Supergirl will be more exciting than ever when it makes the big jump to The CW this fall. Cousins Supergirl and Superman will team up to fight for truth, justice, and the American way in National City. Now, it looks like they'll be joining forces against a huge villain of DC comic fame that could take both cousins and all their powers to defeat. Frederick Schmidt has been cast as none other than Metallo.
The new bad guy Metallo will make his grand Supergirl debut in his civilian identity as assassin John Corben, who will be very seriously injured after a scuffle with Supergirl and Superman. His life is saved when a mysterious organization intervenes and changes his physiology, which causes him to emerge as the supervillain Metallo, who is powered by Kryptonite. Frederick Schmidt will first show up as Metallo in the Season 2 premiere and is set to appear in at least one more episode.
Given that Tyler Hoechlin is currently slated to play Superman in the first two episodes of the season, we can probably bet that Metallo features prominently in his storyline. A bad guy who looked an awful lot like Metallo was actually spotted on the Supergirl set fighting Superman not so long ago, so EW's report about his role in Season 2 doesn't come as a huge surprise. Still, it's nice to put a face to the name and give us something to think about as we wait for Supergirl to return to the airwaves.
Metallo is one of Superman's oldest main foes in DC lore. He first appeared in Action Comics back in 1959, and he's shown up in all manner of reboots and adaptations in the years since. He is usually shown as either wearing a suit powered by Kryptonite or having been implanted with cybernetic technology that is powered by Kryptonite. Metallo has always been one of Superman's most formidable enemies due to his Kryptonite enhancements, and it really might require all the united efforts of Supergirl and Superman to take him down.
No details have yet been released about the organization that turns John Corben into Metallo, but it's likely that the shadowy government group Cadmus had a hand in the transformation. James Olsen revealed in Season 1 that Cadmus is why Superman refuses with work directly with the U.S. government; with Cadmus playing a major part in Season 2, it would make sense for Superman and one of Cadmus' creations to turn up in the same arc.
Most of Frederick Schmidt's roles to date have been in big screen projects, ranging from the excellent Starred Up in 2013 to the upcoming (and star-studded) Patient Zero, and he was cast as the lead in the noir thriller The Marker in 2016. His biggest small screen credit to date is a small role in the mini-series Taboo, which is set to be released at some point in 2016. Metallo will be a very new kind of role for Schmidt, but he's shown versatility throughout his career that gives reason to be optimistic about what he'll bring to Supergirl.
Supergirl Season 2 premieres on The CW on Monday, October 10 at 8 p.m. ET. Check out our fall TV premiere schedule to see when your other favorite shows will be back in the near future.
