Are Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo Playing Laurel and Lar Gand?
A few weeks back, one of our regular readers and commenters suggested that it was possible Teri [...]
A few weeks back, one of our regular readers and commenters suggested that it was possible Teri Hatcher and Kevin Sorbo, whose characters were cast just days apart and so who were immediately linked in the minds of the fans, could be playing a version of Lar and Laurel Gand, members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
We liked the idea at the time, but lacked a sense of just how it might work. Over the last little while, though, it seems more and more credible.
"Most of his scenes are with Teri [Hatcher], and you know, Teri could very easily blow someone off of the screen with her mega star TV wattage," said executive producer Andrew Kreisberg during a recent press event. "So it was important to make sure that didn't happen, so, you know, getting Kevin [Sorbo] and someone who has his own, you know, history and fanbase and celebrity has made those scenes between them feel like equals which was what we needed."
That formalizes the idea -- first put forth by fans and journalists at the time of Sorbo's casting -- that he'll likely be attached to Hatcher's character.
Hatcher and Sorbo, of course, were both big genre hits in the '90s. Sorbo starred on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, while Hatcher was Lois Lane on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
In the comics, Lar Gand was a fill-in for Superboy, while Laurel Gand served the same purpose for Supergirl.
Why did they need fill-ins? Well, the short version is that after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman's backstory was altered and he was no longer Superboy (having discovered his powers at 18 or 19). There were also no other survivors of Krypton's destruction, so Supergirl didn't exist, either. That left the Legion of Super-Heroes -- a team that featured both characters at various points in its history -- with decades' worth of stories that no longer made sense.
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a team of teen-aged superheroes from a thousand years in the future. Headquartered on Earth, they come from a variety of different worlds and have a variety of different powers (although each of them wields a Legion flight ring, which provides its wearer with a universal translator, the ability to fly, and some other perks).
Inspired by the legend of Superboy, the Legion traveled back in time to recruit Superman as a teenager, and would periodically steal him away to the future to have adventures with them, returning him to Smallville when they were done. At different points, the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superboy (Conner Kent) and Supergirl have also been part of the Legion.
Once one of DC's most successful and popular franchises, the Legion of Super-Heroes have suffered quite a bit since the first line-wide continuity reboot following 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earths.
What's interesting is that Lar Gand is actually Mon-El's true (Daxamite) name in the comics. When ComicBook.com visited the set of Supergirl back in November, though, actor Chris Wood seemed never to have heard the name before when it was dropped by a writer from KryptonSite. Rather than incorporating the two names (and the cultural reasons for them) into one character in Supergirl, could the writers of Supergirl instead use it to be a different -- but related -- pair of Daxamites?
Recently, Kevin Smith shared an image on social media that appeared to be an alien throne room of some kind. Earlier today, he shared a close-up of a Legion of Super-Heroes flight ring (which, to be fair, has appeared on numerous episodes already). The fact that the throne room features a statue of three figures who look quite a bit like the folks who were looking for Mon-El a few weeks ago raises some eyebrows, though, especially when you consider the popular theory that he is in fact the prince he claimed to have been protecting at the time of Daxam's destruction.
More Supergirl: "Exodus" trailer | Martian Manhunter is "almost too powerful" | Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher to reunite onscreen?
Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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