Supergirl Movie to Show Much Harsher Version of the Character

Not long after her network TV series wrapped in 2021, Supergirl is headed back to the screen. This time, though, she will headline a movie of her own for the first time since 1984, James Gunn and Peter Safran announced at the DC Studios film and TV slate unveiling. The twist? While the Arrowverse’s Supergirl featured a character who was a literal paragon of hope and a bright, shining light in the universe, the DC Universe Supergirl movie will center on a version of the character who is tortured by the loss of her homeworld and everyone she loves.

According to James Gunn, Supergirl: The Woman of Tomorrow is  based on the series of the same name by writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely. King, who has created some of DC’s biggest bookstore market hits in the last decade, was previously tapped to write New Gods with Ava DuVernay, but that project blew up not long before the Warner Bros. Discovery merger. 

“Tom has been one of the architects of this entire situation,” Gunn told reporters as DC’s announcement. “He has been one of the guys in the room with us, along with four or five other writers, and I love his take on these characters, where he just slightly turns them to be something very unique. Within our story, we have [Superman], who had sent to earth and raised by incredibly loving parents, whereas Kara was on Krypton, she was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet, and lived there for the first 14 years of her life, among a horrible situation where she watched everybody around her die. So she’s a much harsher and more f—ed up Supergirl than we’ve been used to.”

A darker and more conflicted approach was only hinted at on The CW’s Supergirl, but it has become a more common interpretation of the character who, unlike her cousin Superman, was actually a teenager and totally aware of what was happening when Krypton was destroyed. In an animated movie out next week, Meg Donnelly plays a version of Supergirl who struggles to fit in on Earth after her ship lags decades behind Superman’s.

Argo City, the domed city that broke away from Krypton and remained alive for a time after the planet’s destruction, appeared in both the 1984 movie and the Arrowverse series, but it seems as though the upcoming movie will treat it like a much more hostile and “alien” environment than prior takes.

Are you excited to see a more sci-fi survival take on Supergirl on the big screen? Sound off in the comments below, or hit up @russburlingame on Twitter to talk all things DC.