SUPERGIRL Casts Peter Gadiot as Mr. Mxyzptlk

Looks like the Girl of Steel is getting a visit from the 5th Dimension.

TVLine confirmed yesterday that The CW series Supergirl has cast Peter Gadiot as the troublesome trickster Mister Mxyzptlk.  According to the article, Mr. Mxyzptlk will appear in Episode 13 of the show's second season.

The character is described in the article as "an impish, reality-bending trickster from the 5th Dimension who is best known for tormenting Superman and who can be sent home only by tricking him into saying/spelling his own name backwards."

Gadiot, 31, is an English actor probably best known as Cyrus on the ABC series Once Upon a Time.  His other television work includes episodes of Queen of the South, Tut, Matador, Fresh Meat, and My Spy Family.

Created in 1944 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Mr. Mxyzptlk first appeared in Superman (vol.1) #30 as an imp from the "fifth dimension" not bound by our physical laws, allowing him to do things that seem to be magical. In his first appearance, Mxyzptlk wreaked havoc across Metropolis by using his powers to pull all manner of pranks, first pretending he got hit by a truck and killed, then increasing his weight when the ambulance gets there and waking up to shock them.  

Originally, Mxyzptlk had designs on conquering the planet for himself, but soon settled for tormenting Superman whenever he got the opportunity.  His only weaknesses are that he cannot stand being ridiculed and if he says or spells his name backwards, Kltpzyxm (kel-tip-zix-um), he is involuntarily sent back to his home dimension for a minimum of ninety days.  

In the current DC Comics continuity known as The New 52, Mxyzptlk was reworked by writer Grant Morrison as a traveling wizard in the 5th Dimension who entertained the King-Thing Brpxz of Zrfff.  He did so by making 333 different 3-dimensional worlds, and by challenging heroes in each world, with everyone being entertained by the one hero who could win the challenges, Superman.  This led to Mxyzptlk becoming the king's favorite entertainer, and winning the love of the king's daughter, Gsptlnz.  However, it also led to jealousy to the now deposed original court magician, Vyndktvx.  Vyndktvx eventually went mad, and tried to kill Mxyzptlk, only to kill the king instead.  

The instant of the murder of the king, committed with the Multispear, a hyper-weapon, reflected in the three-dimensional universe Superman inhabited as a lifelong struggle with the five-dimensional being.  Mxyzptlk and his wife descended to the three-dimensional universe to aid Superman in his struggle, and their mortal forms perished in due time, still in the same instant of time on their homeworld.  There, even as he was defeated in the three-dimensional universe, Vndyktvx was arrested and imprisoned for the murder.  Mxyzptlk became king and lived happily with his wife, the beautiful princess-now-queen, only to grieve as she died giving birth to their children.  And so, he became the sad king that one day, the jester Mxyzptlk would come to entertain, and who would be slain by Vndyktvx in an eternal and apparently natural (for five-dimensional beings) cycle.

Gadiot will be the fourth actor to portray the character in live-action, after Michael J. Pollard on Superboy, Howie Mandel on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Trent Ford on Smallville.  The character has also appeared in a number of animated projects, including The New Adventures of Superman (voiced by Gilbert Mack), Super Friends (voiced by Frank Welker), Superman: The Animated Series (voiced by Gilbert Gottfried), and Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson).

Supergirl returns to The CW on Monday, January 23rd at 8:00 p.m. EST.