Supergirl EP Compares Season 2 to The Empire Strikes Back

08/26/2016 05:06 pm EDT

Comparing your sequel to The Empire Strikes Back is a tried-and-true shorthand way to say "It's better than the first one" without actually having to say anything negative about the original.

Supergirl executive producer Andrew Kreisberg is taking that strategy in discussing the show's upcoming second season, although he's also having a pretty honest discussion about just how well he thinks the first season did or didn't work.

"In a way, it's almost like a sequel, and I don't mean that in terms of it being dark," Kreisberg told Collider. "When you look at Empire Strikes Back compared to Star Wars, because you'd already introduced the characters and gotten that out of the way, you were able to go deeper with the characters and have more introspection, and watch them grow and learn. In some ways, the show is a little bit more comic book-y, with the addition of Superman and some of the things we're trying, but it's also gotten richer, with some of the characters and what they'll be exploring this season."

That approach -- establishing a world and then fleshing it out and really digging in for future installments -- didn't just work well for Star Wars. It's how Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, along with EP Marc Guggenheim, were able to take Arrow from a cool show about an urban vigilante to the show that established a DC Universe for television, laying the groundwork for shows like Supergirl in the process.

And Kreisberg can see those parallels.

"We're so proud of Supergirl last season, but it reminded us, a little bit, of Season 1 of Arrow. We knew there was a great show in there and, every once in awhile, we would make it great, but we didn't know how to do it consistently yet," Kreisberg admitted. "We really feel like this year, at least for us creatively, we've cracked the code and we're coming out of the gate strong. It's almost the same trajectory that we had on Arrow, where we started to figure it out towards the back half of Season 1, and we're coming out of the gate really strong with Season 2. Season 1s are tough. There was also the added pressure of having the first female superhero on TV, in a long time. There was a lot of expectation that the audience had, that the network had, that the studio had, and that we had for ourselves. It took awhile to put all of that aside and just start telling the right stories. It's always been my experience that shows tell you what they want to be. Now, with the stories that we're telling, Supergirl is finally becoming what it should be."

Lynda Carter will join the series as the President of the United States, along with actors Chris Wood, Tyler Hoechlin and Ian Gomez have joined the cast as Mon-El, Superman and Snapper Carr, respectively.

Supergirl will air on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW starting in October.

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