Super(girl) Media

[Lazlo]

 

Cat Grant in this role doesn't bother me; she's been bounced around quite a bit in the comics, and I can't even find anything online related to her being in the New 52.  Jimmy -- excuse me, James -- Olsen I'll try to discuss in the spoiler thread sometime this weekend.

 

Cat Grant is still around in the 'New 52', though she has slipped under the radar a little recently. She's good friends with Clark and ran a blog with him after he quit the Daily Planet for a while (Clarkcatropolis.com).

[MarkHB]

Jeremy Jordan will play Wynn Schott.  Note that now, both The Wrap and TV Line are calling him a guest star in the pilot, as opposed to the regular the role seemed originally. 

[Kromm]

Jeremy Jordan will play Wynn Schott.  Note that now, both The Wrap and TV Line are calling him a guest star in the pilot, as opposed to the regular the role seemed originally. 

Toyman seems better suited to being a guest star, doesn't he?

[MarkHB]

As Toyman he would indeed, but some of what we have seen so far (including the initial character descriptions) made it seems like he's far from that point yet.

 

Also, this happened today.

[Kromm]

As Toyman he would indeed, but some of what we have seen so far (including the initial character descriptions) made it seems like he's far from that point yet.

 

Also, this happened today.

There's actually a physical resemblance, isn't there (similar noses, mouth shapes)?

[FurryFury]

Aw, this guy is really cute. Too bad he's going to be a villain.

[MarkHB]

Faran Tahir is joining the cast! 

I'm not sure if "The Commander" is the "Shadow Figure" who Lumberjack is talking to in one of the audition sides or not, but it would be great if he were the "face of the unseen actual Big Bad".

[ApathyMonger]

 

I like it.

[MarkHB]

I do too... she looks great!

 

The costume for Supergirl was designed by Colleen Atwood, who also designed the costumes for Arrow and The Flash and whose motion picture credits include Academy Awardsfor her work on Alice in Wonderland, Memoirs of a Geisha and Chicago, as well as eight additional Oscar nominations for films such as Into the Woods, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Sleepy Hollow.

 

“In designing Supergirl, I wanted to embrace the past, but more importantly, thrust her into the street-style action hero of today,” Atwood said.

[legaleagle53]

Not bad, but I think the colors are just a little too dark.  Kara's original costume (she's had several over the decades) was a slightly lighter shade of blue because it was modeled after Superman's costume as a way of identifying her to him as a fellow Kryptonian.  Still, I can live with it.  :)

[Sakura12]

If she wanted modern why is Kara still wearing a skirt? That can't be helpful in fighting crime. 

 

They also used the same muted colors as the New Superman. But I suppose she's one of the few female heroes that's not wearing black. 

Edited March 6, 2015 by Sakura12

[ApathyMonger]

It's possible the colors will look brighter on the actual show. The first Flash picture was super-dark too:

 

Edited March 6, 2015 by ApathyMonger

[Kromm]

 

I like it.

Is that photo real or fan made?  Honestly, from the similarity to the Flash photo it makes it look fan made (because it's emulating it too directly).

 

EDIT - Okay, it's real.  I see this came from DC itself:  http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2015/03/06/first-look-melissa-benoist-as-supergirl

Edited March 6, 2015 by Kromm

[Trini]

It's ... okay. I'm surprised they went in such a "classic" direction. It's almost exactly the same costume as the 1984 movie. You'd think that 30 years would warrant an update.

 

Also I thought they would have gone blonder with the hair.

[MarkHB]

Grant Gustin and I agree that that cutout S shield rocks :-)

[The Crazed Spruce]

Nice. A nod to the original, with a modern aesthetic. Flatters the form without sexualizing. Also, it's not some dumb armor. I like it.

[Just Here]

That publicity photo does look underexposed.  Adjusting the image's eV value by 100% produces much more 'normal' looking colors and skin tones, so I wouldn't be too worried about the costume being too dark.  And, we'll probably get a better look at the costume once some photos from outdoor on-location filming pop up on the Interwebs.

 

Here's the same image, adjusted by a full eV (spoiler'ed only to reduce scrolling):

 

 

And, with the image adjustment, you can actually see a thin red stripe going down the center of each of the arm sleeves, along with some similar red loops perpendicular to the long red stripes.

 

(edited: To correct grammar and add missing punctuation.)

Edited March 7, 2015 by Just Here

[MarkHB]

Her hair looks blonder, too, although I'm not really concerned about that aspect.

[Trini]

Thanks, Just Here. So those red pinstripes are really nice, but I'm still not sold on the skirt. A slightly more fitted style would work better for me.

[Kromm]

Also I thought they would have gone blonder with the hair.

 

 

Her hair looks blonder, too, although I'm not really concerned about that aspect.

 

Important Breaking News:  Her hair IS blonder (than it looks in that oddly underexposed publicity photo):  Set photos (nothing spoilery, so I'll do it in the clear) from http://melmariebenoist.tumblr.com

 

 

Edited March 8, 2015 by Kromm

[MarkHB]

Malina Weissman will play young Kara.  She is the same actress who played young April O'Neil in the most recent TMNT movie.  I've also seen a report that the crew has hired a full-time teacher, so there may be more than just a couple of flashbacks in the pilot (I don't know what triggers the requirement to hire a teacher for a production).

[NorthstarATL]

If she wanted modern why is Kara still wearing a skirt? That can't be helpful in fighting crime. 

 

They also used the same muted colors as the New Superman. But I suppose she's one of the few female heroes that's not wearing black. 

That particular skirt looks wrong, indeed, but the traditional Supergirl skirt was often dancer/skater/tennis type and seemed appropriate for the original character's invulnerability (the Supers' costumes were crafted from materials from Krypton, therefore impervious) and youth.

   I guess we'll have to see it in motion to see whether it works.

[Just Here]

SuperheroHype.com has a few wire photos of Benoist as Kara during the filming of an outdoor scene.  Here's the full screen slideshow. (Tip: Use your browser's right-click menu to view the image by itself at full resolution. For example, slide #2 is over 1600 x 2400).

[ApathyMonger]

Odd that it's set in "National City" rather than one of the existing fake cities that DC already has. I guess even "Metropolis" is off limits to them?

[Kromm]

Odd that it's set in "National City" rather than one of the existing fake cities that DC already has. I guess even "Metropolis" is off limits to them?

There's a real place called National City south of San Diego, but I'm betting that's not it either!

 

Is the name maybe meant to be emulative of Washington DC?  I don't know why they'd do that, since there's no way they're going to ape national politics and figures or parallel them.

[Trini]

Metropolis probably isn't off-limits, but they want to distance her from Superman's home base, I guess.

[MarkHB]

From what I've seen when looking at her history, at various times Kara has been based in Midvale (her original teenage incarnation), a college, and then San Francisco.  I'm not sure what they did with the New 52 Kara, tbh.  I don't know why they came up with a name as awful as National City, but... yeah, it's lame.  I have no idea if it's supposed to be the capital or not.

[NorthstarATL]

National Periodicals became DC Comics, so I'm pretty sure there's a tie-in there. As opposed to Marvel, DC usually tried to set their heroes' adventures in fictional cities so that they were not constrained by real life events and histories. Gotham has had earthquakes and quarantines. Coast City was destroyed. Marvel can't do that to New York without the New York reader looking around and going "Uh, no." Besides, National is much easier to imagine a city being named than "Starling", or the one they gave comics' Nightwing, which involved an "umlaut"!

[MarkHB]

Andrew Kreisberg Tweeted this photo... and thanks to Supergirl.TV for noticing that that building housed the Daily Planet offices on Lois and Clark!

 

Also, here are some relevant comments he made after PaleyFest:

 

He is definitely not sounding the optimism horns re: a crossover with the CW shows. 

[Kromm]

I honestly don't even see the point of this if it doesn't feed a mutual universe.  It literally seems like a waste of time to me if it doesn't.

[pootlus]

The set shot of the old Lois and Clark Daily Planet building made me incredibly nostalgic.  Mostly for the days when DC could actually have some fun with its characters.

 

Oh and if they don't get one goofy/ironic shot of Dean Cain in front of that building (whatever it's supposed to represent now) I'm going to have to hurt someone.

[MarkHB]

Owain Yeoman will be playing a villain in the pilot.  It seems likely that he'll be taking the place of the previously-discussed villain, Lumberjack.

[Kromm]

Owain Yeoman will be playing a villain in the pilot.  It seems likely that he'll be taking the place of the previously-discussed villain, Lumberjack.

I don't like that they're going with such a little know grade Z villain.

 

Not that I expect a pilot to feature the best villain (that's reserved for the season long arc), but the one in the pilot should be a cut above the filler villains they're bound to use mid-season.

[NorthstarATL]

Vartox is rarely taken seriously. I hope the series isn't going for the Sixties Batman feel.

[MarkHB]

From what I saw of Vartox after this announcement, and some of the spoilers regarding Lumberjack, I worry that they could be too set on having her beat up some sexist bruiser every week.  A sprinkling of that is fine, but if all she faces are brutes whose only personality trait is that they look down on Kara for being a woman, it's going to get old quickly.

 

So far as "Grade Z" villains in general go, IMHO that's actually Supergirl's greatest weakness from a story perspective: she doesn't have her own slate of well-known enemies the way the other heroes do.  Most of her Silver and Bronze Age stories, at least as I remember them, had her flying around acting notably girly when "Gosh, there's Toyman up to no good!" happened... she fought second-division Superman foes because she was really only created to reflect on Superman, both as the impish little sister type and from the fact that she's more Kryptonian than he is since she grew up there.  So they're going to have to come up with their own interesting villains, whether reclaiming ones from the DC rubbish bin or inventing ones of their own, if they're going to have a shot at thriving.

[MarkHB]

Another casting announcement: a young lady named Jordan Mazarati will play Young Alex.  Physically, this is freaky:

 

[Just Here]

Saw this on another forum:  Principal filming for the pilot wrapped on Sunday morning (via KryptonSite.com).

Edited March 30, 2015 by Just Here

[MarkHB]

About halfway through this video, they talk to Melissa Benoist who says a very few words about Supergirl.  In particular, she pronounces her character's name as "Car-a", rather than "Care-a" with a long A, in case anyone was wondering.

[The Crazed Spruce]

They released a new candid picture of Supergirl's costume today.

[Trini]

Still wished they had used a more current silhouette for the belt and skirt. /part-time fashion nerd

[Kromm]

Still wished they had used a more current silhouette for the belt and skirt. /part-time fashion nerd

Yeah, I'm afraid some people seeing this costume may have a knee-jerk reaction towards thinking its camp.  And while having a lighter touch clearly can work on these current Superhero shows (see: The Flash), that's not the same thing as making them (or allowing them to be thought of as) camp.

[Trini]

And the new photo shows that the sleeves have thumb holes.

[MarkHB]

Helen Slater appeared at New England Super Megafest's inaugural Spring Fever Spectacular this past weekend in Marlborough, Mass. and had this to say:

 

"I'm in the pilot and I have a contract as a guest star, which means they can use me as much as they want," said Slater, who is as lovely as ever. "It's all hush, hush."...

 

While she is mum about her new part on "Supergirl," Slater has nothing but praise for the show's writers and its star, Melissa Benoist, even though Slater innocently confesses that she's still not sure how to pronounce the new Kara's last name right.

"Greg Berlanti does 'The Flash' and 'Arrow.' He's such a smart writer," Slater said. "It was such a joy to do the pilot. My fingers are crossed that it goes well because they have a great cast. The girl playing Supergirl, Melissa Benoist, is fantastic."

As for giving Benoist any sisterly advice, Slater said she didn't have to because the new Supergirl is already that good.

"When I met her, we did the reading and she was fabulous. She did not need any advice at all," Slater said of Benoist. "She's sparkling and funny and delightful. She's going to be awesome."

 

Emphasis added, and it sounds like good news to me!

[Rina99]

http://deadline.com/2015/04/pilots-buzz-whats-hot-2015-1201415924/

 

From this article on pilot prospects:

 

It’s been very noisy on the drama side at CBS and pretty quiet on the comedy side as the network brass appear pleased with many of their hourlong pilots. Freshman breakout Scorpion may be joined by another action thriller from the same producers, Limitless, while the Criminal Minds spinoff is in serious contention to join the mothership crime procedural. Also talked about are both CBS medical pilots, Code Black and LFE as well both legal dramas, Doubt and For Justice, the latter, which tackles civil rights cases reportedly getting early support by CBS topper Les Moonves. The question is whether the network would pick more than one from each genre, especially given its very limited shelf space. Supergirl also appears to be a contender for a pickup, with the remaining two hourlong pilots, Sneaky Pete and Rush Hour said to be OK while backed by significant commitments.

 

Edited April 25, 2015 by Rina99

[Kromm]

That piece doesn't make sense.  Wasn't the whole story with Supergirl that it got a straight to series commitment?  So there is no "pickup".

 

Not that 100% of straight-to-series commitments lead to broadcast shows, but it takes a straight out disaster for it NOT to. The assumption is that such shows are already picked up.

[Just Here]

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that a summer run might be in the mix for the series.

 

Some sources suggested a summer run could be on the table where it could be paired with sci-fi fare like Under the Dome, Extant and Zoo. A summer run could also give the network an edge in the increasingly crowded comic book space, with only AMC's Fear the Walking Dead expected to set up shop there.

 

 

Personally, I'm thinking Sundays at 8pm would be a better option, which is currently occupied by Madame Secretary.  If that series is renewed, along with The Good Wife, I'd push those two existing series back an hour to 9pm and 10pm, respectively.  Which would create a "Strong Women Sundays" block. Plus, with the CW having no Sunday programming, this will not be directly competing with any other DC properties (Arrow, The Flash, and the new spinoff).  Nor, would it compete with ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., assuming that series stays on Tuesday nights.

[Rina99]

Well, this is Deadline's latest on CBS prospects:  

 

Action drama Limitless is being viewed as a potential new Scorpion, it appears on brand and is owned by the network, giving it an edge. Supergirl has been getting solid early reviews, with some suggesting it for the Sunday 8 PM hour. The network has to make up its mind on the high-profile superhero show fast as it has an early pickup deadline. The other big Warner Bros. title at CBS, Rush Hour, has been quietly rising after a bumpy casting process. The two medical pilots, Code Black and LFE, also have been well received, with Code Black said to have an edge. There has been less talk about Sneaky Pete, which has a very big commitment to Sony, Doubt and For Justice. On the crime procedural side, the Criminal Minds spinoff has a shot.

 

 

http://deadline.com/2015/05/pilots-2015-latest-buzz-1201419348/

Edited May 3, 2015 by Rina99

[Kromm]

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that a summer run might be in the mix for the series.

Wait. THIS summer or next?

Keep in mind it's already almost this summer.

[MarkHB]

I assume the following summer since there's only the pilot in the can and everyone is off awaiting word and/or being on honeymoons (Melissa married Blake Jenner, "Ryder" from Glee and perhaps one of the luckiest reality show winners ever, earlier this year).

[Kromm]

Well that would be a hell of a waste of a lot of show buzz.  Make it not come out for an entire extra year.

Maybe they want more lead time to implement decent CGI?