Melissa Benoist talks ditching the skirt in new Supergirl suit: 'It's more adult'

Melissa Benoist‘s Supergirl is getting a long-awaited wardrobe upgrade in season 5.

On Monday, the Supergirl star revealed the Girl of Steel’s brand new season 5 super-suit. The biggest change? The skirt is no more and has been replaced by actual pants, which is something both Benoist and the showrunners have been wanting to do for a long time.

“We’ve been talking about pants since season 1,” Benoist tells EW. “Every time a writer from the show has come up, and it’s freezing cold in Vancouver, I’m like, ‘Guys, please can I not wear tights?’ I love [Kara’s old costume]. I haven’t changed it because it so works, and I think it is very Kara. I’ve always felt that — until recently, I’m like, ‘Something’s gotta give.'”

Showrunners Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner echoed that sentiment as well. “A lot of us were passionate about getting Supergirl into pants and out of the short skirt, and we felt like that would be a powerful move, and Melissa is really excited about it,” says Queller. “So we just had to find the right moment to design the suit and in between seasons gave us a chance. But this is something we’ve been thinking about for a while.”

Benoist particularly loves her character’s new threads because she has more “range of motion” and it’s a visual way of showing how Kara has grown over the years. “I just think it’s more adult,” she says. “Part of my goal in this whole series for whenever the show ends, I just want there to be a very clear arc for this character that she evolved as a woman and found her femininity and her adulthood, just a self-discovery.”

Pants aren’t the only big development for Benoist in season 5. As EW revealed earlier today, Benoist will also make her directorial debut with the season’s 17th episode. “I’ve been wanting to direct since season 3, but couldn’t last year because of scheduling conflicts, so [star] David Harewood did it first,” she told EW. “I just felt really drawn to it for a couple of seasons now, just because you know the show so well, and you get to know the character, and the world, and the tone of the show so well that you can’t help but envision certain scenes in a certain way. I want to play with that.”

Supergirl returns Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9 p.m on The CW.

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