Supergirl is about to fly into theaters as one of the several new superhero movies arriving this year. However, according to its director, Craig Gillespie, the new DCU film will stand out and might even help tackle superhero fatigue.
Based on Tom King's 'Woman of Tomorrow' comics, this new version of the Supergirl story is pretty different from how Kara Zor-El has been presented on screen before. Milly Alcock's heroine is a bit of a wild child who loves partying and shirks away from responsibility, before her dog Krypto is put in danger and she must change her ways.
"I think there's talk of superhero fatigue and some stuff that's been formulaic in the past, and when I read this script, there was nothing that was formulaic in it," Gillespie tells GamesRadar+ about the new approach to the character.
"It was this incredibly complex character that Ana [Nogueira] had written based off of Tom King's novel, 'Woman of Tomorrow.' She's complex, she's flawed, she's an anti-hero that's rebellious, and she's been through trauma – and that's bizarrely such human traits that you can recognize within yourself.
"Instead of having this hero on a pedestal with perfect hair and makeup and everything in place, she's kind of a hot mess in the best way. To be able to tell that story and twist the genre in that way to make her more human, that's what was exciting to me."
Another stand-out part of Gillespie's vision for Supergirl is how much attention to detail is in each frame. The movie heads to several different alien planets and each one has been completely fleshed out with practical creatures, sets, and an incredible amount of care.
"I wanted these places to feel tactile, to feel dirty, dusty," he tells us of this approach. "I wanted to feel the poverty, the destruction, which meant that the amount of dirt and layers on the clothing and the sets and the graffiti, I mean, it was so much texture in there that I was excited about.
"Typically you don't really see those in sci-fi films, everything looks like it was brand new and just polished, and they just came from the laundromat every time. So to be able to really lean into that, that decay, was amazingly exciting but it was so much work."
Elsewhere, Gillespie also opened up to us about James Gunn's notes on a particular character and what Superman star David Corenswet brought when he turned up on set.
Supergirl is out in UK cinemas on June 25 and arrives in US theaters on June 26. For more, check out our breakdown of how to watch the DC movies in order and all the upcoming DC movies and shows you need to know about.
