Melissa Benoist supplies super serving of ‘Girl’ power

When Melissa Benoist was a little girl, she regularly went trick-or-treating as a classic Star Wars character.

If you’re thinking she was Princess Leia, you’re wrong.

“I was Obi-Wan Kenobi,” the up-and-coming actress says. “I was the Alex Guinness version of Obi-Wan, probably four or five years in a row.”

What an excellent choice. Obi-Wan is the total package: wise, brave, a formidable warrior — and memorably portrayed by a gifted actor.

Now imagine Benoist having the same impact on the next generation of trick-or-treaters — for largely the same reasons. Perhaps as soon as this Halloween, there will be little ones at your door dressed as Supergirl, the Melissa Benoist version of Supergirl, because in this role she’s the total package, too.

Supergirl premieres at 7:30 p.m. Monday on KTVT/Channel 11 (then moves to 7 p.m. next week).

It’s the feel-good show of the year — and it’s almost certain to transform Benoist, a relative unknown, into one of TV’s best-loved stars.

The Texas-born, Colorado-raised actress, formerly of the cast of Glee (Seasons 4 and 5), is having the time of her life in the title role. “I was drawn to it from the beginning because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and something I would be proud to be part of,” she says.

What’s not to love? The character has so many admirable qualities. “Her bravery and her hope and her positivity and her strength,” Benoist says. “Plus she kicks some serious butt!”

The series opens as all great comic-book superhero sagas should: with an origin story.

Like her cousin Kal-El (the boy who becomes Superman), 12-year-old Kara is sent away from the doomed planet of Krypton to live among the people of Earth.

For years, she keeps her extraordinary abilities a secret. But at age 24, while working as the assistant to a crazy media mogul (played by Calista Flockhart), Kara steps out of the shadows to save a disabled airliner. Suddenly, National City has a plucky new champion to fight off a spate of super-villains.

The show is produced by the same creative team that brought two other DC Comics properties, Arrow and The Flash, to television.

It’s faithful to the effervescent spirit of the original Supergirl comics, yet it has thoroughly modern sensibilities, except for the fact that the politically correct name in watch-how-you-say-it 2015 should be Superwoman.

In fact, Kara weighs in on the girl-vs.-woman name debate so viewers won’t have to. In the pilot episode, after the mystery flying woman becomes the talk of the town because of the airplane rescue, Cat Grant (Flockhart’s character) dubs her Supergirl in screaming newspaper headlines.

The name sticks, even though Kara vehemently argues, “If we call her Supergirl, something less than what she is, doesn’t that make us guilty of being anti-feminist?”

That was a non-issue in 1959, when the first Supergirl comic was published.

Says Andrew Kreisberg, co-creator and executive producer, “It’s a conversation we believed some people in the audience might be having. ‘She’s an adult woman. Why isn’t she called Superwoman?’

“Sometimes the temptation is there to alter things that are part of the DNA of what was so great about the comic book. But we wanted to be protective of the name of the show.”

In all other aspects, Benoist says, “I think we are making a modern 2015 version of her. But I honestly don’t tend to focus on it too much. I just want people to have fun watching the show. I want them to enjoy Kara’s journey as much as I’m enjoying playing it.

“Truly, to me, it does not matter that she is a ‘girl.’ ”

After Benoist was cast in the role almost exactly a year ago, she read some of the more contemporary Supergirl comic books, but she resisted the temptation to study them chapter and verse.

“I wanted to know the world she came from,” Benoist says. “But I also wanted to separate myself from it a little to make her my own.”

It stands to reason that TV viewers and moviegoers will eventually suffer a serious case of superhero fatigue. There are so many of these shows and feature films out there today. But this action-packed series won’t be the reason interest wanes. The show gets off to a soaring start and it doesn’t let up.

“We intend to keep up that pace,” co-creator and executive producer Greg Berlanti says. “We don’t know any other way to do it.

“We know we have to provide something special and singular every week to keep people entertained. So we think of this as trying to produce a Supergirl movie every week.”

Or as Benoist puts it: “This is not Relaxedgirl. This is Supergirl!”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 12:38 PM with the headline "Melissa Benoist supplies super serving of ‘Girl’ power."