Although we've seen brief hints of Superman's presence on Supergirl, the man of steel hasn't really made much of an appearance on the show. However, that's all about to change: a casting announcement by CBS states that the network wants to hire a teen actor to take on the role of a younger version of Kal-El, aka Clark Kent.
CBS wants to feature flashbacks of Kara and her boy of steel cousin in an upcoming episode of Supergirl, so producers put out a call for a 13-year-old actor with "future leading man looks."
These flashbacks will show interactions between cousins Kara and Clark as children. As seen on Supergirl, their ages differ because when the older Kara was sent from Krypton to Earth to look after her cousin, she got trapped in the Phantom Zone. So although, she was older than Superman when on Krypton, by the time she arrived on Earth, he was older than her (perhaps he was already a teen, which means that there isn't as much of an age difference between the two as originally suggested on the series).
The role of the young Superman is also possibly a recurring one, suggesting more flashbacks of Kara's life before she became Supergirl.
Up until now, Superman remains a mostly unseen character on the series: that was a decision made early on by showrunners. CBS compared that decision to another show on their network.
"Our prototype is the way the president is seen on Veep," said Supergirl executive producer Ali Adler to Entertainment Weekly. "It's certainly [inspired by] so much of what Julia-Louis Dreyfus' character goes through. Ultimately, this is a show about Supergirl, and we really want to see it through her lens."
CBS also stressed that producers decided on leaving Superman out of the series because they wanted to keep the focus on Kara.
"I think the reason why Superman's not in the show is because it's not about him," said executive producer Sarah Shechter to Cinema Blend. "And it's her show and it's about her and he is just sort of a shadow in the back of her psyche, and I think that's the right way to portray him because that's how she experiences it."
However, it seems that this doesn't apply to a younger version of Clark Kent, and it Supergirl plans on featuring a version of him before he moved to Metropolis and became Superman.
Supergirl airs on CBS on Monday nights.
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