Supergirl: Lynda Carter’s President Marsdin Is A Durlan

Lynda Carter is famous for her starring role in the Wonder Woman TV series in the ’70s, but she’s returned to the world of live-action DC heroes for Supergirl. Carter plays President Olivia Marsdin on the series, and has appeared in three episodes of the show so far. This pro-alien president has so far granted a full pardon to Martian Manhunter (David Harewood), signed in an alien-rights bill to grant aliens citizenship, and has generally been a phenomenal ally to Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and the DEO in the series so far. She’s even dropped a couple of little jokes referencing her Wonder Woman past, just for the audience.

This week, Carter’s President Marsdin returned for another episode, ‘Distant Sun’. In this episode, the president was trying to keep Supergirl and the DEO from provoking the Daxamites in orbit around Earth, giving us a chance to see how she interacts with the DEO during a potential crisis. We also got to see an incredible secret about the character revealed — she’s actually an alien!

Toward the end of the episode, Carter morphed into an alien while alone in her office, sparking speculation about which species she might be. The main contender was Durlan, an established race in the DC Universe, and ComicBook tweeted Carter with an article wondering if she could be playing a Durlan on the show. Carter responded today with a confirmation that she is, in fact, a Durlan on the show. Her tweet reads simply:

We had previously seen a hint that President Marsdin might be a shape-shifter, as her face briefly morphed in an earlier appearance, but this is the first time viewers got a good look at her in alien form. The Durlans are an alien race from DC Comics who are reptilian shape-shifters from a radiation-scarred planet devastated by a nuclear war. The best-known Durlan is Chameleon Boy, a Durlan hero who joined the Legion of SuperHeroes in the future.

It’s fantastic to see another established alien race from the comics featured on the show, although it’s doubtful that we are going to see Chameleon Boy himself. Instead, it is likely that this race was chosen because of their shape-shifting abilities, which would have allowed Marsdin to come to Earth and pose as a human. The big question that this leaves, of course, is whether the Durlan is Marsdin, and has lived on the planet long enough to rise up through a career in politics, or whether something more sinister is happening. Could this be a Durlan who has only recently taken over as president to support the alien cause, having kidnapped the real Marsdin to do so? We’ll have to wait and see how this storyline develops.

Supergirlreturns Monday, April 24 with ‘Ace Reporter’, at 8pm on The CW.

Next: Supergirl ‘Ace Reporter’ Trailer Introduces iZombie Star

Source: Lynda Carter

About The Author

Rose Graceling-Moore
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Rose Graceling-Moore has been writing about film, TV and comics since 2013, when she began writing for a local print magazine in Vancouver, BC. Since then, Rose has written for Horror Honeys, Moviepilot and Quirkbooks as well as Screenrant, increasingly focusing on comic books and live-action comic adaptations, as well as diversity and representation on screen. Rose also co-hosted the DC Movies Podcast, and has guested on other nerd and entertainment podcasts over the past five years.

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Rose’s love of comics began all the way back in the early ‘90s, when she discovered the X-Men while living in Africa (where there wasn’t a whole lot to do but read!), and since then has had an on-again, off-again love affair with not just Marvel, but DC and indie comics as well. You can follow her on Twitter: RoseMooreWrites for tweets about comics, movies, and more.

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