Cat Grant is staying put in National City.
Calista Flockhart is set to return to Supergirl for the superhero drama’s upcoming second season, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The actress, however, will not return as a series regular. She will instead be billed as recurring moving forward. Flockhart will appear in multiple episodes beginning with the Oct. 10 season-two premiere, which also will be the series’ first new episode on The CW after moving from CBS. She begins production next week.
Part of that change will be reflected by the upcoming addition of Ian Gomez (Cougar Town), who has joined the series as the new editor-in-chief of the CatCo magazine Flockhart’s character owns and which Kara/Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) works at. Gomez’s character, Snapper Carr, will subsequently become Kara’s new boss.
“Supergirl wouldn’t be Supergirl without the amazing Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant,” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said Monday in a statement. “We are so excited Calista has agreed to continue on the show when she can. We and the audience love to see her onscreen.”
Flockhart’s change in status comes after Supergirl moved production from Los Angeles, Flockhart’s home base, to Vancouver in season two in an effort to cut costs.
Questions began to arise quickly about whether she would continue with the series at all, particularly after Gomez was cast as a new recurring character that will serve as Cat’s right-hand man. “We’re happy to have her in whatever capacity that works out,” The CW president Mark Pedowitz told reporters in May when the show’s move to The CW was first revealed.
The Supergirl role marks Flockhart’s first series-regular role since ABC’s Brothers & Sisters went off the air in 2011. Prior to that, she starred on Ally McBeal for five seasons.
For Supergirl‘s part, the series also is adding new series regulars for season two, including Christopher Wood (Containment) and Floriana Lima (The Family).
Supergirl‘s new season kicks off Monday, Oct. 10, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
