Supergirl to End After Six Seasons on The CW

The upcoming, sixth season of Supergirl, which is set to premiere in 2021 on The CW, will be the show’s swan song, according to a statement just released by the network. The drama series, which originated on CBS, was cancelled after one season on that network and headed to The CW, where Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) became a part of the “Arrowverse,” a shared universe fronted by hit series Arrow and The Flash. Last season, Arrow ended, marking the first time an Arrowverse show had stepped away — but with the introduction of Superman and Lois next season, the overall number of series will remain the same from 2020 to 2021.

Supergirl will have a 20-episode final season which The CW says will begin production later this month. There has been no official statement so far from Berlanti Productions, who oversee not only the Arrowverse shows but a number of other DC projects, including DC Unverse/HBO Max shows like Doom Patrol and Green Lantern.

Supergirl star Melissa Benoist released a brief statement on her personal Instagram page. You can check it out here.

When Superman and Lois was announced, some fans wondered whether that might spell the end for Supergirl, since the two characters share power sets and origin stories — and since Supergirl has drawn heavily from Superman’s comics mythology at times. Those concerns were dismissed at the time, on the grounds that Kara’s relationship with Krypton is different, as is her relationship to Earth and contemporary America, since the show is viewed through a woman’s lens, often with a feminist spin.

Last season, Supergirl and Batwoman formed a block of programming on Sunday night; it was only the second year that The CW had Sunday programming at all, and Supergirl anchored the year before, as well, with the network seemingly believing that its weekend programming would skew toward an audience of women. Batwoman, which was the year’s most-anticipated new show at the network in 2019, has had its own share of off-season troubles, with series star Ruby Rose departing the series and producers opting to replace Kate Kane as Batwoman with a new character original to the Arrowverse, rather than recasting Rose’s role.

Following the events of last year’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” mega-crossover, Supergirl — which had up until that point taken place in a universe separate from the worlds on The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow — joined “Earth Prime” along with Black Lightning, meaning that the second half of its fifth season was largely dedicated to the rebuilt reality coming out of the Crisis, and how Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) used the reality-altering event to his evil advantage.

Season five of Supergirl starred Melissa Benoist, Chyler Leigh, Katie McGrath, Jesse Rath, Nicole Maines, Azie Tesfai, Andrea Brooks, Julie Gonzalo, Staz Nair and David Harewood, with special guest star Jon Cryer. Based on characters from DC created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Supergirl is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Robert Rovner, Jessica Queller and Rob Wright.

The sixth and final season of Supergirl will debut on The CW in 2021.