Hank Henshaw is J’onn J’onzz? DAMN – Skatronixxx
Partway through the first-half CBS’ Supergirl, the show delivered an unexpected reveal that DEO Director Hank Henshaw was in fact Justice Leaguer J’onn J’onzz aka The Martian Manhunter.
In a set vist by IGN, actor David Harewood revealed that “I didn’t actually know at all that I was going to be playing J’onn J’onzz when I did the pilot. The pilot was, I would say, a little bit of an uncomfortable experience, because I couldn’t really find an angle with Hank. A lot of the pilot was very expositional, so it wasn’t particularly easy to say, it wasn’t particularly easy to enjoy.”
Harewood further explained that once the producers let him in on the truth behind his character he felt excited to portray the comic book hero. The producers even gave him a pile of comics to read, opening his mind to another side of the Martian Manhunter. “I thought this character had such an amazing story, backstory, and amazing mythology. And I had no idea that he was so popular amongst the DC community, and also amongst the black community, who have seen J’onn J’onzz as almost the kind of honorary black person, which is… I was really happy about.”
J’onn J’onzz ultimately reveals himself to Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) after she starts to suspect that Henshaw is not totally as he seems given that he is last person to see her father, Jereminah Danvers (Dean Cain), alive. “We’re actually going see how J’onn became Hank in an upcoming episode”, confirmed showrunner Andrew Kreisberg. “I think part of Hank Henshaw that we see on our show, that J’onn is inhabiting, is an affect. He is inhabiting… he is impersonating somebody. But I do think that there is an aspect of… You know, the character Hank Henshaw is supposed to be protecting the world from destruction.”
Kreisberg also highlighted that J’onzz is ideally placed to understand what Supergirl aka Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) is going through: “like Kara, who lost everything. He lost his family; his wife; his children. He is truly the last survivor.” With executive producer Ali Adler adding that “As much experience as Hank brings to Kara, in terms of the D.E.O. in the world, Kara brings this new coming out, in terms of being herself. And I think for J’onn J’onzz, who doesn’t know his familiar form anymore, he’s been around a long, long time, and he’s never been able to walk amongst humans the way that Kara has. And so I think she does a lot of teaching, in ways, and it’s really sweet.”
Since the pilot episode many fans had assumed that Harewoods Henshaw would ultimately become the Cyborg-Superman from the comics, a theory that was confirmed by Creator Greg Berlanti: “We knew we were going to have a twist with Hank’s character and it was perhaps going to be in the vein of Cyborg Superman. We talk with DC at the beginning of the year and ask what characters might we be able to have, who is where, who are we maybe going to use. For a little while, I think they had talked about doing a Martian Manhunter series, so I never thought that was on the table. But when everybody saw what David was doing and saw an opportunity, we thought, ‘Wow, if you’re going to have a human embodiment of J’onn J’onzz, this is who we want.’”
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