It’s only the second day of the New Year and we already have our first casting rumor. According to the British tabloid The Sun, British actress Gemma Atkinson is in the running to play Kara Zor-El, also known as Supergirl, in the upcoming TV series based on Superman’s cousin.
“Gemma is a huge fan of comic books so this is something she’d jump at,” reports the paper. The article continues on to say their source informed them that the role “will make her huge Stateside. She said next year will be her best yet whatever happens. If she gets Supergirl it will be amazing…”
Atkinson is quite familiar to UK audiences having starred on the soap ‘Hollyoaks’ as Lisa Hunter for 5 years and most recently has been starring in the BBC medical drama series ‘Casualty’ in the role of Tamzin Bayle. Horror fans, however, may recognize her from the films ‘Devil’s Pass’ and ‘Night of the Living 3D Dead.’
Several weeks ago we reported that Claire Holt of ‘The Originals’ was also up for the role but according to THR, their sources are telling them she is not expected to be offered the gig. (If ‘Supergirl’ was on the CW line up, Holt might have had a casting edge as the network seems to love to recycle actors who have starred in other shows on their network – Kristin Kreuk and Robbie Amell for example.)
It shouldn’t be too surprising to see that the producers of ‘Supergirl’ would be looking at relatively unknowns (at least unknowns here in the US) to play the lead. Co-creator Greg Berlanti has been successful in this tactic with the castings of Stephen Amell as Arrow/Oliver Queen and Grant Gustin as The Flash/Barry Allen so why break a trend, right?
Of course, this casting news does have to be taken with a grain of salt as The Sun has been equated to the US version of tabloids, but according to them, Atkinson has “auditioned for the role of Superman’s cousin” and is “waiting to hear whether she has been cast.” Well, so are many of the other actresses who have auditioned. As any actress will tell you, just because you read for a part, that doesn’t mean you are in the running for the role.
However, many do feel that Atkinson does fit the part of Kara who is described as a 24 year old who, like her cousin Kal-El, has escaped the destruction of her home planet of Krypton and has been living on Earth for several years now. In the series, Kara has been denying her powers for the majority of her life, but will soon decide to embrace her superpowers and become the superhero she was destined to be.
‘Supergirl’ is going to be a big deal not only for CBS who has given the project a straight to series order without seeing a pilot but also because this will be the first female superhero series to air since the ill-fated ‘Birds of Prey’ on NBC (we’re not counting the 2011 cringe worthy reboot attempt of ‘Wonder Woman’ as it never made it to series). Could ‘Supergirl’ be Berlanti’s small screen DC trifecta?
We’re looking forward to the series and can’t wait to see who finally land the lead. Keep checking back as once we find out, we’ll let you know!
