In the next few episodes of the hit television series Supergirl, airing on CW, we will see a brand new vigilante appear, a brand new hero. His code name is Guardian. The Guardian, in DC Comic Book canon was originally James Harper, the great uncle of Roy Harper who became Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy. In the comic books, Harper has strong ties to the Cadmus Project, a genetic engineering project. In the Supergirl show, Project Cadmus is a laboratory operating under the D.E.O. umbrella and Harper is a United States Marine Corps Colonel investigating Hank Henshaw’s disappearance and who actually wanted to take Danvers and J’onzz to the Cadmus lab for experimentation. Will Project Cadmus or Harper play a role in the formation of Guardian?
The next few episodes of Supergirl will tell us. But let’s examine the cast and see exactly who this Guardian is.
We have already seen changes to the cast as it migrated from CBS to its new home on the CW Network such as the introduction of Katie McGrath as Lex’s Sister Lena Luthor. Another notable appearance for this season is Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Hoechlin as Superman.
So just who is this new character? Is he one of the current cast or is he an introduction of an entirely new character?
Clearly, you can see that this character is a male. We could already rule out the primary female leads as Melissa Benoist is Kara – Supergirl, Chyler Leigh is already portraying Alex Danvers and had her hands full with the Department of Extra-Normal Operations and Calista Flockhart’s Cat Grant has her life entirely filled up with her conglomerate CatCo Worldwide Media.
That leaves the male characters for the show and we can already rule out Tyler Hoechlin because he is obviously Superman already and can not be Superman and Guardian. David Harewood is Hank Henshaw, Martian Manhunter and J’onn J’onzz. They can not be Guardian.
So what about Kara Danvers friends and sidekicks at CatCo Worldwide? That would mean it either James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) or Jeremy Jordon’s Winn Schott. Winn’s father Winslow Schott Senior was a criminal mastermind and the infamous villain Toyman. Could he be the Guardian, in an attempt to right the wrongs of his father? He was important in the defeat of Silver Banshee and Livewire. He has seen his share of metahumans and extranormal activities. Possibly Guardian? More than likely he will remain as Kara’s programming best friend and a grounding element for the show.
That leaves one more possibility. One, in fact, that Supergirl Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg confirmed. Guardian is Jimmy Olsen.
In a DC Entertainment statement, Kreisberg said; “These next few episodes are going to make [James] realize that being a photographer is not enough for him, so he’s going to go on a pretty exciting career trajectory that we’re really pumped by. James is going to decide that he can no longer sit back and be a sidekick, so he’s going to decide to become a vigilante.
“He’s going to become Guardian, complete with the shield, which is going to cause a massive problem in his relationship with Kara because he has decided not to tell her. Now there’s this new masked vigilante, and she has her own feelings about vigilantes, and it becomes a push and pull about who gets to decide who gets to be a hero?”
But Winn will still play an important role and be even more the sidekick he is so good at being. In fact, he will now also be a sidekick to Jimmy the Guardian.
“He’s recruited Winn to help him,” Kreisberg says. “The two of them are doing this together, and Winn and James together—it’s comedy gold. Watching Winn, as he takes his job at the DEO, but then he’s lying to everybody about how he’s spending his nights—because he’s going out with James—and how he walks in exhausted or walks in with a black eye and says he walked into a door. It’s the fun and excitement of building these first 10 episodes.”
The next few episodes of Supergirl will be exciting to watch Jimmy Olsen transform from sidekick reporter to vigilante hero.
The TV show airs on THE CW every Monday, 8 p.m. ET.
