‘Supergirl’ Adds Jesse Rath as Series Regular

Jesse Rath will reprise his role as Brainiac 5 in Supergirl‘s fourth season — and he will do it as a series regular.

“We love the character of Brainiac-5 and can’t imagine anyone but Jesse Rath in the role,” executive producers Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller told TVLine. “He brings such fun, heart and brilliance to Brainy, and we’re so excited he’s joining the cast as a series regular for season 4.We have a lot of great Brainy stories to tell.”

Rath first appeared, along with other members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, in the tenth episode of season three. This season, the half-computer, half-organic lifeform that is Brainiac-5 has used his 12th-level intellect to travel back in time to present day National City to assist Supergirl in battling the villain Reign.

Next season? It is hard to know. Some have speculated that Supergirl may in fact head to the future and that season four will take place entirely or partially in the 31st Century — a theory that may be supported by Brainiac-5 saying in the trailer for Monday’s finale that “the future needs heroes.”

When fans got their first look at Brainiac 5, they weren’t impressed — which prompted Rath to attempt to calm them down, promising that the character would grow on them.

Criticisms over his looks never really died down, although the show seems to have handled it by simply skipping the alien makeup and allowing Rath to appear in his natural, human form most of the time.

As a character, though, he was right: Brainiac has become a fan-favorite, not least of which because of the way Rath communicates humor and irony through the character, a hallmark of most takes on Brainiac-5. Writers tend to get a lot of mileage out of the idea that he is so cold and clinical as to be almost Spock-like, while usually surrounded by colorful characters and absurd situations.

This season, the Legion of Super-Heroes (Brainiac-5, Saturn Girl, and Mon-El) have been an on-and-off presence on the show, with Mon-El being the only true constant. Based on Rath getting “regular” treatment, it seems likely that whether Supergirl goes to the future or they come to the past, the Legion will play a bigger (or at least more constant) role in season five.

Supergirl airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. The season finale will air on Monday, and then the series will return in October, airing on Sunday nights.