‘Superman’: Mikaela Hoover, Christoper MacDonald Join Cast!!

James Gunn‘s new Superman film has just added two of Clark Kent’s Daily Planet co-workers to its cast. Gunn regular Mikaela Hoover and newcomer Christoper MacDonald have joined the film, which is currently filming in Atlanta. The Hollywood Reporter has the news that the duo will play Cat Grant and Ron Troupe, respectively.

The duo were spotted on-set last week, but this is the first official word on their casting and what characters they are set to portray. The two will join a Daily Planet newsroom that is already well-staffed, with David Corenswet playing mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan starring as Lois Lane, plus Saturday Night Live alum Beck Bennett, who was recently added to the cast to play blowhard sports reporter Steve Lombard. Riding herd over the crew will be The Wire‘s Wendell Pierce as editor Perry White. Hoover is a regular in Gunn productions, with past roles in Super, The Suicide Squad, and two Guardians of the Galaxy films, including the voice of the rabbit Floor in last summer’s Vol. 3. MacDonald is a newcomer to the screen; he should not be confused with Happy Gilmore‘s Christopher McDonald.

Who Are Cat Grant and Ron Troupe?

Grant and Troupe are both relatively recent additions to the Superman mythos. Grant, the Planet’s gossip and entertainment columnist, first appeared in 1987’s The Adventures of Superman #424, by Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway. She often served to complicate the romance betwen Lois and Clark, but suffered a personal tragedy when her son was killed by the villainous Toyman. She was prominently featured in the first season of the 1990s series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, where she was played by Babylon 5‘s Tracy Scoggins.; she later played a leading role on the CW series Supergirl.

There, she was portrayed by Calista Flockhart, and had left the Planet to form her own media conglomerate. In that capacity, she hired Kara Danvers, the secret identity of Supergirl, as her personal assistant. Ron Troupe first appeared in 1991’s The Adventures of Superman #480, by Ordway and Tom Grummett; he is one of the paper’s most reliable reporters, and has been romantically linked to Lois Lane’s sister, Lucy. Troupe has made some small appearances in Superman TV and film adaptations, and a gender-bent version of the character, Ronnie Troupe, can currently be seen in the animated My Adventures With Superman.

Other notable DC Comics characters in the upcoming film include Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), and the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría). The film is intended to kick off a full slate of new DC films, starting with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which is set to star Milly Alcock as the Maid of Might.