Warner Bros Working on a Supergirl TV Show; Here’s Who It Should Star

Warner Bros., the studio who owns the film and TV rights for DC Comics has announced that they are currently working on a TV show based around the female superhero Supergirl. According to the Hollywood Reporter, out television writer and producer Ali Adler is writing the script, Greg Berlanti is producing and Geoff Johns, a writer for DC Comics, is expected to be involved. Although not much else has been announced, they have said that they expect to start shopping the project around to networks soon. Starting this season, there will be four shows based on DC superhereos on TV, and none of them are women (there is the upcoming iZombie, on the CW that stars a woman, but that’s not exactly about a superhero), so this is a refreshing change of pace.

Right now, no actors are attached, or even rumored for roles, and no characters, other than Supergirl herself, are sure to be in the show. But that’s not going to stop me from dreaming about it. Here are some characters I’d like to see on the show, and who I think would be the perfect people to play them.


01brie_larson-supergirl

First we’ve got to cast our star. Since Supergirl is Kryptonian and gets her powers from Earth’s yellow sun, she’s never needed to be especially tall or muscular to have super strength, unlike other heroes like Wonder Woman or She-Hulk. Plus, I feel like a basic requirement is that she retain her youthful nature, she is supposed to be Superman’s younger cousin, after all. That’s why I picked Brie Larson, from films like 21 Jump Street, and Short Term 12, TV shows like The United States of Tara, and a super amazing Jenny Lewis music video. She’s funny, but tough, she can play a nerd (as seen in Community) to fit into Kara’s love of science and she has the look.


02diannaagron-stephbrown

My favorite incarnations of Supergirl always have one thing in common – they’re best friends with Batgirl. In Superman: The Animated Series, and before Crisis on Infinite Earths, Kara was friends with Barbara Gordon. However, my favorite version of this friendship was the one between Supergirl and Stephanie BrownBrown needs to be able to hold her own in a fight, be a great best friend, but also should provide a lot of the comedic relief. I think Dianna Agron would be great for Steph. Not quite as bubbly as Kara, but still witty and funny, and she definitely looks like she can kick your ass.


03harryshumjr-ryanchoi

The show also needs to do something to get her out of her uncle’s shadow, so how about moving her out of Metropolis? And what better way to do that than to send her off to college. Ivy University is one of the premiere scientific universities in the DC universe, and Kara has often shown an interest and talent in the sciences, so the show could have her be a student of Professor Ryan Choi, also known as The Atom. Since Choi is supposed to be a “young hotshot professor” according to his Wikipedia page, I thought Glee’s Harry Shum, Jr. would be perfect for the role. Is that too many people from Glee?


04jasikanicole-enricanegrini

To add to the college staff, I’m adding in Enrica Negrini, who was a research assistant to the original Atom, Ray Palmer, and also worked at Ivy University. I’m picking Jasika Nicole to play her, partially because she was awesome as Astrid, an often-time lab assistant on Fringe, and partially just because I want to see her on TV again.


05boriskodjoe-lexluthor

Now it’s time to get into the villains. If you’re going to have someone from the Superman family, you’ve got to have Lex Luthor. Now, growing up, I always thought Lex Luthor was a POC because of the way he looked in the cartoons. Plus, I thought he was the coolest and I wanted my favorite characters to be POCs. He also needs to be the most intimidating person in whatever room he’s in, even if he’s in a room with a Kryptonian. In a perfect world, he would be played by Jason Momoa or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but they’re already playing superheroes on the big screen. But I’d be extremely happy with Boris Kodjoe.


06devinaoki-mercygraves

In the cartoons, Luthor was often seen with his Amazonian bodyguard Mercy Graves, and what fun is having a super strong heroine if you don’t have a super strong villainess? Unlike Supergirl, Mercy needs to look super strong. In the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice film, she’s going to be played by actress Tao Okamoto. I’m going to assume this show will take place in a different continuity than the film, but, based on that casting, I’m going to suggest Devon Aoki, who isn’t quite as tall as I’d like, but definitely has the action background for the part.


07zacharayquinto-simontycho

One of Supergirl’s main villains in the current run is the trillionaire Simon Tycho, who has a deal with the government that he gets first dibs on anything that falls to earth from outer space, including Supergirl and her pod. He needs to be slimy and look stinking rich (even though later on he gets disfigured). I think Zachary Quinto would be perfect for the part.


08beautifulhorse-comet

Of course, you can’t have Supergirl without Comet, her trusty horse sidekick who was not only a super powered horse, but also sentient and in love with Supergirl. We’ve got to go with the most beautiful horse we can find.


Now, Warner Bros. hasn’t announced which network they’re going to put this show on, and technically, things could fall apart like they did with both recently attempted Wonder Woman TV shows. This fall, there will be TV shows based on DC Comics’ characters on Fox, NBC and two on the CW, so it could be any of those, and the budget could be anything, so this really is just a dream casting. But hey, fingers crossed, we’re going to get a TV show about a woman superhero and pretty much no matter who is in the cast, I’m excited to see it (knock on wood).

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Mey

Mey Rude is a fat, trans, Latina lesbian living in LA. She's a writer, journalist, and a trans consultant and sensitivity reader. You can follow her on twitter, or go to her website if you want to hire her.

Mey has written 572 articles for us.

16 Comments

  1. This casting is ideal and honestly, every show should have Jasika Nicole on it because she innately improves any shows by at least ten percent.

  2. YES JASIKA NICOLE. Also oh my god the Comet thing… I just burst out laughing because WHAT. The horse is SENTIENT and IN LOVE with Supergirl??? That is so beyond disturbing haahaha who thought that was a good idea??? I do think I vaguely remember that the horse had thought bubbles but I was a kid and didn’t think about it much. Wow.

  3. Mey! I love your comics posts – would you ever consider hosting an Autostraddle version of a graphic novel book club? We could select a classic comic that’s good for people getting into comics for the first time, or a new one that you think everyone should read, and do a discussion in the comments section once a month!

    I’d so be there.

  4. I’m so torn between being really happy that lady heroes are getting a glimmer of existance on a screen somewhere and knowing that I’m going to be super frustrated with how hetero this show is going to be.

    EVERYTHING needs lesbians.

  5. Mey I support your casting ideas and holy hijack batman in Drawing 101 we had a “test” in which we were given an hour to draw a simplified contour bust sculpture of a hairless man and mine came out like Lex in the cartoons. Everybody was all dude you made a black Lex Luthor coool, but I still got a bad grade cause my shading was terrible.
    *Side note Boris Kodjoe would look killer in a Italian cut purple suit that’s got to be prerequisite for playing Lex.

  6. oh, i didn’t now Greg Berlanti was working on it! that leads me to believe it might be on the CW, where they could tie it into Arrow and The Flash.

    i love all of this casting, by the way! i also think Ari Graynor could be a good Supergirl and maybe Gwendolyn Christie would be great for Mercy Graves.

  7. My pants disappeared the moment I got to Batgirl. Ummmm Brie Larson best friends with Dianna Agron? I’ll start writing my fanfic now.

  8. Unfortunately I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Ali Adler was involved with the shitshow that was Glee’s I Kissed A Girl episode so she’s not really a beacon of proper queer representation.

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