"Supergirl" Casts Nicole Maines as First Transgender Superhero on TV

Nicole Maines becomes the first transwoman to be cast as a superhero.

Hollywood has made (some) strides in casting and directing with an eye towards diversity lately, but there remains a blind spot when it comes to hiring actors for trans roles. (Case in point: Scarlett Johansson recently withdrew from a trans role, following social media outrage.)

Thankfully, there's some positive news coming out of 2018's Comic-Con, with Nicole Maines, an actor and transgender activist, being announced as a new cast member for the upcoming fourth season of The CW's Supergirl.

She'll play the role of Nia Nal, whose superhero name is Dreamer, and will work alongside Supergirl and the other heroes to fight a big, bad threat.

Maines told Variety that while there has been trans representation on screen for a while, it has often meant depictions of trans people solely as sex workers and drug addicts.

"It's very relieving and hopeful to watch creators and writers and directors and casting offices stepping up to put trans people in trans roles so we can portray ourselves and we can start to disprove some of those stereotypes about us," she said.

"We're in a time right now more than ever where representation in the media matters and what we see on television has a very dramatic effect on our society."

@NicoleAMaines welcome to the supergirl family we love you so much you beautiful QUEEN

— molly 🌹 misses katie (@kctedison) July 21, 2018

You can catch Nicole in season four of Supergirl, which is set to be released later this year.

Header Image: Twitter (@Variety)