CBS has given its first new series pickup for the 2015-16 season to Greg Berlanti and Warner Bros. TV’s DC drama Supergirl. CBS has picked up the superhero saga as a series for the fall schedule. It is one of many series orders that will be made in the next week as networks put together their fall lineups. Supergirl is based on the DC Comics character.
Melissa Benoist (Glee, Whiplash) will play the central character, Kara Zor-El, who escaped to Earth when her native planet, Krypton, was destroyed. Now 24 and possessing the same powers as her famous cousin, Superman, she decides to stop hiding her superhuman abilities and instead to embrace them, becoming “the hero she was always meant to be.”
Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal, Brothers & Sisters) will portray Cat Grant, “a self-made media mogul and founder of CatCo. Cat Grant started her career as a reporter and has built her company into a global powerhouse.” Kara works at CatCo as Cat’s assistant.
The cast also features Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) as Alexandra “Alex” Danvers, Kara’s “confident foster sister,” whose fascination with Kara’s powers inspires her to become a bioengineer; Mehcad Brooks (Necessary Roughness, True Blood) as James Olsen, a former Daily Planet photographer who is the new art director at CatCo; andDavid Harewood (Homeland) as Hank Henshaw, a onetime CIA agent who now runs the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO).
Supergirl features Greg Berlanti, an executive producer of CW’s successful Arrow and The Flash, in that same behind-the-scenes role, where he will be joined by Ali Adler, Sarah Schechter and Andrew Kreisberg.
