The Arrowverse came to a close on The CW last year with the series finale of The Flash, ending an era of superhero dominance on the network with only solo series Superman & Lois left in the 2024 TV schedule. The various superhero shows made an impact on viewers over the years, and 2025 will bring the ten-year anniversary of Supergirl. When actor Mehcad Brooks recently spoke with CinemaBlend, I took the chance to ask the Law & Order star for his thoughts on Supergirl’s legacy.
Brooks was a series regular as James Olsen on Supergirl from the first season until he departed in early Season 5, although he did return as a guest for the Supergirl series finale in 2021. With the show now streaming with a Netflix subscription and approaching its ten-year anniversary next year, the actor looked back at his years on the show from a 2024 perspective. Brooks told CinemaBlend:
I feel incredible about it. There’s not a day that goes by where I am surprised at the impact that it had on people’s lives or in some unforeseen way of the unraveling of life itself, of the impact it had on my life. I embraced my time there, and I am so happy that that show touched so many people.
Supergirl had a unique origin as an Arrowverse series, as the Melissa Benoist-starring show started out on CBS. It was canonically tied to the Arrowverse while still on CBS thanks to Grant Gustin crossing over from The Flash and then joined the major crossovers with Arrow, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow after the move to the CW. For Mehcad Brooks, he still feels the impact that the show and his role as James Olsen had on fans as well as his own life.
It’s also possible that Supergirl will have a resurgence in popularity over the next couple of years thanks to the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow release date. This project will be a movie rather than a TV show, with House of the Dragon alum Milly Alcock playing the Girl of Steel rather than Melissa Benoist, but the time could be ideal for superhero fans to check out the CW show for the first time and/or revisit it.
Supergirl also put a twist on the Jimmy Olsen character with its take on the character, and not just because he generally went by “James.” In many DC Comics stories, Jimmy Olsen is a young photojournalist for the Daily Planet who works with Clark Kent and Lois Lane. While Supergirl did eventually introduce Clark and Lois, James’ strongest relationship in the series was with Kara rather than Clark.
Different takes on the character have also made it to the screen in recent years, including the one from My Adventures with Superman and the one who will be played by Skyler Gisondo in the cast of James Gunn’s Superman movie. As for Brooks, he’s just days away from returning to primetime as one of the stars of NBC’s Law & Order Season 24, which premieres on Thursday, October 3 at 8 p.m. ET. You can also revisit earlier episodes with him as Detective Jalen Shaw streaming with a Peacock subscription now.