Supergirl Showrunner Says Season 5 “Almost Entirely” About Kara and Lena’s Relationship

At its heart, The CW‘s Supergirl is about relationships. The relationships between Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and the people in her life have been central to the series from the beginning be it the sister dynamic between Kara and Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) or the romance between Kara and Mon-El (Chris Woods). One of the biggest relationships, though, is the one between Kara and her best friend Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath) but at the end of Season 4 that relationship was in serious jeopardy. Lena learned the truth about Kara and according to co-showrunner Jessica Queller, Season 5 will deal almost entirely with their friendship.

Speaking with ET at the Saturn Awards (via Yahoo!), Queller along with co-showrunner Robert Rovner and Benoist was asked that if fans of a particular “ship” — the so-called “SuperCorps” which holds out hope that Kara and Lena’s friendship will take a romantic turn — might get to see the pair become more in Season 5. While that didn’t appear to be the direction things are going for the characters, Queller did say that the season would be very focused on Lena and Kara — after Benoist noted the difficulty of the season.

“It’s gonna be a rough season,” Benoist said.

“I will just say that this season, Season 5, revolves almost entirely around their relationship,” Queller added. “I can’t promise to make all of the fans dreams come true, but if they care about the relationship between Supergirl and Lena they’ll get a lot of it this year.”

This isn’t the first time the significance of the Kara/Lena relationship will have in Season 5. Back in July, Benoist described the season as a “fight for Lena’s soul” as the reveal about Kara’s identity appears to send Lena on a dark path one that could see the character take a villain turn.

“This season’s going to be a fight for Lena’s soul,” Benoist said, who was surprised and heartbroken by how Lena found out Kara’s secret. “I was devastated that it was Lex Luthor that told her. That was such a shot in the heart to Lena, a character that my character loves so dearly. It was painful.”

McGrath herself has also previously said that she never wanted Lena to learn Supergirl’s identity, though Benoist said she always knew it was going to happen and she thinks it’s important to explore.

“To me, that would be wishful thinking, but I always knew it was going to happen,” Benoist said. “I think part of what we are trying to do on Supergirl specifically, too, is explore relationships between women, and friendships, and sisterhoods, and how we treat each other, how we communicate that’s different between men and women. I think their relationship is singular already because they’re such close friends and you get to explore that. This is only going to make that conversation a little more complicated.”

The complicated relationship won’t be the only challenge, either. The recently revealed season premiere synopsis hints at workplace complications for Kara as well. You can check that out below.

“SEASON PREMIERE – Kara (Melissa Benoist) is surprised to find that CatCo has a new owner who has brought in a star reporter. New couples emerge and explore their budding relationships while J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) receives an unexpected visitor. Jesse War”n directed the episode written by Derek Simon & Nicki Holcomb. Original airdate 10/6/2019.

Supergirl premieres on October 6, 2019, on The CW.