Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated DC films of the summer. Directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, it's the second film in James Gunn's rebooted DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters — and from everything we've seen so far, it's taking a very different tone from the genre.
Release Date & Where to Watch
Theatrical release: June 26, 2026 (United States)
This is a full theatrical release from Warner Bros. Pictures — not a streaming premiere. After its theatrical run, it will eventually land on Max (HBO's streaming platform), which holds streaming rights for Warner Bros. films. Expect a theatrical window of roughly 45 days before streaming availability.
No IMAX or premium format details have been confirmed yet, though given the scope of the film, a wide-format release is possible.
Cast
- Milly Alcock — Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
- Matthias Schoenaerts — Krem of the Yellow Hills (main villain)
- Eve Ridley — Ruthye Marye Knoll (Kara's companion)
- Jason Momoa — Lobo (DC's space-faring anti-hero)
- David Krumholtz — Kara's father
- Emily Beecham — Kara's mother
Milly Alcock is the breakout casting of the DCU's early phase. Best known for playing young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, Alcock was cast as Supergirl in January 2024. Fans got their first glimpse of her in the role in James Gunn's Superman (2025), where Kara appears in the final act — setting up this film directly.
Jason Momoa as Lobo is the wildcard. Momoa previously played Aquaman in the old DCEU, but here he's been completely recast as Lobo — an ultra-violent, bounty-hunting antihero from DC comics known for his crude humor and over-the-top brutality. It's a drastically different character, and Momoa's energy looks like a perfect fit based on the trailer.
Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl, Rust and Bone) plays Krem of the Yellow Hills, the film's primary antagonist — a murderer whose history with Ruthye sets the entire plot in motion.
Plot
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is a direct adaptation of Tom King and Bilquis Evely's acclaimed 2021–22 comic miniseries. The story takes Kara far from Earth and into the cosmos.
The setup: A young girl named Ruthye Marye Knoll seeks revenge against a man named Krem of the Yellow Hills, who killed her father. She finds Supergirl — drunk on a distant alien world, on the anniversary of Krypton's destruction — and hires her as a protector and guide on a mission of vengeance.
The original comic is notable for being told from Ruthye's perspective, not Kara's — making Supergirl almost a legend the young girl sees from the outside. Whether the film keeps that narrative framing remains to be seen.
How it connects to Superman: In Gunn's Superman, Kara is established as Kal-El's older cousin who arrived on Earth before him but aged more slowly due to time in the Phantom Zone. She's more isolated than Clark — no adoptive family, no Kansas hometown, no social anchor. That backstory feeds directly into this film's tone.
Trailer Breakdown
The official trailer (released March 31, 2026) opens on a blood-orange alien landscape — sparse, hostile, visually unlike anything in the previous DCEU. Kara is shown with a weathered look and a sword, fighting across what appears to be multiple alien worlds.
Key moments from the trailer:
- Kara and Ruthye forming an uneasy alliance
- Lobo arriving in spectacular fashion on his motorcycle in space
- A confrontation with Krem that suggests a brutal, morally complex villain
- A brief shot that appears to reference the destruction of Krypton in Kara's memory
The visual language is deliberately raw — desaturated, dusty, with none of the primary-color brightness of the Superman film. Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella) is known for character-driven stories with dark undertones, and the tone of this trailer reflects that entirely.
- Bright, optimistic tone
- Earth-based story
- Clark Kent's identity grounded in human relationships
- Family-friendly, classic hero arc
- Dark, cosmic scope
- Set largely in deep space
- Kara as an outsider with no earthly anchor
- More violent, morally ambiguous
Director & Production
Director: Craig Gillespie
Gillespie is an interesting choice for a superhero film — he's not known for action at scale, but for intimate character work. I, Tonya showed he can handle a morally complicated protagonist. Cruella showed he can balance dark humor with spectacle. Both skills are needed here.
Filming ran from January to May 2025 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in England, with additional shoots in London and Scotland. The Scottish locations likely stand in for some of the bleaker alien landscapes in the story.
The script is by Ana Nogueira, who has worked in TV drama. James Gunn and Peter Safran are producing as part of DC Studios.
Source Material
The film adapts Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King (writer) and Bilquis Evely (artist), an 8-issue miniseries published by DC Comics in 2021–22. It was one of the most acclaimed DC comics of recent years — praised for its dark, literary tone and Evely's lush alien art.
Fans of the comic have strong opinions about the adaptation. The source material doesn't shy away from violence, grief, and moral complexity in ways unusual for mainstream superhero comics. The film appears to honor that spirit.
Why This Film Matters for the DCU
James Gunn's reboot is built on a slate of interconnected films that share a coherent world from day one — unlike the haphazard early DCEU. Supergirl is the second chapter after Superman, and early signals suggest it will be a significant expansion of the tone range.
If Superman established that this DCU can do earnest, hopeful heroism, Supergirl is testing whether it can do morally complex, dark-edged genre storytelling in the same universe — without losing the character.
Given Alcock's performance in House of the Dragon (where she played a character who ages from idealist to hardened survivor), this casting could be one of Gunn's best decisions. The film arrives June 26, 2026 — and all signs point to it being one of the summer's defining movies.
