The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie is on its way to soaring among the stars after numerous new details were revealed about its development.
One of the rebooted DC Cinematic Universe's (DCU) flagship films, the forthcoming flick was among the many crowd-pleasing reveals when new DC Studios co-head James Gunn confirmed the DCU Chapter One lineup in January. Since then, there's been little to get excited about due to the writers and actors strikes.
With the long-running industrial action coming to an end, though, there's been significant movement on the Supergirl movie front. Indeed, per The Hollywood Reporter, Ana Nogueira has been brought on board to pen Woman of Tomorrow's script. Gunn confirmed Nogueira's involvement in an Instagram post after the news broke yesterday (November 14), adding that Nogueira's screenplay was "above and beyond anything I hoped it would be".
Nogueira's hiring isn't the only big Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow news to drop recently. Responding to a fan (on the above Instagram post) about when Gunn and co-head Peter Safran would start looking for directors to helm the project, Gunn simply replied "Now". Hopefully, then, it won't be long before a filmmaker boards the project and the cogs really start turning on it.
Additionally, it seems that Supergirl – real name Kara Zor-El – won't be alone on her journey across the cosmos in Woman of Tomorrow. According to Variety, Krypto the Superdog will join Superman's cousin in her first live-action film since the 1984 Helen Slater-starring Supergirl movie, which was panned by fans and critics alike.
Considering that Krypto joins Kara on her galactic travels in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow's comic book namesake, longtime DC fans won't be surprised by this development. Still, it'll be cool to see Supergirl and her canine companion team up in the big-screen adventure, which currently doesn't have a release date.
Lessons learned
This isn't the first time Nogueira has been attached to a DC superhero film. Indeed, The Vampire Diaries acting alumnus was originally tapped to write a Supergirl spin-off film set in the soon-to-be-dead DC Extended Universe (DCEU), with Sasha Calle reprising her role as Kara from The Flash, aka one of 2023's less well-received new movies. Pleasingly, it appears that Gunn and Safran saw enough of Nogueira's original screenplay to be convinced she was the perfect candidate for their revised Supergirl flick.
Equally satisfying is the news that Gunn, Safran, and Nogueira have drafted in comic book personnel Tom King and Bilquis Evely to advise on the project. The Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic miniseries was written by King and illustrated by Evely, and given that the movie will draw heavily from its literary namesake, it makes sense to bring the duo on board as creative consultants. Gunn confirmed this in response to another fan query on Instagram (thanks to Reddit for the catch), saying the pair were "the foundation of everything [Woman of Tomorrow-related]".
Nogueira's hiring, plus King and Evely's involvement, cannot be understated – and with good reason. The DCEU was a confusing and at times exasperating mix of wild and conflicting ideas, battles between filmmakers and Warner Bros executives for creative control, and a baffling lack of interconnectivity for a universe where characters routinely crossed paths. Just look at the fact that, by the time Aquaman 2 calls time on the DCEU, three different Batmen – Michael Keaton's in The Flash, Ben Affleck's as the DCEU's mainstay, and Robert Pattinson's in The Batman – will have appeared on the silver screen in the past year alone. Talk about confusing your audience.
Thankfully, Gunn and Safran's new cinematic universe seems like it'll be learning from those mistakes. Sure, there are discrepancies in the DCU's fledgling make-up that need to be properly addressed. One point of contention is the return of specific actors, such as John Cena and Viola Davis, who are set to play the same character in the DCU as they did in the DCEU. Further muddying the waters are the DCU's 'Elseworld' projects – movies and TV shows that sit independent if the DCU Chapter One brethren, but exist in the DC's version of the multiverse. Films in The Batman Part 2 and Joker: Folie à Deux, plus Max TV original The Penguin will fall under this banner.
Those slight niggles aside, Gunn and Safran have a largely cohesive plan that places a greater emphasis on interconnectivity, bringing comic creators on board as consultants, and giving talented writers and directors a chance to stamp their artistic authority on the DCU. All of that serves as proof that Gunn hasn't just learned a ton about crafting an interconnected universe from his time working with Marvel, but that DC Studios' new leaders have learned from the errors their predecessors made – and that, to me, is the most exciting thing of all.
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