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On a freezing day at the start of January 2025, David Corenswet joined Milly Alcock on the backlot at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden for “pre-shoot” on Supergirl to accomplish Kara arriving on Earth.
Supergirl signals a bold new direction for the DC Universe and reintroduces the character with a depth and complexity she has never been given on film. As the second feature in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s rebuilt DCU, the film serves as an early statement of tone, ambition, and storytelling philosophy, adapting Tom King’s acclaimed Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow—a modern classic known for its emotional intensity and mythic scope.
This version of Kara Zor‑El is shaped by loss, survival, and moral ambiguity, offering a darker, more layered counterpoint to Superman and expanding the DCU into a more character‑driven, genre‑flexible space. With Craig Gillespie directing and Ana Nogueira’s script widely praised within DC Studios, the film stands as both a creative milestone and a cultural reset, positioning Supergirl not as a derivative side figure but as a central, formidable force in the new DC cinematic landscape.
Producers Peter Safran & James Gunn
On what made Supergirl the right film for DC Studios’ next feature…
PS: Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is a comic book that James and I have always loved and wanted to adapt. We thought it was a great story and that it would give us an exciting way to introduce Supergirl to audiences as they’ve never experienced the character before. Tom King, who’s one of our collaborators, wrote the comic book with artist Bilquis Evely, and it truly is something special. It takes you on this high-stakes adventure across stars and planets; there are aliens, space battles… and yet resonating through all this action are powerful themes about hope and sacrifice and justice. One of the interesting ideas in this story is that it asks: what would you be willing to take on as a burden if it meant sparing somebody you care about from having to carry that burden themselves? Kara is thrust into a position to have to make that choice when she meets Ruthye – a young girl who is on a quest to avenge the family she lost. And Kara wants to save Ruthye from the burden she’ll have to carry for the rest of her life if she gets the vengeance she’s chasing. So, it’s a highly emotional story, but it’s also a revenge story, which is not something you normally expect to see with Supergirl.
The interplanetary setting was another element that drew us to this story. It feels fresh and unique in the genre, and also gives us a fun way to push out from the Earth-like world we experience in Superman and see what else is out there. Kara’s journey is almost entirely in outer space, so it has a completely different look and feel from anything we’ve experienced thus far in the DCU.
But one of the biggest reasons why Supergirl had to be our next film up was simply that Ana Nogueira, our writer who adapted the comic book, handed in an extraordinary screenplay with her first draft. And once we read it, there was no second choice – we knew it was a film we wanted to make.
On the approach to Supergirl that would set it apart from other superhero films…
JG: Supergirl is creating a space fantasy that I think is amazing in so many ways. Craig employed a lot of old school practical effects, which just gives it a completely different vibe than the Superman movie. I also think that Kara is interesting in that she’s a mess; she’s definitely not Clark Kent or Superman, who can pull it together despite everything he’s been through. You’ll see the differences in how their experiences have affected them – that Superman was raised by these loving parents in a completely solid home with no issues, and Supergirl grew up on a chunk of a disintegrated planet where people were dying all around her constantly – including her own parents – and she had to watch that happen. That trauma is part of her now. So, obviously, for Superman, it’s a little easier to believe in the goodness of the universe than it is for Supergirl, who has no basis to believe in that. Kara forms a relationship with this young girl, Ruthye, whose family was murdered and is out for revenge, and she can understand that. So, they form a multi-layered, interesting relationship over the course of the film.
On working with writer Ana Nogueira to set Supergirl’s story within the larger DCU…
PS: The magic trick was to make sure that the film remained tethered to Superman but felt thoroughly different at the same time. And I think we have been able to do that as a result of, first, the script that James wrote for Superman, and then integrating Ana into everything we were doing with Superman so she could have a clear grasp of the connective tissue between the two stories. Then, of course, we have the greatest connective tissue of them all, which is Krypto. He has a major role in Superman and is, in many ways, the inciting incident of Supergirl. So, those points of connection will give the audience a natural bridge from one film to the next, and Ana has been a big part of that.
On what audiences are going to experience when they see Supergirl on the big screen…
PS: Supergirl will take the audience on an exhilarating ride across the stars and into the landscapes and cultures of all these alien planets, where they’ll encounter the incredible spectrum of characters that inhabit this galaxy. We love the opportunity to create new environments that have never been experienced before on screen. And this film just transports you. It has a striking look and feel as we move from world to world, and that is a testament to the production design team, to the wardrobe team, to our guys at Legacy Effects, who do our special effects makeup and prosthetics – they’re all incredible. They all collaborated with us and with Craig to create a completely unique and immersive visual experience for the audience, and I think they’re going to enjoy the ride.
Director Craig Gillespie
On taking on a film in the DCU…
The idea of being able to come in under the umbrella of DC with James and Peter, I couldn’t have been more excited. Honestly, I love James’s work; I’ve been a big fan for a long time. The tonality that he uses in his work I very much relate to, and he’s a filmmaker who takes chances and isn’t shy about that. When I first met with James, he said each film they want to approach like its own graphic novel, with its own illustrator and writer, and they’re all very distinctive in the comic book world. And when they sent this script to me, I read the first two scenes, and I was in. I mean, there were such extremes that happened in the opening of the movie, and that tone out of the gate, I couldn’t wait to read the rest of the script. And it all delivered, all the way up to the final scene. It leaned into the trauma, the emotion, and the choices that these characters make that are not necessarily what the audience has seen before, and I knew, coming in under James and Peter’s leadership, that they wouldn’t shy away from that.
On who Kara Zor-El is and her arc throughout the story…
This is very much a story of self-discovery and taking responsibility. Kara’s been put into a situation that she didn’t ask for; she almost wants to run away from it, and it’s not until she faces her own trauma in a way—and sees what Ruthye is going through—that she begins to realise perhaps she has to be accountable for herself, practice what she preaches, and just partake in life, really. She’s running away from a lot of things that she doesn’t want to deal with and using having a good time to escape. And she’s not sure what her role is in this universe. She’s got these powers, she’s got the opportunity, but Superman has a very strong footprint on Earth. She wants to be her own person and figure out what her rules are, which aren’t necessarily in line with how Superman sees things.
On Krypto, the heart of the film…
Krypto is literally the pulse of the film, and there’s a ticking clock on Krypto as to whether he’ll live, so it was really important, first of all, to establish his relationship with Kara. She discovers him on Krypton in a very powerful scene. And he ends up being the only thing she takes with her from Krypton, so he’s her physical touchstone to her previous life. So, it was important upfront in the film that we got to understand their bond and how singularly they depend on each other. And then of course, when that rug gets pulled out, how important it truly is to her to save Krypto, and she’ll go to any means to do it. It also gives her a lot of leeway in terms of how frustrated or angry she gets at points, because there are very real stakes, she’s like very much on a mission and everybody better get out of the way.
On realizing the tone of the film established by screenwriter Ana Nogueira…
Tone for me is the thing I get most excited about. It’s that dance from something absurd to something with high stakes and drama, literally within five seconds of each other. And to me, it’s always like, how do we do that? How do we pull that off? How do we keep the audience still invested in the stakes, but able to laugh at some sort of situation that happens. And it was in the writing with Ana Nogueira, it was immediately on the page, and then it was just expanding on that. That’s the kind of thing I love to be able to pull off, so the audience is always on their heels and trying to keep up in a way. It’s a dance and it’s tricky, and you need an actor that can do that, that can have the emotional stakes and still deliver the line that doesn’t take her out of character, you know? You can’t do it without that, and Milly was terrific at it.
Screenwriter Ana Nogueira
On bringing Supergirl from the pages of the comic to the screen…
I think Peter and James choosing Tom King’s graphic novel Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow—Tom’s the other collaborator in this story—was the ultimate jumping off point and so crucial. This version of the character was, to me, the only version of her that made sense, and from that moment I knew that we had a shared understanding of who Kara is. I think people have an idea of what genre movies are, but to me, the most simple, relatable human stories are completely capable of holding other planets and action sequences, and in fact those things can make the human story come alive even more, that slight distance from the reality. I’m never going to go through exactly what Supergirl goes through in the movie, but somehow that separation allows me to see myself better, I think. And she is certainly a reluctant superhero, which I think we’ve seen before, but the thing I love about it is that it is actually connected to her backstory. We were not thinking, let’s make her tough just to be tough; it’s more like, how could she be anything but this after what she’s gone through losing her family, losing her planet, losing everything she’s ever known? And then arriving on Earth and she’s immediately expected to be everything her cousin is, even though all of that is so foreign to her. I think that she brings all of that to every experience that she has, rather than having an alter ego that stands for good because Clark does. She’s bringing all of her heft and all of her trauma and all of her humor and all of her grit into every experience that she has. She doesn’t know how to be anything other than authentic.
On collaborating with director Craig Gillespie…
Craig is just so good at taking a complicated female protagonist and letting her exist in all of her messiness. We got along the very first time that we met and we loved the same things about the character and the same things about the comic. And that was a through line through the whole process, that we had the same sort of touchstones for what mattered to us. Craig knows that I know this character in my bones. I know that he knows this story in his bones. But then you realize, oh, maybe the audience hasn’t read 50 Supergirl comics! [LAUGHS] So, we had to make sure we established her for them, giving her a starting point that makes it super clear what we love about her.
On what audiences will hopefully take away from seeing Supergirl in theaters…
I hope that they fall in love with the girls as I have fallen in love with the girls. And I hope they fall in love with their story and their friendship because, like I’ve said, I hope people are able to see Kara as the complicated, varied woman that she is. I hope that they take away from it the power of a soul connection and the power of that to heal something that seemed unhealable.
In its inaugural flight into the new DC Cinematic Universe, Supergirl reveals the origin of the interplanetary nomad Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, cousin of Kal-El, better known as Superman. Headstrong, worldly-wise, and often reckless, Supergirl exudes a brand of heroism all her own—truthful, relatable, and always on her own terms. But when an unexpected and ruthless adversary strikes too close to home, Kara reluctantly joins forces with an unlikely companion. Together they undertake an epic, interstellar journey, struggling to balance one’s need for vengeance with the pursuit of justice—and to save the life of Kara’s best friend, her dog Krypto. Ultimately Supergirl will prove that doing good can be tough… and it doesn’t always have to be nice.
Craig Gillespie is an Australian‑American director celebrated for sharp, offbeat storytelling and eliciting honest performances. He directs the upcoming DC Studios feature Supergirl, releasing June 26, 2026. His recent work includes Dumb Money, which premiered at TIFF and dramatises the 2021 GameStop upheaval. Gillespie’s credits include Disney’s Oscar‑winning Cruella and the acclaimed I, Tonya, which earned multiple Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, with wins for Allison Janney. His television work spans Your Friends and Neighbors and Hulu’s Emmy‑nominated Pam & Tommy. Earlier films include Lars and the Real Girl, Fright Night, Million Dollar Arm, and The Finest Hours.
Ana Nogueira is a Brooklyn‑based actor and screenwriter who has written for DC Films since 2020, most recently penning DC Studios’ Supergirl (June 2026), directed by Craig Gillespie. She co‑wrote a romantic comedy for New Line and wrote/starred in the SXSW‑selected short We Win. Her plays include Which Way to the Stage (MCC, 2022) and Empathitrax, now in feature development with Nogueira set to direct. As an actor, she recurs on Starz’s Hightown and has appeared in The Vampire Diaries, The Michael J. Fox Show, and The Blacklist. She is a Boston Conservatory alumna.
Courtesy of DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures. © 2026 Warner Bros. Entertainment. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC
