Now that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom has wrapped up the DC Extended Universe, the pieces are moving into place for the new DC Universe shared continuity to take over (although some DCEU characters, like John Cena’s Peacemaker, will stick around). One of the upcoming DC movies that’s been announced for the DCU’s Chapter One slate, titled Gods and Monsters, is Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Evidently the project is making progress, as three frontrunners for the superheroine have emerged, and they’re solid candidates.
According to Deadline, DC Studios is planning to screen-test House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock, Locke & Key’s Emilia Jones and The Winchesters’ Meg Donnelly to play Supergirl. That’s not to say that one of these young women will definitely walk away with the role, especially because the article notes that there’s a “chance that the studio could make a straight offer to a movie star.” For now though, the plan is to see how these actresses, as well as possibly others, do reading lines as the character first, and these screen tests in “approximately” the next month.
These three women have all risen to fame within the last few years, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention one of them already has a slight advantage over the other two. Donnelly has already voiced Supergirl in the animated movie Legions of Super-Heroes and reprised the role in Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One, the latest entry in the Tomorrowverse timeline. Having already proved her Supergirl vocal chops, maybe she’ll also get the opportunity to bring the hero to life in live action.
We’ll just have to wait and see whether Milly Alcock, Emilia Jones or Meg Donnelly are cast to lead Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, or if another actress ends up being selected for the role. Whoever it is, they’ll be the third actress to play Supergirl in a live-action movie, following Helen Slater in 1984’s Supergirl and Sasha Calle in 2023’s The Flash. Melissa Benoist also played the Kara Danvers version of the character in the Arrowverse from 2015 to 2021.
Deadline also shared in its writeup that James Gunn, who co-runs DC Studios with Peter Safran, will be part of the Supergirl casting process, particularly because the plan is for this character to appear in a different DC Universe project before Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. While Superman: Legacy seems like the likeliest bet given her familiar ties to Kal-El/Clark Kent and because James Gunn is writing and directing that feature, that’s not a guarantee. From other movies like The Authority and The Brave and the Bold, to TV shows like Lanterns and Booster Gold, there are various alternative ways to introduce audiences to the DCU’s Woman of Tomorrow ahead of her own movie.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is chiefly inspired by the same-named comic book miniseries written by Tom King and illustrated by Bilquis Evely. In November 2023, Ana Nogueira was announced to be writing the screenplay, and James Gunn has said the story will focus on the differences between Supergirl and Superman’s upbringing, with the filmmaker describing the former as “much more hardcore, she’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re use to seeing.”
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for that information and to learn which actress will don the red cape. If you’d like revisit the character’s previous big and small screen appearances, most of those can be viewed with a Max subscription, although you’ll need a Netflix subscription in order to stream the Supergirl TV series.
