‘Supergirl’ Season 4 Confirmed to Be Inspired by ‘Superman: Red Son’

Supergirl‘s third season just came to a close, but it looks like we already have an idea of where next season is headed.

Spoilers for this week’s season three finale of Supergirl, “Battles Lost and Won”, below!

In a recent interview with TVLine, Supergirl showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller broke down last night’s season three finale, and the effects it could have on the show going forward. And as it turns out, the episode’s final moments set up a major DC Comics storyline.

The episode saw Kara Danvers/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) forced to use a Legion of Super-Heroes ring to travel back in time, after the battle with Reign (Odette Annable) turned surprisingly deadly. Once she’d traveled back in time, Kara then grabbed the Harunel, and used it to separate Sam and Reign from each other, ultimately killing Reign in a different manner. As the end of the episode showed, this had major ramifications, as the dark energy from the Harunel was sent to Siberia, and produced an alternate version of Kara who arrived at a military base.

If you picked up on the arm bands worn by the military men, this scene probably came across like an homage to the 2003 miniseries Superman: Red Son. And, as it turns out, that was intentional.

“For fans of the comics, I think they might recognize that the story we want to tell is inspired by the iconic DC Comics’ Red Son, which told an alternate origin story for Superman,” Rovner explained.

“What happened if — as a baby — Superman landed in Russia and became a hero there instead of in America?” Queller added. “It’s an homage to that.”

For the uninitiated, Superman: Red Son was a three-issue Elseworlds story from Mark Millar, which had Superman’s pod land in Soviet Russia thanks to a slight change in the Earth’s rotation. The Kryptonian then grew up as Russia’s greatest weapon, facing off against the Justice League and Lex Luthor. Fans have campaigned for the story to be adapted into animation or live-action, but no progress has been made yet.

It’s unclear exactly how much of Red Son will play a role in the events of Season 4, especially with regards to Supergirl‘s established canon and timeline. To an extent, that final scene almost feels like a sort of amalgam of Red Son and “Supergirl: The Last Daughter of Krypton”, a 2011 storyline that sees a memory-wiped Kara land in Siberia. So it’s safe to assume that however Red Son comes to Supergirl, it will be done in a pretty unique manner.

Are you excited to see how Red Son factors into Supergirl‘s fourth season? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The fourth season of Supergirl will debut Sundays this fall at 8/7c on The CW.