Supergirl Casts Smallville Star Erica Durance

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Supergirl Casts Smallville Star Erica Durance in Recurring Role

By Meagan Damore

Published Jul 7, 2017

Smallville star Erica Durance, who played Lois Lane on the hit series, has been cast in a recurring role in Supergirl Season 3.

Supergirl just cast another DCTV alum for Season 3. Today, The CW announced that Smallville star Erica Durance -- who played Lois Lane on the hit series -- will take over the role of Alura Zor-El from Laura Benanti. Due to prior commitments, Benanti was unable to return, despite having played Supergirl's mother Alura and her twin sister Astra over the first two seasons of the show.

“Unfortunately Laura, who Greg [Berlanti] and I have worked with for years going back to Eli Stone, was unable to continue in the role due to work commitments in NY," explained executive producer Andrew Kreisberg. "But we are so blessed that Erica has come aboard to offer her own interpretation of Kara’s mother. We had tremendous success with a former Lois Lane last season with Teri Hatcher. We know Erica will continue the proud tradition of legacy actors joining our shows and creating new and exciting takes on classic DC characters.”

Durance's Alura will have a recurring arc in Season 3. She joins a number of other legacy actors in the show, including Dean Cain (Lois & Clark), Helen Slater (1984's Supergirl) and Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark). Notably, Hatcher also appeared in Smallville as Lois' mother Ella.

Durance is no stranger to the Last Children of Krypton. She played intrepid reporter Lois Lane over six seasons of Smallville and even ran into Laura Vandervoort's version of Supergirl on a number of occasions. Since then, she has starred in Saving Hope for five seasons and appeared in Painkillers, Charlie's Angels and more.

According to the Supergirl Season 3 synopsis,

Supergirl is an action-adventure drama based on the DC character Kara Zor-El, (Melissa Benoist) Superman’s (Kal-El) cousin who, after 12 years of keeping her powers a secret on Earth, decides to finally embrace her superhuman abilities and be the hero she was always meant to be. Twelve-year-old Kara escaped the doomed planet Krypton with her parents’ help at the same time as the infant Kal-El. Protected and raised on Earth by her foster family, the Danvers, Kara grew up in the shadow of her foster sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh), and learned to conceal the phenomenal powers she shares with her famous cousin in order to keep her identity a secret. Years later, Kara was living in National City and still concealing her powers, when a plane crash threatened Alex’s life and Kara took to the sky to save her. Now, Kara balances her work as a reporter for CatCo Worldwide Media with her work for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (DEO), a super-secret government organization whose mission is to keep National City and the Earth safe from sinister threats. At the DEO, Kara works for J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood), the Martian Manhunter, and alongside her sister, Alex, and best friend, Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan). Also in Kara’s life are media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks), a photo journalist who moonlights as Guardian, a masked vigilante, Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), and Mon-El of Daxam (Chris Wood), whose planet was ravaged by Krypton’s destruction. As Kara struggles to navigate her relationships and her burgeoning life as a reporter, her heart soars as she takes to the skies as Supergirl to fight crime.

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.