CBS Talks Supergirl Series

When it was announced that CBS had picked up the pending Supergirl series in the works, many were surprised. If you recall, the last superhero series on CBS was The Flash in the 90’s. And now, with it’s focus on procedural dramas, you might wonder why the network did this move.

At the recent TCA event, CBS went into detail about the Supergirl series, especially about the format of the show:

“There will be [crime] cases, but what [executive producers] Ali Adler and Greg Berlanti pitched was a real series arc for her,” Nina Tassler said. “The beauty of it is now with shows like Good Wife and Madam Secretary, you can have serialized story elements woven into a case of the week. She’s a crime solver, so she’s going to have to solve a crime. She’s going to get a bad guy.”

She went on about Supergirl as a character, describing her as “a very strong, independent young woman. She’s coming into her own. She’s dealing with family issues. She’s dealing with work issues. It’s a female empowerment story. If you look at the strong female characters we have on the air, it really is resonant of that … We’re big feminists. It’s her intellect, it’s her skill, it’s her smarts. It’s all of those elements. It’s not just her strength, which she does have.”

Now, many a question has been raised about who will play Supergirl, CBS states that they’ve not rushing into casting her, they want someone special for the role:

“She’s got to be an every woman,” she said. “She’s got to be specific. She’s got to be a terrific actor. I think back to having had the good fortune of being at Warner Bros. when we were doing Lois & Clark, the chemistry between Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher was really wonderful. So I think in this case, it’s looking for someone who embodies both the freshness and the exuberance of being a young woman in today’s challenging climate and being someone who can carry this kind of series on her shoulders. It’s a big, big show.”

Oh, and they have the costume made, how does it look?

“Awesome costume.”