Melissa Benoist Comments on Milly Alcock’s Supergirl Casting

Earlier this year, James Gunn confirmed that House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock had been cast as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl in the DC Universe, making her the latest actor to portray the iconic character. Now, another Supergirl actor is weighing in on Alcock’s casting, showing support for the next person to don the cape. Speaking with Screen Rant, the Arrowverse’s Supergirl Melissa Benoist said that she thinks that all takes on Supergirl are valuable.

“I think any and all takes on the character are valuable because of what she stands for,” Benoist said. “Supergirl as an entity is iconic for a reason and has been since the ’50s. I personally think that every iteration of her is valuable for young women to see, and hopefully [with] every take on her, someone will see themselves in it.”

Who Is DC’s Supergirl?

Created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in 1959’s Action Comics #252, Kara Zor-El is the cousin of Clark Kent / Superman, who is also sent to Earth from their dying home planet, Krypton. Shortly after her debut, Supergirl appeared in a backup strip in Action Comics, and became a public-facing superhero beginning in 1962. She made an array of comic appearances — including a 23-issue solo series — leading up to 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, in which she was killed off in an effort to streamline continuity. The mantle of Supergirl was held by multiple women in the years to follow, including Linda Danvers, Cir-El, and eventually Kara herself when she was brought back to life in 2004. 

Supergirl has been portrayed onscreen a number of times over the years, across film, television, and animated projects. In live action, she has been played by Helen Slater in the 1984 film Supergirl, Laura Vandervoort in later seasons of Smallville, Benoist on the Arrowverse’s Supergirl television series, and Sasha Calle in last year’s The Flash movie.

Who Is Writing Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow?

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow does not have a release date or a director attached, but it has been confirmed that Ana Nogueira is writing the film’s script. Nogueira was actually previously attached to write an earlier incarnation of a Supergirl movie, which would have starred Calle and spun directly out of the events of this year’s The Flash movie. According to the reports, even though Nogueira’s previous version of the movie was scrapped, Gunn and Safran liked her work and gave her an overall DC writing deal.

“A hearty public welcome to Ana Nogueira to the DC Studios family,” Gunn stated on social media last year. “Ana is an amazing writer whose screenplay adaptation of Woman of Tomorrow is above and beyond anything I hoped it would be. We’re excited to be moving forward on this unique take on Supergirl in this beautiful, star-spanning tale.”

What is Melissa Benoist’s Next Project?

Benoist next appears in The Girls on the Bus on Max. The series will premiere on the streaming platform with two episodes on Thursday, March 14th.Based on Amy Chozick’s 2018 book, Chasing Hillary: Ten Years, Two Presidential Campaigns, and One Intact Glass Ceiling, The Girls on the Bus follows four female journalists who follow every move of a parade of flawed presidential candidates while finding friendship, love, and scandal along the way. Benoist stars as Sadie McCarthy, described as “a journalist who romanticizes the original Boys on the Bus and who scrapped her whole life for her own shot at covering a presidential campaign for the paper of record. Sadie hits the trail and eventually bonds with three female competitors. Despite the differences, these women become a found family with a front-row seat to the greatest soap opera in town: the battle for the White House.”