Supergirl went through some major cast changes when it moved to The CW, and one change that has proved pretty intriguing was the introduction of Lena Luthor. The lesser-known Luthor of DC Comics fame has become a somewhat ambiguous ally to Kara. The plot thickened when the show revealed that the big Season 2 villainess is none other than Lena's mom. The introduction of one family member has led many of us to wonder if legendary DC villain (and Lena's big brother) Lex Luthor could appear. We now have an idea of how it could happen, and it's not how we might have expected.
An upcoming episode will ramp up the drama on the Luthor front when Lena's mom causes a new kind of trouble for Kara, and it will send Lena on a blast from the past. Flashbacks will reportedly reveal just how Lena came to be adopted into the Luthor family as a child. It stands to reason than any scenes of a young Lena could also feature a young Lex from before he became a supervillain and earned himself 37 life sentences in prison.
Lex Luthor appearing as a child wouldn't be the first time that Supergirl found a way to feature characters without introducing them into the present. We first saw the future Superman as a baby way back in the pilot, and a pre-teen version of Kal-El was featured in Kara's dream world back in Season 1. The series also occasionally uses flashbacks to show Kara and Alex interacting with a pre-Cadmus Jeremiah Danvers. Supergirl has set a precedent for utilizing flashbacks to sneak big characters into stories, and flashbacks could be the perfect way to bring in Lex Luthor without overshadowing Lena's role on the show.
If Lex does appear on the show, It should be interesting to see who Supergirl chooses to play Lex. We can bet that Lex as a boy would look different than most adaptations of the supervillain. At the very least, a young Lex likely won't have gone bald yet, and the baldness is probably Lex's most recognizable physical trait.
Supergirl hasn't gone in-depth on Lena's childhood interactions with Lex, so we don't know at this point if the madness that drove him to declare war on Superman started early. We do know that Lex's mind is definitely warped nowadays. Earlier this season, he contracted an assassin to go after his sister because she dared to rename the family company in the wake of his incarceration. The assassination luckily failed thanks to the intervention of the Danvers sisters, but it directly resulted in the origin of Metallo. Lex has already done major damage to the good guys of National City, and we haven't even seen him in the flesh.
The second half of Supergirl Season 2 sounds like a wild ride. On top of the Lena Luthor flashbacks, the iconic Superman villain Mr. Mxyzptlk will turn up in Episode 13, the big Flash/Supergirl musical crossover will kick off on Episode 16, and Kevin Smith is returning to direct Episode 17. Tune in to The CW on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET to catch new episodes of Supergirl, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere schedule.
