Supergirl hasn't shied away from borrowing some of the biggest characters from Superman stories and adapting them in whole new ways to the small screen. Even the Man of Steel himself has been brought in as a supporting player to Kara. Now, we may know of another major character traditionally associated with Superman who could appear on Supergirl: General Zod himself. In fact, we may even know who will be playing him. Mark Gibbon has reportedly landed the role of General Zod.
Although we don't have confirmation from anybody behind the scenes at Supergirl or The CW, Bleeding Cool reports that Mark Gibbon is on set filming scenes as General Zod. If the report is accurate, we can expect one of Superman's greatest comic villains to debut on Supergirl and presumably cause a lot of trouble for the Girl of Steel. While she has plenty of problems already thanks to the Daxamites and Cadmus, the introduction of Zod could actually make a lot of sense.
In DC Comics lore, General Zod was a high-profile Kryptonian exiled to the Phantom Zone for treason thanks to the actions of Jor-El before Krypton was destroyed. In the aftermath, Zod swore that he would get his revenge on Jor-El by going after his son, Kal-El, a.k.a. Superman. He was an ally of the comic version of Non and had connections to the Warworld.
On Supergirl, we've gotten Non already, and a Season 2 episode referred to Warworld. Why not Zod next? Even if Kara already has plenty of villains on her plate, Zod turning up at the end of the season could make for a pretty killer cliffhanger. Given that Tyler Hoechlin will be returning as Superman for the finale, I'd say that Zod's appearance isn't entirely unlikely.
Mark Gibbon would definitely be a fun pick to play General Zod. He's best known for his role as Irgun in The Chronicles of Riddick back in 2004, but he's also contributed to a number superhero projects for both DC and Marvel over the years. Gibbon has turned up on Arrow and Smallville on the DC side, and he's leant his voice to the Marvel TV shows Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes and X-Men: Evolution as well.
Interestingly, he had a minor role in 2013's Man of Steel, which featured Michael Shannon as General Zod. That version of Zod came to a famously unfortunate end; if Mark Gibbon is indeed playing Zod on Supergirl, I'm guessing he'll face a less grisly fate. Supergirl is much lighter and brighter than Man of Steel even at its slightest and brightest. We'll have to wait and see.
Supergirl airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in superhero news, and don't forget to check out our midseason TV premiere guide and our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your other viewing options. Stop by our broadcast TV and cable/streaming rundowns of 2017 renewals and cancellations to find what will and will not be back on the airwaves after the end of the season.
