Dean Cain has been cast in the Supergirl pilot, and I have feelings about it

A long time ago, we used to be friends…

There is one piece of casting news that I need to get out of the way before talking about the rest of this week’s Supergirl news.

Yesterday Deadline announced that Helen Slater and Dean Cain have been cast to guest star in “mystery” roles in the Supergirl pilot, which has been greeted almost universally as joyful news.

This may surprise you, but I am deeply conflicted about Dean Cain appearing in Supergirl.

There was a time when I would have been overjoyed by this news. I am a huge Lois & Clark fan and had the biggest crush on Cain for the longest time. Christopher Reeve is my favourite Superman, but Dean Cain is my favourite Clark Kent.

Then I found Dean Cain’s twitter.

Ugh. Finding out that one of my favourite actors to portray the quintessential embodiment of goodness and heroism is actually a hard right-winger with a macho worldview and a twitter feed filled with Fox News, Republican politicians, macho military guys and scantily clad women was a huge disappointment, to put it mildly.

So while my initial reaction to seeing the old promo pics of Cain in his early Superman costume was to squee loudly, that excitement quickly turned to disappointment. I don’t want to see Cain in a Supergirl show, not anymore. I’m pretty sure Slater and Cain will only make cameo appearances and won’t appear beyond the pilot, but I’m filled with dread at the thought of Cain being a regular…like Fred Danvers. Please Berlanti Productions, don’t.