Mehcad Brooks to Exit Supergirl
The “circle of life,” The Lion King taught us, means that as one Supergirl actor returns, one must exit. Or something to that effect.
On the heels of the news that Jeremy Jordan will be returning as Winn for a spell in the second half of Season 5, EW.com is reporting that original cast member Mehcad Brooks will be leaving the CW series this fall.
Brooks, who plays James Olsen, reportedly aims to “focus on feature films and develop a cable series in which he would star,” as well as write a book.
“We love Mehcad and we’re sad to see him leave the show as a series regular,” showrunners Robert Rovner and Jessica Queller in a statement to EW. “[W]e look forward to James returning to National City at some point to visit his sister [Kelly, played by new series regular Azie Tesfai] and his super friends.”
Brooks’ previous TV credits include Necessary Roughness, True Blood, The Game and Desperate Housewives.
Supergirl Season 5 opens Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9/8, now leading out of Batwoman.
I have felt for awhile they had a hard time dealing with what Jimmy should be on the show, so it not that surprising… I hope Winn ends up staying longer.
I will miss him. Although I am not surprised, as he’s rarely actually in a plot line since they made him the new Cat Grant. Probably tired of having to turn down other things because he’s on contract, when for all he is used, he might as well recur.
Not to sad about this to be honest. He was always horribly miscast as James Olsen. Not because he is black but when i think of Jimmy Olsen i don’t think of an armored Captain America wannabe who towers above Superman and Supergirl. They should have cast him as Jim Harper (Guardian in the comics) instead.
he was always the weakest link in the cast for me. And you could clearly see last year that they had no idea what to do with him anymore. alien superpowers now ? really ?
Exactly. He would have been a perfect Jim Harper. I could never, ever see him as Jimmy Olsen. He’s basically a seven foot tall Calvin Klein model with biceps bigger than my torso, how did anyone look at him and think “yeah THAT’s Jimmy Olsen!” And the writers clearly had absolutely no idea what to do with him after deciding he shouldn’t be Kara’s love interest anymore. This exit is honestly like three seasons late. I will say, though, that Jimmy Olsen randomly getting superpowers is totally in character, he would get and lose them all the time in old Superman comics, haha.
same.
even the plot with lena luthor to.
Tbh Jeremy Jordan would’ve made the perfect Jimmy Olsen.
I liked him in the first season or so but then his character became really stale. I’ve felt for awhile that they should get rid of his character. I wish Mehcad Brooks all the best in his future endeavors.
I totally agree. The first season was a totally diff show and feel co.pared to the seasons after the went to the CW. The show got REALLY bad after that. I
He was always the square peg that didn’t quite fit. The forced romanti. relationship with Kara in season 1 got the character off on the wrong foot.
While I’m sad the character never got hia due and the cw threw him in the garbage to give us the adventures of Mon-el ( same way the flash threw away wally to give us Ralph has problems volumes 1-100… At least the actor can do that things now.. I doubt the show will ever give fans like me the closure they never seemed to think we deserved after setting up a romance all of season one and then not only dumping it by the beginning of season two.. But never really explaining it… Or ever having the two characters have a talk about it… Ah well still a fan of the show so I’m looking FWD to the upcoming season
Or the same way they threw Laurel Lance to give us Felicity…
X1000… Tho laurel was featured a bit more after her disposal than the other two.. But I get the comparison… We are probably forgetting more as well
This!
With Wally, the actor wanted to leave and do other things. That one’s not on the them.
NO!!!!!!!
I’ll miss him but I’m ok with this. I haven’t really cared for where the character was going.
Ugh, why is this show always bleeding characters? More than other shows. I know characters come and go but not with this sort of frequency. That’s why I stopped watching last season.
This show isn’t bleeding characters any more than other long running shows… the season 1 – 2 move from LA to Vancouver excepted
Seems like the cast is jumping ship. I wish David and Chyler would leave so they can actually star in something I will watch.
Get bent – Chyler and David aren’t going anywhere. Can’t accept that then that’s your problem.
Given how so many are leaving its a matter of time and when they do this garbage show will end like it should have in season 1.0
he was underutilized on the show
I just think they didn’t know what to do with him.
No James was underutilized and wasted. James has potential storylines about him as Guardian but they prefered focusing on Mon El and forced political agenda and dumb storylines. Plus the showrunners don’t like Mehcad and been shown other POC characters in the Arrowverse have been underused as well.
He is leaving this fall? So will he be in this season at all? It’s kind of sad. I was rewatching Supergirl on Netflix. Both of the first people who really helped Kara when she came out as Supergirl (besides Alex) are no longer going to be on the show full time, if at all anymore. I think Jimmy suffered a little more after Winn left. Their bromance was fun to watch.
I actually cheered when I read this, such a usless character. James was a snore
I always thought Mehcad was miscast on this show. He never really felt like Jimmy Olsen. Supergirl never gave him a storyline worth getting invested in as a viewer, which is such a shame. Excited to see where he lands next!
I think it might be time to write CatCo completely out of the show. They seem to have a hard time including it in the show. Dropping it might help streamline the show, as well.
Except that’s exactly what’s wrong with the show. It was best at the beginning with the balance including CatCo. Then Calista Flockheart left (come back Cat Grant!!!) which brought the show down and the less & less they include CatCo stuff the less I enjoy the show like I did initially
^THIS
The writing for Jimmy Olsen and for the show overall went downhill after Season 1. The actor is fine to me in general, but the writing and direction of show is horrible. And, you can see it in the ratings after S1. The ratings are horrible after S1.
That’s about same time i stopped watching.
Show is all over the place. It’s apparently a huge hit with the LGBTQ.
Four seasons too late. After season one, they really did not know what to do with him. Brooks was miscast as Jimmy Olsen, as he’s a lot more Superman than he is a geeky sidekick and his meandering plots only took away from the other stories once they decided he wasn’t going to be the romantic interest anymore. He’s a great actor and I hope he’s better used elsewhere.
Talk about something to ruin your day. Ever since Supergirl moved from CBS to CW the show quality and have dropped. Despite season 4 being decent which was because of John Cryer as Lex Luthor the show has wasted storyline potential and characters. James still has potential as both a love interest and Guardian but they were so focused on toxicity that was Mon El and other pointless storylines. This might be like the Laurel/Katie Cassidy situation on Arrow when they killed her and the fandom outraged with ratings dropping and decline in storytelling. Even though they brought Laurel/Katie back the show never recovered. I hope that happens to Supergirl and showrunners would get desperate and beg Mehcad to come back. Interesting the James and Laurel were set up as co leads and were like by casual fans but toxic shippers and fandom who showrunners end up pandering to hated them so they brought in Felicity and Mon El both were more divisive and caused fans to jump ship.
I really only comment on one or two boards so tho I knew of shippers and fandom.. I was lucky that most of the conversations I had about the shows that I watched were engaging and thoughtful… Then about a year and a half ago the board I frequent to talk about arrow was… For lack of a better term invaded by “olicity” shippers and anything non olicity was shut down and decided.. I watched as commentors I had gone back and forth with for years stopped showing up in the episode threads but in my naivete I thought I could still bring up points that didn’t always show Oliver or felicity in the brightest light…. Smh at my foolishness.. For almost the entire back half of the previous season and the first few episodes of this season I tried and failed… If it wasn’t adulation for those two it wasn’t really gonna fly… I made the mistake of saying that something Curtis did wasn’t as bad as the consensus was making it out to be and my inbox pinged for about 3.5 hours with responses about how wrong I was and obscure plot points and whataboutisms that proved felicity was in the right… I had to give up.. The arrow board now is just an olicity echo chamber now… Post after post with complaints about other characters.. Complaints about not snuff olicity… Gigs of them looking at each other… Its madness.. And it did somewhat sour me on the show
The best news in years this guy could never play the nerdy character which is James no matter what ……he just never felt right in this show …..super man and super girl totally looks up to this giant of a man yet he is supposed to be the greatest fan boy ever……I am sure he will find roles best for him this one was never ever believable…….to those saying s1 was the best that’s a lie the show has gotten better every season with four being the super best minus the James and sister plot lines
have you forgottten that the show takes place almost fifteen years after Superman establish himself. James was teen when he met Superman and Kara was discovered as a teen inside the pod around the same time. Jimmy grew up. Thats what people do. And no the show has gotten worse as ratings has shown and everyone considers season 1 the best. Season 4 was only good because of Lex. Other than that show quality went down as they focus on plots and characters people ain’t really invested in.
I hope I’m wrong.. But I believe a significant amount ( 40% or more) of the ppl who made the claim that Mechad was miscast wouldnt have had such a hard time remembering or believing the hes all grown up as part if his characterization if he was portrayed by a tall buff redhead… The minute he was cast there was the totally nonsense surprising deluge of comments about how wrong he was for the part and quickly after some ppl wondered aloud if as they suspected it was because he was black.. Out came the.. He’s too buff and suave comments… Even though from the beginning it was stated this isn’t cub reporter Jimmy.. But all grown up, been on tons of adventures and won awards James
He’s in no way shape or form Jimmy, and his skin tone had nothing to do with it. People saying he was too tall, ripped and suave were right. He has a deep voice, a stately presence. He feels like Superman himself. And the show did him no favours having Winn, a clear attempt to give Kara a Jimmy-esque sidekick, since they were shying away from making her more like the comics and basically setting her up as female Clark Kent.
I feel like maybe my point wasn’t addressed… Or maybe I wasn’t clear enough.. The point of “James” is that he’s a grown up Jimmy.. After years and years of adventures with and without superman… He’s established himself as a brave photojournalist… If you spent 15 years as supes best friend with that target on your back and didn’t get stronger you’d be a fool.. So the point of this incarnation of Jimmy Olsen was that he was the culmination.. The end result of all the time that precocious cub reporter spent by the side of superman.. And that made sense to me.. I agree that winn did seem to fill the void of the proto-jimmy and that didn’t help. But I still assert that had mechad’s character been portrayed by an equally suave and buff white redhead, some of the ppl who were quick to say oh he’s so wrong for the role would have taken the grown up characterization and been fine with it.. They would’ve been able to swallow “James” easier but for him to be suave buff and black… Too much change for some.. And then its easy to say its not about his skin but his attitude and frame that’s the problem… I’ve seen enough message boards and comments wailing about sjw agendas and cramming this or that PC thing down throats every time I see a poc or a lgbtq character or storyline pop up to think otherwise… And almost everytime I read its not race it’s this other thing…. As sad as it is I just can’t give the benefit of doubt anymore
You are missing the point. It is not that James is all grown up or that he is black. That is quite frankly crap. I loved Perry White in Man of Steel despite him being black because he felt like Perry. Same with Wilson Fisk in the Daredevil movie or General Zod on Krypton. They were all fantastic despite not being caucasian as in the comics. So no skin color is not the problem.
If James would be black but not look like a supermodel who is bigger then Superman I would be totally down with that. The problem is not that he is black or that he is older and grown up. The problem is that he looks nothing like Jim Olsen is supposed to look like when it comes to his physique and size.
Just like I would be pissed if they would have cast someone as Superman who is smaller then Kara because Superman is supposed to be a big dude. Like I said, Mehcad would have been a perfect Jim Harper (who also is not black in the comics) on the show. But Jim Olsen is not supposed to look like a buff supermodel who towers ABOVE even Superman or the Martian Manhunter. Not to mention that James Olsen is not Guardian.
So don’t give me that racist allegations crap.
Considering his sister just came aboard as a series regular, this news surprised me.
Glad for Mehcad because he is a strong actor and deserves a prominent role in a tv show or movie. Liked his storyline in season one the best when the show was light hearted and more family friendly.
I think him not having charisma limited what they could do with his character. I knew he was in trouble when he was paired with Kara and it was blah instead of blowing up and becoming another huge couple for the CW.
Sad to see him go, but writers never exactly found a lane for the character, from the failed romance with Kara in S1, to his taking over for Cat at Catco, to his becoming Guardian. He is a compelling actor, going back to “Necessary Roughness,” and I hope he finds a project that works for him.
Thank the gods. He’s awful.