Supergirl is Casting For a Teenage Kal-El

Supergirl’s cousin Kal-El may have already been established as a 20-something superhero by the time Kara Zor-El arrived on Earth to protect him — but that doesn’t mean the series won’t be delving at least a little bit into those rarely-tapped Smallville years, TVLine reports.

That’s right: Supergirl has put out a casting notice for a 13-year-old with “future leading man looks” to play Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton.

While the character hasn’t been seen straight-on in his adult form yet, he’s been depicted as a blurry or shadowy figure, bursting into action or backlit from the yellow sun that grants Kryptonians their powers…and that’s perfect, according to showrunner Andrew Kreisberg.

“There really isn’t anything we’ve asked for that was not given to us, you know? The show’s called Supergirl and it’s about Supergirl. It’s not like we’ve been jonesing to have Superman on it,” Kreisberg told ComicBook.com in a recent interview. “We also didn’t want to…you know, if you’re going to cast Superman, you’ve got cast Superman right! Just like when you think about all the time and effort and energy that’s gone into finding the cinematic Superman over the last thirty years. For us, Superman is more of an idea than it is a personification of the character, so we’re more than happy to have him backlit….It’s not like we’ve been asking for more Superman or can we do it like this or can we have him in this. For us, we’re perfectly happy with the amount of Superman that we’ve had because it’s the exact amount that we’ve asked for.”

The role is listed as “potentially recurring,” and will apparently establish the bond between the two cousins. Whether this will be done by giving young Kara a holographic presence a la Jor-El in the movies or Alura in Supergirl’s Fortress at the DEO isn’t specified, but seems likely.

What does “potentially recurring” mean? At this stage, they’re probably fairly far ahead in terms of what episode is in production. Arrow and The Flash, for instance, are filming their twelfth episodes this week. Until the series gets its back nine — which is all-but-guaranteed but still not official — it’s unlikely they’ll be signing any deals for a recurring character.

Supergirl airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.