For fans of SUPERGIRL, one of the biggest announcements to come out of last week’s Television Critics Association’s Winter Press Tour, had to do with a key casting move.
“We’re so proud and excited to welcome in the role of Indigo, Laura Vandervoort,” said executive producer Ali Adler during a special press conference on the DEO set of SUPERGIRL. “We’re just so excited to have her here on these stages.”
Vandervoort, of course, played Supergirl on the CW’s SMALLVILLE. On the CBS series, she’ll recur as Indigo, who’s described as a living strong-willed supercomputer that was sentenced to Fort Rozz after turning against Krypton. Hopefully that means she’ll end up clashing with Kara’s alter ego in a big and badass way.
What would be even better is if there were a way to get Melissa Benoist and Helen Slater to share a scene with Vandervoort. Slater may be playing Kara’s adoptive mother, Eliza Danvers, but all three of these actresses are either present or past Supergirls. There’s a good chance this will happen. According to Variety, the episode will feature “three generations of Supergirl.”
Look for Indigo to make her presence known in episode 15 while another familiar name pops up for the first time the week before Vandervoort guest stars.
“The villain is Master Jailer, who’s another DC Comics mainstay who we’re putting a twist on,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg announced. “Lexi [Alexander, the episode’s director] and John Medlen, who’s our stunt supervisor — they designed one of the coolest fights we’ve ever done on the show. One word: chains.”
Bringing Master Jailer to live-action life is Jeff Branson. In the daytime world, Branson starred on ALL MY CHILDREN, THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and GUIDING LIGHT, where he won an Emmy for playing Shayne Lewis. More recently, he appeared on the CW’s SUPERNATURAL. He was a member of the evil Styne family, who tried to make life difficult for the Winchester brothers since they were in possession of the powerful Book of the Damned.
Another Kreisberg reveal involves a story he’s been waiting to tackle. “One of my favorite comic books is FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING, by Alan Moore. So episode 13 is actually “For the Girl Who Has Everything,” he explained. “Kara wakes up and she’s back on Krypton and has no idea how or why she got there. And it’s one of the things I’m the most excited about having done, because it seemed like such a pipe dream.”
There’s also something coming up for J’onn J’onnz aka Martian Manhunter aka the guy everybody other than Kara and Alex thinks is Hank Henshaw. “We’re actually going to see how J’onn became Hank in an upcoming episode,” teased Kreisberg.
Tonight’s Supergirl dives deep into Winn’s backstory, thanks to the emergence of his father, the supervillain known as Toyman. “‘Childish Things,’ which features Winslow Schott, Sr., played by Henry Czerny, who does the Toyman, is Jeremy’s hour,” raved Kreisberg. “He is so good in this episode and so is the whole cast.” Watch sneak peeks from this week’s episode.
“He’s very much the hero of that story too,” added Adler. “And Jamie Babbit did a beautiful job directing for us.”
SUPERGIRL airs Mondays at 8/7c on CBS.