SUPERGIRL Casts Odette Annable as Reign

At last, Supergirl is facing off against one of her own villains instead of raiding Superman's gallery of rogues.

The Hollywood Reporter has word that the CW series Supergirl has cast Odette Annable in the series regular role of DC Comics supervillain Reign.

Reign was teased at the end of the Season 2 finale, "Nevertheless, She Persisted".  In a flashback from 35 years ago, around the same time Kara Zor-El escaped Krypton, another group of Kryptonians, this one cloaked and hooded, prepared an escape pod for a newborn baby.  As they bless the baby with blood, calling the baby "It", an unnamed person told the others that the baby was destined to reign as Earth's future ruler before the pod left the doomed planet.

Annable, 32, is probably best known as Nola Longshadow on the Cinemax series Banshee and as Dr. Jessica Adams on the Fox series House.  Her film appearances include Cloverfield, Transformers and Kindergarten Cop, while her other TV appearances include episodes of the US version of Life on Mars, Pure Genius, The Astronaut Wives Club, Two and a Half Men, Rush, Anger Management, Breaking In, Brothers & Sisters, Monk, and October Road.

"Greg [Berlanti] and I have wanted to work with Odette for years," said executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said in a statement.  "We are beyond excited to have her join our cast in the scary, powerful and heartbreaking role of Reign."

Created in 2012 by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar, Reign first appeared in Supergirl (vol.6) #5 as a Worldkiller, a biological weapon created on Krypton but eventually outlawed by the Kryptonian Science Council. Reign and other four Worldkillers were created by Supergirl's father Zor-El, who later came to regret the creation of the bloodthirsty, super-powerful monsters. Reign and her partners survived Krypton, but her origin remained a mystery even to her.  All she knew about herself was her name and her being Worldkiller, and that Krypton and Earth held the answers to her origin. 

Reign attempted to get to Krypton, but found out that it was dead.  She found Supergirl, however, and followed her back to the remains of Argo City, hoping to find anything about her origin.  Reign faced and beat Supergirl down, but Kara Zor-El couldn't provide any answers, so Reign left Supergirl for dead and headed back to Earth to conquer the planet. 

Her rampage through New York City was stopped by Supergirl's return to Earth.  Reign thought Supergirl would join her, but the young Kryptonian refused.  Reign and three of her Worldkillers partners fought an exhausted Supergirl, but the young hero managed to hurt one of them.  Unwilling to risk losing one of her soldiers, Reign chose to retreat and leave Earth, vowing to fight Supergirl again and warning that she and her three partners aren't the only Worldkillers.

Supergirl returns to The CW for Season 3 this fall.