DC Studios subverts expectations by not landing a female director for Supergirl, but the pick is cool regardless
Yeah, sure, the director behind I, Tonya works for us.
Progress on DC Studios' Supergirl movie, which appears to be up next in the rebooted universe after James Gunn's Superman, is being made fast, and now we've learned that I, Tonya and Cruella director Craig Gillespie will be helming the long-awaited adaptation.
Deadline dropped this news on April 3, saying that the director was deep in talks with the studio to direct the Ana Nogueira-written big-screen debut of the character, who's set to be played by House of the Dragon's Milly Alcock.
The movie is reportedly based on Tom King's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021) comic book series, which showed Kara Zor-El taking "revenge on the bad guys who destroyed her world." According to Gunn, who's also leading the entirety of Warner and DC's movie and TV efforts moving forward, this Supergirl will be "much more hardcore; she’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re used to seeing."
Looking at the lineup of movies in DC Studios' first chapter (a Marvel Cinematic Universe-like phase of sorts), which includes Superman, Supergirl, The Authority, Swamp-Thing, Teen Titans, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold so far, it only seemed logical that Supergirl would go to a female filmmaker to give it a genuine perspective to go along the (seemingly notable) script that Nogueira turned in recently. But maybe that was a mistake on our side based on past DC picks. Anyhow, Gillespie is far from a bad choice to captain this ship, as he's got quite a bit of style, delivering an amazing female-centric mockumentary biopic in I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie, and helping elevate Cruella's rather middling script.
It definitely sounds like both the top Warner brass and Gunn are happy with the current iteration of Nogueira's script, as Deadline is also reporting the current "plan is for DC to shoot the movie for Q4 after they’ve completed James Gunn’s Superman." The David Corenswet-led reboot will be released theatrically, unless plans change, on July 11, 2025.
If you haven't been paying attention, this new DC Universe won't be connected in any way to Matt Reeves' The Batman and its sequels and spinoffs, nor Todd Phillips' Joker movies, which have been defined as 'elseworlds' by Gunn.