Katie McGrath, who plays Lena Luthor on The CW DC Comics TV show Supergirl, was dubbed Tumblr's most popular actress in 2017, with Diana Prince herself - aka. Wonder Woman and Justice League movie star Gal Gadot - landing in second place. The actress rundown is part of Tumblr's Fandometrics, which calculates its end of year lists based on the number of Tumblr entries that were created with specific tags (in this case, the names of actresses), in addition to the number of times a tag was searched, how often a post with that tag is reblogged, and the number of likes that said post earned. Those numbers are then run through Tumblr's weighting system to calculate the final results.
Supergirl, which is part of the shared DC superhero TV universe colloquially known as the Arrowverse, started its run on CBS in 2015 before moving over to The CW - the home network for the Arrowverse - for its second season. McGrath made her debut as the Lena Luthor character (who, yes, is the sister of the infamous Lex Luthor) in season 2 and has since been upgraded to series regular in season 3. The character has generally been considered one of the Arrowverse's more popular supporting players since her introduction and this new survey by Tumblr only lends further credence to that idea.
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According to Tumblr's Fandometrics, Katie McGrath was the site's most popular actress in 2017, thanks to her role as the complicated Miss Luthor. Gal Gadot, as mentioned earlier, landed the second place spot for her ongoing role as Wonder Woman, with Emma Watson - fresh off her role as Belle in Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast - landing in third place. The late Carrie Fisher, who make her final onscreen appearance in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi this month, came in fourth place, followed by Lili Reinhart (who plays Betty Cooper on The CW's Archie Comics TV show Riverdale) in fifth.
McGrath's Lena Luthor and Melissa Benoist's Kara Danvers/Supergirl also ranked among Tumblr's most popular "ships", with the fan-backed romantic pairing of Lena and Kara being typically referred to as "Supercorp". The most popular "ships" of 2017 also included couples from the Netflix animated series Voltron: Legendary Defender (namely, Keith and Lance, aka. "Klance") and the Syfy western/fantasy TV series Wynonna Earp (namely, Waverly Earp and Nicole Haught, aka. "Wayhaut"), as detailed in an article by the NYT. McGrath, as the writeup notes, seems quite comfortable with the "Supercorp" fandom and even offered TVLine the following on the subject, earlier this year:
“It doesn’t bother me at all. It’s not just what we put into it. It’s what the writers put in, and the directors, and then what people can take from it.”
Out of the four Arrowverse TV shows (including, Arrow, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow), Supergirl arguably features the most three-dimensional and best developed female characters in both leading and supporting roles. Lena in particular, and McGrath's performance as the character, has often been singled out as one of the more interesting and multifaceted supporting players in the show's ensemble, and the character's popularity on social media sites like Tumblr is a testament to that. The character has clearly garnered even more fans in Supergirl season 3, where she has thus far played a more prominent role in the show's overarching storyline and even been presented with a potential love interest in Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks). That's not bad at all for someone who has to deal with the baggage of Superman's greatest nemesis being a member of her own family.
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The Supergirl season 3 midseason finale, 'Reign' airs on The CW tonight.