‘Supergirl’ EPs Preview Season 4’s New Threats

When Supergirl returns in the fall, she will have a lot going on, and most of it not very good. Without Winn (who will return to the series after actor Jeremy Jordan’s current Broadway engagement, but who will not be a series regular this season), she will find herself facing battles on a number of fronts.

In a virtual speed round with TVLine, Supergirl executive producers Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner shared some thoughts on the numerous new threats facing National City and our heroine this season.

First up is Mercy Graves, played by Rhona Mitra, whose history with the Luthors triggers an objective that “quickly puts her in conflict with Supergirl.” In the comics, Mercy was one of Lex Luthor’s most trusted aides, a bodyguard and fixer. With Lex in prison, it is difficult to guess just what role Mercy could play in the season. Certainly, it seems she did not get blown up during one of Lex’s plots in the Arrowverse, unlike in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Next, Sam Witwer’s Agent Liberty is not the slightly-conservative superhero of the comics, but an anti-alien activist who aims to “foster division and turn America against the aliens that have emigrated.”

One thing that is interesting for an Arrowverse show? Apparently the duplicate Kara seen at the end of season three is not going to pay off right away, but is “going to be threaded in as a mystery that doesn’t come to fruition until later this season.”

“The writer’s room is being really great this year,” Benoist said in a recent interview. “Last season, it was a lot of fire and brimstone and a lot of homages to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was great because I was such a big fan of that show. This season they really want to thematically tackle more topical stories that maybe mirror what’s going on with the state of the world and our country. There’s a lot of anti-alien sentiment at the beginning of Season 4 that Supergirl is going to have to grapple with. I think their main premise is that fear itself is a villain and can hope conquer it? Supergirl stands for hope, so we’ll see. I think fear is her biggest opponent yet because it’s more of a wildfire-type emotion.”

The fourth season of Supergirl will debut on Sunday, October 14th, at 8/7c on The CW, making it the first Sunday primetime show ever on the network.