Floriana Lima, Supergirl’s Detective Maggie Sawyer Stepping Down From Series Regular For Season Three

It wasn’t long ago that Floriana Lima, who plays Maggie Sawyer on CW’s Supergirl, had gotten the bump from a recurring character to a series regular. Now it seems that Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) might have scared her off with having proposed to Maggie in the season finale. It ended without her having given an answer to her having popped the question, and now producers have to work out how to play off the fact that while she’ll still be available some of the time, she won’t be returning next season as a regular.

So they won’t kill her off, obviously, but at the same time if she accepts Alex, then they’ll have to work out why she only pops up from time to time. Series executive producer Andrew Kreisberg indicated that Lima’s role has been reduced because she is “looking to pursue other opportunities.” While we know she’ll be back for “multiple episodes,” the exact number remains a mystery. The read from that is that she’s either being solicited for another series or film, has already accepted, or in the audition process now.

It’s good of her to let her Supergirl producers and writers know now so they can write around her, however that might shape up playing out. In any case, at least publicly, there appears to be no hard feelings with Kreisberg adding:

We adore Floriana and have loved working with her to tell this inspiring story. Although she’s not available to us as a series regular next season, as she’s looking to pursue other opportunities, we’re happy she’ll be returning for multiple episodes in Season 3.

Overall it’s good to hear that it seems to be Lima’s call to take a step back from her comittment, rather than being nudged out by the writers room themselves. With Lima’s rise in popularity, it only makes sense since she is looking to expand her career. The challenge would also be that it’s not easily achieved when one is working as a series regular. While being promoted to series regular doesn’t mean the character will appear in each episode, it does mean the actor or actress will need to be on-call, so to speak, to appear in whichever episode the producers need them in.