Supergirl's Azie Tesfai Developing Crime Drama At NBC

Azie Tesfai, who played Kelly Olsen/Guardian II on The CW's Supergirl, is developing a crime drama for NBC with Universal Television. Tesfai, who wrote an episode of Supergirl during the show's final season, is one of a number of Arrowverse actors who developed writing and directing skills while working on Greg Berlanti's slate of DC Comics adaptations. Titled The Chase, it is not clear whether Tesfai plans to star in the series or to remain behind the scenes. Either way, it represents the accomplishment of something Tesfai openly talked about wanting to do -- to take control of the development and writing process more.

Here's how Deadline, who first reported the deal, describes the series: "Written and executive produced by Tesfai, in The Chase, when undercover CIA agent Robert falls for his target, Katherine, everything changes. Their Bonnie & Clyde escape goes sideways when they're captured by the American government and forced to use their opposing assets and skill set to find some of the most wanted criminals in the world, all while learning the other isn't who they thought."

"Especially when you're doing notes calls in rooms and the characters have been built up as the hero that's the best of everyone and then you have to, you know," Tesfai said in 2021. "It's interesting to watch how people react to those scenes when they're reading them because people get very defensive. It's almost like it's them that is being attacked but even with our fans, I find a lot of them, we were lacking empowerment of oneself. And it's like, superheroes aren't going to save the day. The whole point of this is that, hopefully, you take some of that for yourself and empower yourself."

She continued, "Stop relying on someone to rescue you in your everyday life. This can be translated to so many things and so, what does it look like when you expect someone to rescue you and they fail you? How painful is that? How do you step up for yourself? How do you show up for yourself?"

Are you excited to see Tesfai head to a big network procedural? Sound of in the comments or hit up @russburlingame on Twitter to talk all things Arrowverse.