Just as Supergirl unveiled its fifth season trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con, news has come from Entertainment Weekly that Mehcad Brooks, the series’ James Olsen and one of the original stars, will be leaving Supergirl during the season.
According to EW, Brooks made the decision to depart on his own “in order to focus on feature films and develop a cable series in which he would star. He’s also currently writing a book.”
Brooks has played photographer – and Superman’s best pal – James Olsen since the beginning of the series. Since then, Olsen has transitioned from photographer to the vigilante Guardian to the head of CatCo. While his final episode hasn’t been revealed it’s said he will leave in the fall, presumably before the Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths.
“We love Mehcad and we’re sad to see him leave the show as a series regular,” showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller in a statement to EW. “We look forward to James returning to National City at some point to visit his sister [Kelly, played by new series regular Azie Tesfai] and his super friends.”
While Supergirl will lose one of its original cast members, it will also gain another back as Jeremy Jordan, who played Winn Schott, is set to return in the back-half of season five for three episodes. He was last seen in the third season finale, where he travelled 1000 years into the future with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Jordan made the announcement on his Instagram page, saying “Turns out Winn didn’t go 1000 years into the future, just to season 5! So happy to come back and play with my friendsssssss!!”
In addition to Jordan returning, Supergirl has upped Andrea Brooks to a series regular for the new season. Brooks has played Lena Luthor’s assistant Eve Teschmacher in a recurring role since 2016. Meanwhile, leading lady Melissa Benoist is also set to make her directorial debut on an upcoming episode, with the actress telling EW:
“I’ve been wanting to direct since season 3, but couldn’t last year because of scheduling conflicts, so [star] David Harewood did it first. I just felt really drawn to it for a couple of seasons now, just because you know the show so well, and you get to know the character, and the world, and the tone of the show so well that you can’t help but envision certain scenes in a certain way. I want to play with that.”
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.