Super(girl) Media

[Kromm]

28 minutes ago, stealinghome said:

I thought some of the press releases did have Lima down as a series regular, interestingly, though that's not what the role was originally announced as. Maybe I'm wrong.

I wonder if they wanted Chris Wood to be there, but realized it would be ridiculous to have 5 men and 2 women, and Hoechlin won the coin flip so they could start pumping Superman. Or schedules conflicted and maybe Hoechlin stepped in at the last minute..

The casualties to the cast have mostly been women.  Flockhart reduced to reoccurring at best. Jenna Tatum either gone or a rare guest at best. Laura Benanti seemingly lost to the show in both roles as far as we can tell. Everyone quiet on Lena Luthor so far. 

Meanwhile the male departures were all only guest stars anyway (Gen. Lane, Max). 

All I can say is they better give Maggie Sawyer plenty to do.  Although I imagine Snapper Carr will simply be a Cat standin and likely not have much else to do but "boss stuff". 

[Trini]

BTW, the @supergirlofficial Instagram account is gone, the new one is https://www.instagram.com/supergirlcw/

And the CBS.com Supergirl page (and some episodes) are still up, but they may not be by the end of this month...

[Kendra]

I went back and read the casting announcement and yes, it does actually say Maggie is a series regular character. But I think that was changed from the very first news regarding the new characters? 

The Doctor is supposed to be a woman and I was assuming she would be the new big bad this season. But we have heard nothing of her either?? 

I don't think this was posted here yet but Katie Cassidy has been promoted to series regular across all four Berlanti shows. I am curious to see how they would use her on Supergirl. http://tvline.com/2016/07/23/arrow-katie-cassidy-series-regular-flash-legends-of-tomorrow/

[Kromm]

9 minutes ago, Kendra said:

I don't think this was posted here yet but Katie Cassidy has been promoted to series regular across all four Berlanti shows. I am curious to see how they would use her on Supergirl. http://tvline.com/2016/07/23/arrow-katie-cassidy-series-regular-flash-legends-of-tomorrow/

I doubt they would, short of them actually going through with a universe merge (something I'm still skeptical will happen).

Elsewhere--well on The Flash and especially on Legends of Tomorrow, we all know it's going to be a combo of Alternate Universes and Time Travel. In theory that means there could be an alternate of Laurel on Earth-S (my name for Supergirl's Earth since the show never gave it one), but I don't see the point of it. Earth-S for what we've seen so far seems to lean more in the direction of not having common people with Earth 1 and 2 (and maybe 3). Although it does clearly have common people with the Justice League Earth (Earth-J lets say?), albeit ones with alternate faces.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Kromm

[stealinghome]

1 hour ago, Kendra said:

I went back and read the casting announcement and yes, it does actually say Maggie is a series regular character. But I think that was changed from the very first news regarding the new characters? 

The Doctor is supposed to be a woman and I was assuming she would be the new big bad this season. But we have heard nothing of her either?? 

Yes, I'm pretty sure that Maggie was originally announced as recurring. So either someone got a wire crossed somewhere or BTS plans changed.

I think the Doctor HAS to be coming--we know that the team is taking on Cadmus this season, so there's no way they can't cast a Cadmus big bad. At the same time, I don't expect the Doctor to show up until almost mid season, so I can buy that they haven't cast her yet. I think the question marks are Nick Farrow--whether he was a cover name for the Chris Wood character and, if not, whether they've decided to drop him--and whether they've decided to drop Lena Luthor. (Interestingly, those were the two roles that were announced as series regulars initially. The Doctor, Maggie, and Snapper were all announced as recurring initially.)

ETA: IF the

 Batwoman and Oracle

 rumors are true--I'm still taking them with a HUGE grain of salt, since you'd think that would have been a huge announcement they'd have wanted to make at SDCC--I'm wondering if they've decided to table Lena Luthor, at least for the moment.

Edited July 25, 2016 by stealinghome

[quarks]

On 7/24/2016 at 4:25 PM, stealinghome said:

Also, I'm sure others will disagree, but I am thoroughly unimpressed that a show touting itself as being about girl power and feminism brought 4 male actors to just 2 female actors to SDCC. Way too many dicks on the dance floor, especially when one guy hasn't even been on the show yet and is only supposed to appear for two episodes. I just hope this isn't indicative of what's to come for the show on the CW.

Agreed, though that's partly because Cat Grant is my favorite character so I would have liked to have seen more focus on her - even though it seems she'll be playing a much smaller role this season.

The press articles seem to be giving conflicting information about the series regular status of various actors, so I'd agree that either wires are getting crossed somewhere, BTS issues have caused changes, or the CW isn't particularly interested in clarifying the specifics.

[Artsda]

Supergirl': Calista Flockhart to Return as Recurring for Season 2

Calista Flockhart is set to return to Supergirlfor the superhero drama's upcoming second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Flockhart, however, will not return as a series regular. She will instead be billed as recurring moving forward. 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/supergirl-calista-flockhart-return-season-916247?utm_source=twitter

[stealinghome]

So basically nothing we didn't know other than that she will for sure be in the S2 premiere.

[Trini]

And... the CBS.com Supergirl page is gone.

Also Lord Mesa art welcoming Supergirl to the network:

[GHScorpiosRule]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

Also Lord Mesa art welcoming Supergirl to the network:

Oh they look so ADORABLE!!!!

[mtlchick]

A reduced Cat Grant is better than no Cat Grant.  Same pay for less work too.  Nice gig if you can get it. 

[Kromm]

33 minutes ago, mtlchick said:

Same pay for less work too.  Nice gig if you can get it. 

No proof that's the case. I imagine she's being paid per episode, not a lump season sum.

Actually I imagine she's likely gotten a raise--unless she was contractually already locked into an amount--but even if so she'd still only be paid for the episodes she actually appears in, I believe.

[mtlchick]

@Kromm: I went by the Deadline article.  http://deadline.com/2016/08/supergirl-calista-flockhart-recur-in-season-2-the-cw-filming-canada-1201796814/

[Kromm]

4 minutes ago, mtlchick said:

@Kromm: I went by the Deadline article.  http://deadline.com/2016/08/supergirl-calista-flockhart-recur-in-season-2-the-cw-filming-canada-1201796814/

It says:

Quote

I hear she would be paid per her original series-regular contract.

That's not a statement she's being paid for a full season.  Just that the payment conditions are the same.  If she was already being paid per episode (not that unusual) then that statement would be totally accurate.

As it is, she's still likely to make extra, because if they simply shoot additional scenes out of order with the rest of production while she's around, and then use those for other episodes, it means she could have a few seconds of acting dropped into an episode but still get the full episode fee (whereas formerly she might be in as much as a third of the scenes in an episode). 

[Trini]

Katie McGrath cast as Lena Luthor.

[stealinghome]

Huh, that's an interesting piece of casting. McGrath plays a solid evil or gray character, so I hope they keep Lena in a frienemy role. And while I've never been sure that she's a great actress, she's got charisma to burn.

It's interesting that Lena is now a recurring role while Maggie seems to be a series regular. When the roles were first announced, it was the opposite--Lena was the regular and Maggie recurring. I wonder what prompted the change.

[VCRTracking]

She was one of my favorite of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge videos from 2014, which she did with Natalie Dormer:

[Kromm]

On 8/4/2016 at 5:07 PM, stealinghome said:

Huh, that's an interesting piece of casting. McGrath plays a solid evil or gray character, so I hope they keep Lena in a frienemy role. And while I've never been sure that she's a great actress, she's got charisma to burn.

It's interesting that Lena is now a recurring role while Maggie seems to be a series regular. When the roles were first announced, it was the opposite--Lena was the regular and Maggie recurring. I wonder what prompted the change.

Lesbians are "in"?

[Lord Kira]

On 8/4/2016 at 5:07 PM, stealinghome said:

Huh, that's an interesting piece of casting. McGrath plays a solid evil or gray character, so I hope they keep Lena in a frienemy role. And while I've never been sure that she's a great actress, she's got charisma to burn.

It's interesting that Lena is now a recurring role while Maggie seems to be a series regular. When the roles were first announced, it was the opposite--Lena was the regular and Maggie recurring. I wonder what prompted the change.

I think at the time of the original casting call they assumed that they'd be paying Calista Flockhart less given that she'd be taking on a reduced role. No such luck.  Maybe they can't afford to have Lena as a regular now. I have to assume that as a more recognizable name Katie McGrath would be paid more money than Maggie's actress if she was a regular.

That being said, I'm sure they'd find a way have her around more if she becomes an extremely popular character the way Cat did.

[Kromm]

On 8/6/2016 at 4:58 PM, Lord Kira said:

I think at the time of the original casting call they assumed that they'd be paying Calista Flockhart less given that she'd be taking on a reduced role. No such luck.  Maybe they can't afford to have Lena as a regular now. I have to assume that as a more recognizable name Katie McGrath would be paid more money than Maggie's actress if she was a regular.

That being said, I'm sure they'd find a way have her around more if she becomes an extremely popular character the way Cat did.

I don't think we can conclude anything like that. There was a single article someone linked saying Flockhart was being paid the same as before, but it is standard for actors to be paid per episode, not per season. Literally what the article says is "I hear she would be paid per her original series-regular contract".

There's no way Flockhart is being paid for the same total cash for 5 or 6 episodes as she was given for 20.  She's simply being paid the same amount for each one she actually appears in.  That's what would be in the contract--a per episode fee.

Now there still might be reason to think there simply isn't enough money saved to hire an extra regular. But there are likely a number of reasons for that versus some notion that Flockhart would effectively be getting a four hundred percent raise (by virtue of getting the same money for a quarter of the episodes... because... there's no way she is). 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Kromm

[MarkHB]

We also don't know that she's only going to be in 5 or 6 episodes.  As some have speculated, they could fly her up and film scenes for several eps at a time if the scripts are ready (or if they're already wrapped).  There are a few seconds in Suicide Squad that were filmed quite a bit later than the rest of the film (and I don't mean the reshoots).

Also, Stephen Amell sent this out; I'm calling it Craft Services of Justice:

[Trini]

Aim higher, next time Stephen.  ;-)

[GHScorpiosRule]

Shows air episodes out of order all the time. To use an example, from many moons ago, on Family Ties, Mallory's hair looked like it had grown five inches overnight after only five episodes. Then toward the end of the season, there was episode where it was back to the same look/cut from the premiere. Or there was an episode in Remington Steele that had been delayed in airing until near the end of the season--again, it was obvious it had been filmed much earlier.

So I don't think it's too far fetched that they may do the same with Calista.

[Kromm]

1 hour ago, MarkHB said:

We also don't know that she's only going to be in 5 or 6 episodes.  As some have speculated, they could fly her up and film scenes for several eps at a time if the scripts are ready (or if they're already wrapped).  

It's an interesting dilemma for the producers in deciding how much they do this. Because they usually do not pay per diem.  So she likely gets paid the same whether she shoots one scene which winds up in an episode versus a dozen scenes.  They could fly her up there lets say.... 4 times... and shoot bits that wind up in 10 episodes, and... that's what she'd be paid for, 10 episodes, even if its the same number of shooting days she might have committed for 3 or 4 episodes last season.

In other words, she does not get paid the same in total for the whole year--I'm sorry folks who totally misunderstood that.  But she may in a different way wind up getting a pay increase in a sneaky way, if they commit her to less scenes per episode (but shoot them all in batches). 

[Trini]

DVD extras starting to be released online; a deleted scene with Alex and Max.

[Minneapple]

Supergirl and Superman get the Fug Girls treatment. I guess you could say the pics are minutely spoilery.

[Kromm]

(never mind)

Edited August 9, 2016 by Kromm

[Lazlo]

On 8/4/2016 at 10:07 PM, stealinghome said:

Huh, that's an interesting piece of casting. McGrath plays a solid evil or gray character, so I hope they keep Lena in a frienemy role. And while I've never been sure that she's a great actress, she's got charisma to burn.

It's interesting that Lena is now a recurring role while Maggie seems to be a series regular. When the roles were first announced, it was the opposite--Lena was the regular and Maggie recurring. I wonder what prompted the change.

I went to college with Katie McGrath (though lost touch with her long before she became an actress, let alone famous.) I remember her being very funny and nice in person. Naturally I'm thrilled to see her on my favourite super show, though I think if they were going to have her anyway she would have made a good Siobhan Smythe based on her work as Morgana and actually being Irish.

I do like Italia Ricci but guess I'm still a little bitter over Silver Banshee being American.

[FurryFury]

I've only seen s1 of Merlin, but I remember really liking her Morgana. She has presence, even if she's not the strongest actress. I like this casting.

[Lazlo]

6 hours ago, FurryFury said:

I've only seen s1 of Merlin, but I remember really liking her Morgana. She has presence, even if she's not the strongest actress. I like this casting.

Agreed about the presence, though as I noted earlier I'm biased. :)

She does have some issues around accents - she can fake a British accent fine but I've read she had difficulty keeping up an American accent in Slasher. McGrath became an actress unsually late (in her mid-20s) and without any formal training so that isn't really surprising (she's said in interviews that she was working in the costume dept on the Tudors and was asked to try out for a bit part.) I wonder if they'll explain Lena having attended a foreign boarding school just in case.

[FurryFury]

Not being a native speaker, I really don't give a damn about accents, as long as they at least handwave it if it's really noticeable. 

[MarkHB]

This comes from the Supergirl.TV Twitter account... not sure how they got the photo from Berlanti.

[Trini]

Comments about Supergirl from CBS Pres. at the TV Critics Association press tour.

[Perfect Xero]

On 8/10/2016 at 6:46 AM, Lazlo said:

Agreed about the presence, though as I noted earlier I'm biased. :)

She does have some issues around accents - she can fake a British accent fine but I've read she had difficulty keeping up an American accent in Slasher. McGrath became an actress unsually late (in her mid-20s) and without any formal training so that isn't really surprising (she's said in interviews that she was working in the costume dept on the Tudors and was asked to try out for a bit part.) I wonder if they'll explain Lena having attended a foreign boarding school just in case.

That's funny because I barely picked up her accent at all when I watched the first few episodes of Merlin, I actually thought that she was an American for a bit.

[mtlchick]

The Flash/Supergirl Musical Crossover is a go!  http://tvline.com/2016/08/11/supergirl-the-flash-musical-episode-two-parter/

[Trini]

[Trini]

Blooper / gag reel!

[Lazlo]

7 hours ago, Perfect Xero said:

That's funny because I barely picked up her accent at all when I watched the first few episodes of Merlin, I actually thought that she was an American for a bit.

Okay, that's a new one, heh.

Basically Katie's natural accent (which she used on Merlin) is Wicklow/South Dublin posh ('Dartspeak' - named after the DART, the local light rail system) - a very typical accent for upper middle class young Irish people in and around Dublin. Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) and Domhnall Gleeson have very similar natural accents. Since Merlin, though she's mostly used Received Pronunciation as most of her characters have been English (ie. Jurassic World and Dracula). 

She has played actual Americans in Slasher and a couple of made for TV movies IIRC.

[Kromm]

A bit more on Lena Luthor.

Quote

"Kara finally gets a friend, who isn't a sister and isn't an adversary," added Adler. "She gets a peer, who she can discuss her personal and professional goals with."

Quote

"Lena presents herself as having very, very different goals than her brother," Schechter said. "That allows for a very complicated, grounded relationship [with Kara]."

"We talked a lot, as a model, about the values of a democrat and the values of a republican clashing, but they can still be friends," added Adler. "We see that with Ivanka [Trump] and Chelsea [Clinton], they're two people that respect each other's values but wouldn't naturally be friends."

[Trini]

Vulture's summary of the CW TCA panel *spoilers*; with this tidbit:

Quote

That Supergirl ice cream .gif was almost a lot hotter.
“That was actually supposed to be coffee,” said Kreisberg. “It was the director’s idea to make it ice cream and watching Melissa’s face … that was Melissa’s improv.”

 

And I also found this from MTV at Comic-Con, the cast (mostly Melissa and Jeremy) sing a recap of the last season:

[FurryFury]

I have to say, the stuff I hear about Lena is very encouraging. I wonder if the show could resist making her evil at some point?

[Trini]

I'm not sure if this is from the DVDs or new, but the CW youtube page starting to put up some short videos about the show:

Supergirl: Season 1 Moments -

[Trini]

New promo art:

[Kendra]

Not sure where to put this news but...

Looks like Greg Berlanti is developing yet another superhero show. This one would center around Black Lightning. He is a superhero based out of Metropolis. So part of me still thinks THIS might be the Metropolis/Superman spinoff show I assumed they would try and do with Tyler.

http://deadline.com/2016/09/black-lightning-dc-superhero-series-greg-berlanti-mara-brock-akil-salim-akil-1201811892/

[Trini]

New photo of Supergirl and Superman at this EW article about Tyler H.

[stealinghome]

And the suit is back to looking bad. Superman should not look like a paunchy 40-year-old man in it.

Really, they couldn't have made something more flattering for the actor?

[Perfect Xero]

I think it looks okay, other than the cape. Seeing them side by side, I do think they should have incorporated the red "stitching" that's on Kara's as it would help break up all the blue a bit.

Kevin Smith, who is going to be directing an episode this season, talked about the show a bit on his Fatman on Batman podcast/youtube series:

[Kromm]

On 9/1/2016 at 11:01 PM, Kendra said:

Not sure where to put this news but...

Looks like Greg Berlanti is developing yet another superhero show. This one would center around Black Lightning. He is a superhero based out of Metropolis. So part of me still thinks THIS might be the Metropolis/Superman spinoff show I assumed they would try and do with Tyler.

http://deadline.com/2016/09/black-lightning-dc-superhero-series-greg-berlanti-mara-brock-akil-salim-akil-1201811892/

Since Suicide Slum could also under other continuity be set in New York City, if it is indeed in Metropolis, I agree it's likely a backdoor to Superman. It would allow Supes to be a guest star on two shows rather than one, but also not challenge that notion that they don't want to infringe too much on either the movieverse or the rest of the TVU with Supes.

The basic notion is that one way Superman shows he's far from perfect is that Suicide Slum--a poor neighborhood--kind of gets ignored by him. Then later when it's protected by another hero, well... that's when Supes sticks his nose into it. 

[Chas411]

The suit looks so outdated compared to Supergirls one.

[Trini]

'Supergirl EP: Why Season 2 is the Right Time to Introduce Superman' --
Short version: 1) DC/WB said 'yes', 2) "deepening the characters’ relationships", and 3) we need more viewers.

A couple things I want to note:

Quote

... But behind the scenes, everybody at Warner Bros. and DC and the CW, we're all growing in the same direction.”

Kreisberg: Master of Spin, is he....

Quote

For now, we know Superman will be in the first two episodes of Season 2. But could he pop up more? Said Kreisberg, “ That's going to be up to Warner Bros., DC, and the audience, quite frankly. He so much a part of [this world], but the show is called Supergirl. It's about her. If it turns out as well as we hope, and the audience responds, then we'll see what happens down the road.”

::frustrated noises::