Supergirl is adding a legend of the Star Trek franchise to its cast for the upcoming fourth season in the form of Brent Spiner, most well known as Data in The Next Generation. He’ll be playing Vice President Baker, who’s described as “adept and politically minded,” and “makes for an unlikely leader, but steps up in a big way when his country needs him most.”
While it’s exciting for genre fans to see Spiner join the cast Supergirl, the description of the character doesn’t bode well for President Olivia Marsdin, as played by Wonder Woman icon Lynda Carter. The actress recently revealed that she was returning to The CW show for the first time since season 2, so we hoped we might see a lot more of her this year. However, it looks like something happens to Marsdin, which means Baker has to step in and take charge of the country.
ComicBook.com has come up with a pretty compelling theory that Marsdin’s absence of office could be to do with the Sons of Liberty anti-alien hate group that’ll rise up as a major threat in National City this season, as led by Sam Witwer’s Agent Liberty. Marsdin herself is an alien in disguise, remember, so maybe the group finds out the truth about her extraterrestrial origins and targets her.
Marsdin has been an ally to Kara Danvers and the D.E.O. in the past and the character breakdown for Baker suggests that, though he’s not a natural leader at first, he’ll grow into another heroic POTUS and friend of Supergirl’s. We wouldn’t rule out there being a twist in the tale, however. Maybe Baker will turn out to be another shapeshifting alien or, as a fun reference to his Star Trek past, an android.
Other new additions this season include Rhona Mitra and Robert Baker as Mercy and Otis Graves, two of Lex Luthor’s henchmen who’ve now gone solo and ally with the Sons of Liberty. On the side of the angels, meanwhile, Nicola Maines will be TV’s first ever trans superhero, Nia Nal.
Supergirl season 4 hits screens on Sunday, October 14th.
