On The CW series Supergirl, Lena Luthor’s (Katie McGrath) ex-boyfriend, Jack Spheer (iZombie’s Rahul Kohli), is in National City to unveil his breakthrough nano-technology, Biomax, with which he hopes to eradicate all injuries and diseases. And while Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) goes to Jack’s big reveal with Lena for support, she’s inspired to use her reporter skills to dig into his discovery and its true intentions.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, actor Rahul Kohli talked about getting this Supergirl role independently from his own CW series, iZombie, what appealed to him about this character, what brings Jack Spheer to National City, his relationship with Lena Luthor, what he thinks of Kara Danvers, whether Jack and his iZombie character would get along, which Supergirl cast member he’d love to see appear on his show, what’s still to come this season for Ravi and Liv (Rose McIver), and which CW series he’d like to appear on next.

Collider: Congratulations on the first of hopefully many Rahul Kohli cross-overs on The CW!

RAHUL KOHLI: Thank you!

Now that you’ve started with Supergirl, you can make your way around all of the other CW shows on the programming schedule. So, taking that into consideration, which CW show would you like to do next?

KOHLI: That’s a fantastic question! You know what? Elyse, who’s a friend of mine, is a massive Riverdale fan and keeps telling me that I need to watch it, but I haven’t gotten around to doing it. Rather than watch it, I’d rather just appear in it, so that I can show off. So, I’m going to pick Riverdale for her.

Now that you’ve guested on Supergirl and worked with that cast, who from that show would you like to see guest on iZombie and what sort of relationship would you like them to have with Ravi?

KOHLI: Oh, that’s so easy! It would be Katie McGrath. I’d love to steal her from Supergirl. That might be difficult now because she’s become a series regular, but I’d love for her to come onto iZombie. I’ve told her this, by the way. I’d love her to keep her Irish accent because why not? I get to keep my English accent. And I’d like her to play some sort of romantic interest with Ravi because we had such a wonderful time on Supergirl. Our chemistry was pretty damn good, and that’s something I’d love to exploit for the benefit of my show.

How did your appearance on Supergirl come about? Had you expressed your desire to be in that show, in particular, should a character arise, or did this come as a surprise to you?

KOHLI: This was a complete surprise. It wasn’t even based on the back of iZombie. I went up for this role, along with other actors in Los Angeles. What had happened was that we had wrapped our show at the end of January, and I had made my way to Los Angeles to shoot a movie, which I was doing, and then during filming of the movie, I was sent an audition to go down to Warner Bros. to audition for this guy, Jack Spheer, on Supergirl. So, I learned my scene and went in and read, like everyone else, and then it happened. I don’t think there was any cross-over or planning of that. It just all happened. It was more, “The guy we want happens to be on the same network, and he’s free.” That’s how it happened.

Had you had any secret dreams of being a part of a superhero story, before this?

KOHLI: I’ve already fulfilled a lot of those aspirations, being on a comic book show. But with Supergirl, being a part of the juggernaut that is the Berlanti universe was an aspiration. And Ravi is a completely new character. He doesn’t exist in any form, other than on the TV show. So, it was interesting to play someone who is on the pages of a comic book. He does differ, quite substantially, from his comic book origin, but it was still awesome to be able to type your character’s name in and see comic book art pop up.

Who is this incarnation of Jack Spheer and what brings him to National City, at this point in time?

KOHLI: Jack Spheer is an innovator, of sorts. He has been working, for many years, on nano-bot technology to heal injuries and cure disease. It’s microscopic robots that are able to do patch work, basically. Finally, after many years, he’s cracked that code, got it right and got it working, and he’s bringing that technology to National City. Where the story picks up from is Jack’s arrival into National City and his keynote speech, where he demonstrates this technology, and the technology is called Biomax.

We know that this guy is the ex of Lena Luthor. What was their relationship like, and what was she like when they were together?

KOHLI: They were actually research partners. They were working on this technology together, for many years, and they were also partners, romantically. During that time, while they were still trying to perfect that technology, Lena was given the opportunity to work for the Luthors and family duty called. She chose to leave the research and the relationship subsequently ended and they went their separate ways. Now, they’re finally united.

What does Jack think of Kara and her friendship with Lena?

KOHLI: Kara, in this episode, is very much the journalist, rather than the alter-ego. She spends a lot more time as a journalist. She is, I don’t want to say digging, but she’s definitely curious about him and his technology. She’s also, very early on, given a whiff that not everything is as it seems and that there are slightly more sinister aspects of this technology and its creation. So, she’s already caught a bit of a story in Jack Spheer and Biomax and she’s slightly on his case.

Would he prefer to have people stay out of his business?

KOHLI: Not necessarily. He’s actually quite flamboyant. I liken him to the guys who create the Snapchat apps and become multi-millionaires, but who came from humble beginnings. He dresses well, he talks fancy and he’s very charismatic. He’s fairly open. There are just some questionable things that have happened, along the way, that Kara has been informed of and is digging around in.

Is Jack aware of Supergirl and what she’s been up to?

KOHLI: That’s a good question. That’s actually never really dealt with. That’s a tough one to answer because we never really see that. The majority of Jack’s scenes are focused around rekindling an old relationship, so most of my scenes are with Lena.

What did you most enjoy about playing this character and being a part of this show?

KOHLI: Unfortunately, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time on this because it was a one-story arc, but in the little time that I did, it was amazing to work with a new group of people, particularly Melissa [Benoist], Chris [Wood] and Katie [McGrath]. They have a wonderful relationship and rapport on set. The enjoyment I got from my stint on Supergirl was just playing a character so different from Ravi. I didn’t tell any jokes, I didn’t make any stupid faces, and I didn’t have to touch rats. It was completely different. Also, Ravi’s love life, particularly with Peyton, was a slow burn that me and Aly [Michalka] have been working on for the last three years. With Katie, we had to just jump straight into what they wanted and go for it, and that was a lot of fun.

How do you think Jack and Ravi would get along? Do you think they would find common ground in anything?

KOHLI: Oh, absolutely, particularly in saving the world. Both of them have a saving the world complex. Ravi is desperately trying to find a cure to rid the human race of the zombie virus. Jack, with the Biomax technology, is trying to cure all injuries and diseases. I think they might be able to share some notes. They’re both flamboyant in a different way. I just think Ravi’s sense of humor might not be the most compatible with Jack’s.

Watching Liv and Ravi together is just so magical. What can you tease about what’s still to come for them, this season, on iZombie?

KOHLI: It’s much of the same, really. I don’t think that’s a dynamic that anyone ever wants to screw with. We let Clive know about zombies, and that changed that dynamic. But with Ravi and Liv, that relationship has existed, pretty much from the pilot, and that’s home base. That’s a familiarity that we want to keep for the rest of the show. It’s our safe zone. It’s our DNA. We build from that. I keep reading that a lot of people want to see those characters hook up romantically, and I get it. It’s a CW show and people hook up. But me and Rose [McIver] have spoken about it and it’s something that we’re not fully behind, unless it’s many, many, many, many more seasons aware from that ever happening. We’re very much happy with the relationship, exactly how it is. Me and Rose are so proud of it. It’s a relationship that mirror the one we have, off screen. We are very much like brother and sister, and it feeds one into another. The closer Ravi and Liv get, the closer Rahul and Rose get. It’s the same dynamic, on and off screen.

Supergirl airs on Monday nights on The CW.