James Gunn's Superman rewrote one of Kal-El's (David Corenswet) intricate pieces of lore, and Supergirl is now showing that change is here to stay. When Superman debuted in July 2025, audiences learned that Clark Kent's biological Kryptonian parents had a far more complicated motivation for sending their son to Earth. While Superman's origins remained largely recognizable, Gunn's version revealed a controversial twist about Krypton's intentions for its last son, sparking intense debate and denial among fans.
One of the biggest surprises in Gunn's Superman was its reinterpretation of Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), two characters traditionally portrayed as noble Kryptonian figures.
After the full Kryptonian message is decoded, Clark discovers that his birth parents did not send him to Earth simply to survive, or to give the people of Earth something to strive towards, but with the expectation that he would eventually rule over humanity. Something typically saved for Krypton's General Zod.
This, of course, went away from decades of DC lore, leading many fans to speculate that the message was incomplete, manipulated, or otherwise unreliable.
However, Gunn later confirmed that the message was authentic and fully canon within the DCU, as it speaks to the film's central theme that Superman's heroism comes from his values, not biological heritage.
Supergirl, now playing in theaters, has reaffirmed that controversial twist with a flashback to the fall of Krypton.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Supergirl
The Krypton flashbacks in Supergirl are among the film's most emotionally resonant sequences. They show the first look into Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) before she became a hero, and the DCU puts a unique spin on where that story begins.
In this version, Kara was not born on Krypton. She was conceived and born on Argo City after the planet had already been largely destroyed. Argo City was her entire world, the only home she had before it too was threatened.
Despite the major twist made in Superman, one classic touchstone survives the retcon intact. During the earlier destruction flashback, well before Kara is born, there is a moment where a small, orb-like spacecraft carrying baby Kal-El blasts off into space on its way to Earth (where audiences will later watch his life 30 years later).
Zor-El (David Krumholtz) watches the ship depart and describes the infant as a "Conqueror of Worlds," a direct callback and confirmation of Superman's big twist.
But Supergirl does something pointed with that moment. It does not mean that every Kryptionian would have had the same message for their last son.
When Zor-El and Alura In-Ze (Emily Beecham) decide to send their own daughter to Earth, their reasoning is completely different. They charge Kara to "protect those who can't protect themselves" and to "do good."
Not every one of them wanted to rule, and not every Kryptonian shared the same conquest-minded ambition, not even Jor-El's brother.
Since Superman dropped its Jor-El retcon, a portion of the fandom has wondered whether Kryptonian culture was uniformly corrupt, more in line with Zod's basic beliefs from DC Comics, or whether Jor-El was simply an outlier. Supergirl provides a nuanced answer. Zor-El and Alura are Kryptonians who are about to die from Kryptonite poisoning. They care much more about their daughter's life than they do the Kryptonian bloodline.
Before the second DCU film's release, it was even theorized that Zor-El would step into a more traditional Jor-El role, acting as the scientist hoping to save his world, but also to send his child off as a light in the universe, not its ruler.
It's kind of ironic, considering Clark is much more of the do-good character, whereas Kara isn't the same type of hero and will kill her enemies.
The Future of Kryptonians in the DCU
Krumholtz's Zor-El turns in one of the film's standout performances, and the flashback sequences to Krypton and Argo City as a whole are among the best of the new film.
In fact, Supergirl never quite closes the book on Argo City. The film strongly implies that Kryptonite radiation spelled the end for everyone left behind after Kara's departure, but it never definitively confirms it on screen (like seeing the doomed city explode, for example).
Any comic book fan knows that without the preverbial dead body in a grave, there's always a possibility that a person, place, or thing that's presumed deceased could come back. In terms of the immediate future of the Alcock's Supergirl, she will be back in Man of Tomorrow, confirmed to be playing a significant role alongside Corenswet, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and the rest of its star-studded cast.
The end of Supergirl directly sets up her part in that movie, with Kara now living in Metropolis, confirming to Clark that she will be on Earth to help him whenever he needs. Little do they know at the time of this conversation, but Brainaic will be their greatest battle yet on July 9, 2027.
