Earlier this year it was revealed that the sixth and final season of Supergirl would see Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) take up her brother James’ shield and become the new Guardian. In a sense, it’s a natural progression for the character who has, almost from her very introduction on The CW series, been doing everything she could to help and protect others. In “Crisis on Infinite Earths” she even briefly used the Guardian shield as she helped with the evacuation of Earth-38. This week, Kelly made her decision to become a hero official and now, Tesfai is opening up about why “Dream Weaver” was the right time for that journey to fully begin.
Warning: spoilers for “Dream Weaver” below.
In “Dream Weaver”, Kelly meets a young alien boy, Joey (Aiden Stoxx) who is in a foster home and has been acting out due to worry about his brother Orlando (Jhaleil Swaby), who is in prison. Kelly teams up with Kara (Melissa Benoist) to investigate and they discover abuse at the prison that is directly impacting Orlando. Kelly also discovers how the woman running the foster home is mistreating the children in her care and ends up acting to protect them by exposing the mistreatment. At the end of the episode, Kelly tells Alex (Chyler Leigh) that she is going to take up the Guardian mantle. As the season continues, fans will see Kelly grow into the role more, but for Tesfai, this story was the best way to start that journey.
“You know, I think for me personally telling this story through other characters and using Kelly as a vessel, felt like the best way,” Tesfai told ComicBook.com. “And so we have some incredible guest stars that come in and actually tell these stories, and Kelly just is a light and a lamp for their storylines to be highlighted. That always felt like the right way to me to do it. And also, tackling these issues is very complicated, and so it was super important to me for it to not be an episode. And this is the beginning of an arc, of a story arc, which felt like the only way to try to approach it. But mainly I think really redirecting, in Kelly’s new career, these heartbreaking storylines through other characters and through our guest stars felt like the best way to start this arc of these timely, heartbreaking, and difficult circumstances that our characters and our society find ourselves in.”
Now that Kelly is starting her role as a superhero, Tesfai says that “everything” is next for her. This is truly the beginning of it all, and she’s excited for people to see it.
“Everything. I mean, I teased this before. This is the beginning of everything for Kelly, which is why it’s so exciting,” Tesfai said. “I mean, the power of her as a woman to decide what she wants, and step into it truly opens the door for every hope and dream, I think, that Kelly has, whether it’s been voiced or unvoiced, and every hope and change that I know our fans have. So, it really is the beginning of it all, which feels very exciting for me to get to watch everyone see it.”
Supergirl airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.