Pour one out for [ Supergirl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergirl_(2026_film)), the latest installment in the DCU’s
*Gods and Monsters*chapter, which has been beset by online troll attacks, mixed reviews, and a
[very disappointing](https://deadline.com/2026/06/box-office-supergirl-toy-story-5-1236968254/)opening weekend box office—not the outcome Warner Bros. was hoping for with this follow-up to last year’s
*Superman*. It’s actually a pretty good movie, as such films go, but it’s not a
*great*movie. And in today’s over-saturated superhero market, that’s just not sufficient to get people out of their homes and into theaters, rather than waiting for the film to come to streaming platforms.
**(Some spoilers below but no major reveals.)**
The studio tapped Ana Nogueira to write the script, a holdover from the former DCEU plans for a standalone Supergirl film. (The character appeared in the finale of 2022’s *The Flash*, played by Sasha Calle.) The project was reimagined when James Gunn and Peter Safran took over and launched the “soft reboot” DCU. Director Craig Gillespie (*Lars and the Real Girl, I Tonya*) signed on to direct.
The story is adapted from the comic book miniseries *Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow*, which was partially inspired by the 1968 classic Western, *True Grit*. Gillespie envisioned his film as a kind of interplanetary road movie, with Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Milly Alcock) teaming up with Jason Momoa’s wild bounty hunter, Lobo, in a dynamic reminiscent of Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn. Lobo ended up being more of a cameo appearance; he is not featured at all in the comic miniseries, which focuses on Kara’s budding friendship with a vengeance-seeking alien child. That’s the arc the film settled on, one that harkens back to the DC Comics Silver Age.
The film opens with a montage showcasing a rebellious Kara celebrating her 23rd birthday by bar-hopping around red star planets with her space dog, Krypto—because she can actually get drunk there, as opposed to healing/empowering yellow star worlds. (Green star worlds will kill her, which predictably becomes relevant later on.) She mostly ignores the concerned calls from her cousin Kal-El/Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet). She’s breezily cynical, while he embraces a naive optimism and keeps encouraging her to return to Earth and try to make it her home. But for Kara, home is wherever Krypto is.