons on Glee, and has also appeared in Whiplash, Homeland, and The Good Wife.
Benoist will play Kara — a.k.a. Kara Zor-El, a Kryptonian whose parents sent her to earth to watch over her younger cousin, Kal-El … who has since grown up and become Superman. Kara has been hiding her powers all her life, but now at the age of 24 she decides to step out into the light and become the hero she was meant to be.
Casting calls in Los Angeles indicate that the pilot will shoot most of next month, beginning on March 4.
Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) will play the role of Cat Grant, Kara’s boss, who is a self-made media magnate. Mehcad Brooks (Necessary Roughness) plays the intrepid photographer Jimmy Olsen, and Laura Benanti (Nashville) will evidently recur (via flashbacks?) as Kara’s biological mother, Alura Zor-El.
Also announced this week are Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) as Kara’s foster sister, Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, and Homeland‘s David Harewood as Hank Henshaw. Once a CIA agent, Hank now runs the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO), which tracks extraterrestrial threats on the planet Earth. (In DC Comics lore, he becomes a serious baddie.)
Finally, TV Line is reporting that former TV Superman Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) will make a guest appearance on the show. So will feature film Supergirl Helen Slater.
Berlanti’s Arrow partner Andrew Kreisberg has also boarded the show as an executive producer, alongside Berlanti, Adler, and Sarah Schechter (The Flash, The Mysteries of Laura).
Supergirl is stacking up to me must-see TV for the fall schedule. Stick with SciFi Stream for the latest on Supergirl in the months to come!
