During SUPERGIRL’s Comic-Con panel today, the producers and cast announced that three new characters would be joining the cast for season 4 and confirmed who would be playing the new characters. SUPERGIRL is also set to debut television’s new transgender superhero.
- Nia Nal (Nicole Maines) is the newest addition to the CatCo reporting team. A soulful young transgender woman with a fierce drive to protect others, Nia’s journey this season means fulfilling her destiny as the superhero Dreamer (much like Kara came into her own as Supergirl).
- Hardline career military woman Colonel Haley (April Parker Jones) lives and dies by the orders of her commanding officers. Dedicated to her country, she always acts in its best interest — even if it’s not her own.
- Based on the iconic DC character, Manchester Black (David Ajala) is the type of guy who brings a knife to a gunfight and still walks away the winner. With a dark past, he easily deflects the brutality of his mission with his charm and sense of humor.
- These three cast members join the previously announced new series regulars Jesse Rath (who plays the Legion of Super Heroes’ Brainiac-5) and Sam Witwer (who will play Agent Liberty).
In addition, the cast and producers doled out a few teasers for season 4:
- Last year they were in outer space fighting World Killers, but this year they want to make the show more grounded and to reflect a few things happening in the real world.
- We will see Kara go back to her journalism roots, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of CatCo. James is still the Editor-In-Chief of CatCo and he and Kara will be working together on a lot of stories.
- Melissa Benoist said that Kara had just defeated Reign and thinks that her character is “feeling pretty good”. She believes Kara is the most confident we’ve ever seen her.
- The theme of the year is “what is a stronger — hope or fear?” There will be a rising anti-alien sentiment developing at the beginning of the season, which will be a challenge for Supergirl. How can she be a beacon of hope if she’s the thing that people fear? One way for Kara to combat this is to become as big a hero as a reporter as Supergirl is.
- The show will be telling their own version of the Red Son comics. They will tease it out in the beginning of the season and it will come to more of a fruition in the latter part of the season.
- Balance is a big part of Alex’s storyline in the new season. Now she won’t be able to rely on a lot of her old allies, particularly J’onn and Winn. Motherhood will also be part of her journey.
- J’onn is trying to follow in the footsteps of his father next season. But how can you be a man of peace when the outside world is so violent? That will be a big challenge for him.
- There continues to be a learning curve for Brainiac-5 while interacting with humans and others now that he chose to remain behind in Kara’s time. Socially he’ll butt heads with a few people, especially with Alex.
- There will be some fallout from Guardian’s unmasking.
- Nia is a new reporter at CatCo who worked with Cat in Washington D.C. and is sent to National City to learn from Kara as both a reporter and superhero. She’s very happy to be there and is very pure. But she also has a ferocious drive to protect people and fight against discrimination and hatred.
- We’ll meet Kate Kane in the yearly CW/DC December crossover.
SUPERGIRL will return for its fourth season on October 14 in its new Sunday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot. Watch a sneak peek from the new season below.
