The DCU is set to flip one of James Gunn's core Superman themes with its next major release. Arriving on June 26, 2026, Supergirl will serve as the second DCU film under DC Studios, following 2025's Superman and shifting focus to Kara Zor-El, played by Milly Alcock. First teased through her brief appearance in Superman, Kara is clearly much different from Kal-El (David Corenswet), showing key ideological differences between the two Kryptonians.
Milly Alcock has confirmed that Supergirl will carry a very different emotional takeaway than Superman.
Speaking in an interview with Beyond Noise Magazine, Alcock expressed that after watching Supergirl, "young girls" should know "it's ok to be a bit bad, and messy:"
"I think young girls should walk away from the film knowing that it's ok to be a bit bad, and messy."
This seems like a deliberate pivot away from the inherent goodness that defined Superman under Gunn's direction less than a year ago. In fact, one of the points of Superman was to prove that just because of his parents' poor intentions, it's the actions that you take that define you, and for Superman, it's not ok to be bad.
Supergirl is poised to embrace imperfection, framing Kara Zor-El as a more flawed hero whose journey challenges that idealistic worldview. This has been echoed in the Supergirl marketing, with Kara saying "[Superman] sees the good in everyone, I see the truth."
It’s fair to say that James Gunn went out of his way in Superman to show that this version of Clark Kent/Kal-El is a good person at heart. His Kryptonian parents literally want him to rule over Earth, echoing ideas tied to characters like General Zod, and that completely goes against everything Clark has stood for his entire life.
He wants to use his powers for good, to save people and really any living thing, even squirrels, and is even bothered when others cross that line, like when the Justice Gang kills the giant Kaiju.
Superman's goodness is challenged throughout the film, but ultimately doubled down on by the end, and it has nothing to do with his powers. As he puts it, his greatest strength is that he's as human as anyone.
On the flip side, Kara is not as human as anyone, at least not yet. Supergirl is expected to lean into that, especially with Kara having far less experience on Earth at this point.
The movie is set up as more of a space adventure, and Kara is confirmed to be more of an antihero than someone who is purely good the entire way through.
In Superman, Gunn already used characters like Hawkgirl, who kills President Vasil Ghurkos, to show that not everyone in this DCU operates with the same moral code as Clark. That idea seems to carry directly into Supergirl, especially with a character who has a much darker past.
While Supergirl will have its own themes, reversing some of what was established in Superman, that really just speaks to Gunn's larger DCU. Not every character is going to be Superman, and they shouldn't be.
Kara's story, shaped by watching her planet and family die and not having the same Kansas upbringing Clark had, naturally leads to someone more flawed and more unpredictable. And honestly, that's what makes it work, some of the best characters aren't perfect, not everyone can be Superman, the DCU's moral compass.
The Future of Supergirl in the DCU
How Supergirl ends could quietly define not just Kara's future, but her place in the larger DCU. Based on what's been teased by director Craig Gillespie and Gunn, the film's "surprising and empowering" conclusion sounds like a turning point for Kara as a character.
This version of Supergirl seems poised to fully embrace who she is, even if that means being "a bit bad, and messy," as Alcock put it.
That kind of ending naturally sets her up as a very different kind of pillar compared to Superman. Where Clark is already established as a symbol of hope on Earth, Kara's future feels more open-ended, with the potential to continue operating on a cosmic level or eventually return to Earth by choice, not obligation.
Whether or not she joins her cousin, Hawkgirl, and John Stewart's Green Lantern (Aaron Pierre) in Man of Tomorrow will be a major tell for what the future holds.
Either way, her arc positions her as someone who doesn't need to follow Superman's blueprint to matter, which fits Gunn's larger goal of building a diverse DCU.
LATEST NEWS
