James Gunn Calls Supergirl A “Total Mess” Compared To Her Earthbound Cousin Superman Due To Different Upbringings

With James Gunn‘s “Superman” now in the wild and amassing a solid $220 million at the global box office, Australian actress Milly Alcock, best known for HBO‘s “House of the Dragon,” is leading the next big DCU theatrical release, “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.”

Gunn recently spoke with ScreenRant, where he mused that Alcock’s Supergirl won’t be just a carbon copy of her cousin and is a “total mess” due to the two heroic alien cousins having wildly different upbringings, hinting toward her tragic origin story.

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“She’s a mess. She’s a total mess. I mean, I think as we learn, she’s had a completely different background from Superman. A much more difficult background. He’s had this wonderful upbringing by these two parents that loved him and were very healthy. And her background was much different than that. And she’s ended up different than her cousin,” Gunn said of the DCU’s next iteration of Supergirl.

Based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely‘s comic of the same name, the new movie is helmed by director Craig Gillespie (“Cruella,” “I, Tonya”) with additional cast members that features Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem of the Yellow Hills, Eve Ridley as Ruthye Marye Knoll, and Jason Momoa is set to finally play the anti-hero alien bounty hunter Lobo (think of a biker with personality traits of both Wolverine or Deadpool) after playing the Snyderverse’s Aquaman. Emily Beecham (“28 Weeks Later”) and David Krumholtz (“Oppenheimer”) will play the heroine’s parents. You’ll also see the return of Kara Zor-El’s Kryptonian doggy, Krypto, who caused a bunch of headaches and was introduced in “Superman.”

With both Superman and Supergirl established in the DCU with their solo films, a crossover or team-up could happen in the future after Gunn has previously teased that “Superman 2“ isn’t going to be what fans are exactly thing it’ll be.

There have been multiple incarnations of Supergirl previously, with the live-action role previously played by Helen Slater in the original film from 1984, Laura Vandervoort in “Smallville,” Sasha Calle in “The Flash,” and Melissa Benoist in the solo CW series.

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So, with that in mind, Gunn and DC Studios trying a different approach with their new Supergirl isn’t the worst idea imaginable, alongside contrasting with David Corenswet‘s Kal-El. Thankfully, DC fans and moviegoers won’t have to wait too much longer to see “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” as it will arrive in theaters on June 26, 2026.