Over the course of Supergirl Season 2, Mon-El had a lot of growing to do. When he crash-landed on Earth in the season premiere, the former Prince of Daxam assumed he was the last surviving member of his planet, much like the Girl of Steel herself. As such, he attempted to adjust to life on Earth under her tutelage — and became a hero to National City in the meantime. At Comic-Con International in San Diego, Mon-El actor Chris Wood reflected on his character’s journey, his favorite part about his romance with Kara and more.
“I loved the sort of lighthearted nature that he had,” Wood said of Mon-El. “It was fun to play a character whose perspective was so skewed from where they wanted him to end up. So, his mindset and his outlook on the world is sort of closed off to his Daxamite perspective, and I think that the way they executed that through humor and having someone who stays buoyant even through some of the struggles of losing his planet and running into challenges over and over again. I thought that was the best part, was having somebody who had just a jovial sensibility even through all of his shortcomings.”
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“The whole arc of Mon-El is having him start far, far away from where Kara is and trying to watch him evolve into hopefully becoming a hero, because — as you all know from the comics — he’s sort of like Superman. He just does good and defends the day,” he continued. “He’s a little more jaded, I think, probably, than Superman. I think getting to start Mon-El in such an opposite place than he did in the comics I’ve read for him, that was really attractive to me. This version is a little bit different than anything I’ve read.”
As to his favorite part of playing Mon-El, he said, “That’s the cool part, is that — especially as the season went on — you got to see more of the parts of Mon-El that he covers with humor, because as you said, he’s a flawed guy and he’s got all this baggage from where he came from that he’s still trying to get rid of, until the moment we lost him at the end of the finale. I think my favorite part is probably getting to jump back and forth, not one or the other but the transition is nice.”
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Wood also weighed in on Mon-El’s on-again, off-again relationship with Kara. “I love the way they bicker,” he shared. “I love when they would write these sort of almost over-the-top kind of humor, two people feeling very passionately about opposing viewpoints. I mean, their love is very sweet, I think. It’s flawed in a way that isn’t always shown on television. Because you have frustrations with it, and you see like, ‘Why couldn’t you just get this right? Why can’t you just be better and stop sucking so much?’ But there’s a pure attraction between them that I think is really sweet.”
Asked who he would like to interact with more next season, he said, “I never really got to work with Mechad [Brooks] much! James and Mon-El have very few interactions and it started very rocky. Obviously, James is totally cool with the fact that the thing with Kara didn’t work out, that she’s happy with him. I’d like to see, with the new season, maybe some of that get fleshed out more and see what that either friendship or rivalry or what that is.”
Returning to The CW on Monday, October 9th at 8 p.m. ET/PT, Supergirl stars Melissa Benoist as the Girl of Steel, David Harewood as Martian Manhunter, Mehcad Brooks as Jimmy Olsen, Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers and Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott, with appearances by Calista Flockhart as Cat Grant and Tyler Hoechlin as Superman.