Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow Could Be DC Studios’ Most Important Movie (So Far)

Almost a year after their plans were first announced to the public, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe has begun to become a reality. Ten movies and Max-exclusive television shows are set to debut in the next few years, including the live-action blockbuster film Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. On Monday, Woman of Tomorrow got its biggest update yet, with House of the Dragon‘s Milly Alcock cast as the film’s titular character of Kara Zor-El / Supergirl, a role she is expected to portray throughout the DCU. With reports that Woman of Tomorrow could begin production later this year, it certainly seems as if the film will be one of the DCU’s first projects to be released — and in a way, it could be one of the biggest and most meaningful entries the franchise has thus far.

Based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s recent twelve-issue comic miniseries of the same name, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow follows Kara in a unique emotional state, wondering if she will ever be able to escape from the shadow of her more-popular cousin, Clark Kent / Superman. While traversing the stars, Kara is sought out by a young girl named Ruthye who is eager to get revenge for the destruction of her home world, and is catapulted into a life-changing series of events.

As anyone who has read Woman of Tomorrow and experienced Evely’s art can attest, the setting of the series is totally visually ambitious, which has made the news of the planned film adaptation especially intriguing. While the DCU’s first planned film, Superman: Legacy, will chronicle the balance of the Man of Steel’s Earth and alien heritage, there’s no telling exactly how much it will show of the DCU’s cosmos. Woman of Tomorrow, meanwhile, will most likely be set on an array of fully-realized alien planets — and could make some major strides towards establishing what the franchise’s “cosmic side” looks like. Given Gunn’s track record for showcasing the Marvel cosmos through the Guardians of the Galaxy films, it’s safe to assume that that will be a priority in some way. 

There’s also the unprecedented nature of Woman of Tomorrow getting adapted into a live-action film just a few years after its publication — something that, by and large, has not been done in the modern world of superhero adaptations. (Honestly, very few recent superhero films have adapted specific works of comics outside of making tangential references or borrowing the same title, but that’s a whole separate conversation.) Woman of Tomorrow‘s success can prove that there doesn’t need to be any sort of arbitrary shelf life before a comic book can be deemed “worthy” of inspiring other medium, something that could not only become relevant for Gunn and Safran’s further DCU plans, but that could help the oncoming tidal wave of superhero fatigue.

On the topic of that superhero fatigue, Woman of Tomorrow has the potential to offer something distinct within the pop culture space — a superhero blockbuster that could be equally accessible, epic, and unabashedly feminine. Sure, the source material of Woman of Tomorrow boasts a fair share of swear words and violent fight sequences, but its plot and tone are rooted in an emotion and experience that women will recognize. And athough a number of female characters have already been cast for the DCU, and the forthcoming The Authority movie will surely have a balance of male and female protagonists, Woman of Tomorrow is the only female-fronted film currently announced by DC Studios. If the Woman of Tomorrow movie is marketed right, it could easily draw in a larger female audience — after all, Supergirl as a character is already something of a household name in a lot of pop culture. While it might not make a billion dollars at the worldwide box office or cause a bubblegum-pink phenomenon, it’s not impossible to imagine Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow possibly providing a kind of cinematic catharsis not unlike the Barbie phenomenon of this past summer. It also helps that, outside of a potential cameo from Alcock’s Kara in Superman: Legacy, there presumably won’t be a lot of extra lore audiences need to know before watching Woman of Tomorrow, allowing it to exist as just a singular, entertaining movie. If everything clicks into place, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow could easily be something special in the ever-changing superhero landscape — and help cement the DCU’s grand experiment in the process.

Are you excited for Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!