CBS has booked Melissa Benoist, best known for her appearances in Glee and Whiplash, as the lead in their forthcoming Supergirl series. CBS chair Nina Tassler gave the Greg Berlanti-produced series a tentative “series commitment” in September, but Benoist’s casting suggests the show is still big on the network’s development radar.
Benoist will play Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, who boasts the same Kryptonian powers but wields them for 20 percent less public adoration and fewer offers for endorsement deals, because Earth sucks. After going to great pains to conceal her superhuman attributes during her adolescence, the series will find Kara growing into her superhero status at the age of 24 while solving a grisly murder or two. The pilot was written by Berlanti and Ali Adler, who previously collaborated on ABC’s short-lived No Ordinary Family. Following the success of The CW’s Arrow and The Flash, Supergirl will hopefully become Berlanti’s third DC Comics-based superhero series that’s better than it has any right to be.