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TRUTH, JUSTICE AND THE RIGHT TO PARTY.
Words to live by when you’re a superhero for our messy, chaotic age. “She’s unapologetic,” says Craig Gillespie, director of Supergirl, the next chapter of James Gunn’s rebooted DCU. “Her honesty and wanting to hold people to her own moral code is not necessarily in line with Superman. She has her own belief system that makes her truly independent. “These are all things we can really appreciate. In the midst of our very complicated times, to have somebody that’s holding people accountable and doing it from a very human place… She’s not asking to be in the spotlight. It’s been thrust upon her, this responsibility. She’s tried to avoid it in a way that’s very relatable. Eventually she realizes that she cannot avoid it, and she has to deal with it.”
Meet the new Maid of Might, a cynical, pleasure-seeking wild child hiding a world of trauma beneath her cape. It’s a fresh take that shakes up the traditional image of the DC icon. Originally a poster girl for wholesome Americana – even the fiery demise of her homeworld didn’t dent that indestructible smile – Kara Zor-El debuted on the comics page in 1959, introduced as the Man of Steel’s cousin, last survivor of Argo City.
She arrived on the big screen in 1984, played as a sky-soaring innocent by Helen Slater. 2023’s The Flash jettisoned the optimism to bring us Sasha Calle as a sullen, battle- hardened Kryptonian warrior. But while Calle had signed a multi-picture contract, Gunn and co-CEO Peter Safran’s creative overhaul of the DCU saw Milly Alcock step into the red boots, making a charismatic cameo in the closing moments of last summer’s Superman.
Best known as the heir to the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra Targaryen, Alcock was a given when Gillespie signed to direct. “That was a huge part of me wanting to do the movie, having that security of knowing who Supergirl is, and loving Milly as an actor. I’d seen her in House Of The Dragon and a lot of her work in Australia.
“Tonally, this dance that I love to do between the humour and the drama, I feel like it’s in an actor’s DNA. It’s like asking someone to play a tune on a piano, they either have the rhythm or they don’t, and I knew she had it. We had that kinship of being Australian together.
“This story goes to some very heavy emotional places and she can deliver that, no problem whatsoever. Also, having an actor that people aren’t familiar with was an amazing opportunity on a film of this scale. It rarely happens.”
Alcock rocks a Blondie tee in the movie, a wardrobe choice that Gillespie made to underline “this sort of rock ’n’ roll, punk attitude that she has. To be able to pull that off is not an easy feat as an actor. To have that carelessness and that coolness without trying. She manages to do it so well. It’s such a fine line, because it can get grating to an audience, where you can feel the affectations, but you truly feel like she does not care, in the best possible way.”
Some of that punk sensibility made its way into the filmmaking, too. “Just the grit of the whole thing,” Gillespie tells SFX. “The look of it, the camerawork, the lighting. It’s not what you would think of as a conventional superhero film. We sort of rebelled against that!”
Written by Ana Nogueira, currently at work on a reboot of Wonder Woman, the movie takes inspiration from Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, the acclaimed 2021 comic book by Tom King and Bilquis Evely. Itself inspired by 1969’s John Wayne Western True Grit, the eight-issue miniseries teams Kara with Ruthye Marye Knoll, an alien girl who seeks justice after her father is slain by space pirate Krem of the Yellow Hills (Eve Ridley and Matthias Schoenaerts bring these characters to the screen).
She’s coming from a very different headspace. It gives us license to go to a darker place, in a way.
“I got the script blind,” shares Gillespie. “I hadn’t read Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow and I deliberately didn’t pick it up before I saw the script. Two scenes in, I’m in. I’m absolutely in. There was this incredibly dark scene and then this incredibly irreverent, morally ambiguous character scene with [Kara].
“To have a superhero character – and particularly a female character – that’s so flawed and complicated, that’s what I was truly excited about. Then the gravy of it was it’s a whole galaxy that we have to create. It all happens off-planet. It’s its own story, completely isolated in a way. I’ve always wanted to do some sci-fi thing, so to have that opportunity was incredibly exciting, and then at times incredibly exhausting!”
Conceived as a cosmic “road movie”, Supergirl embraces the interstellar sprawl of DC mythology, taking in no less than nine distinct planets, Gillespie estimates – including a war-ravaged world overrun by bandits.
“I came in with around 120 pages of images of what I thought this movie should be. I started out with thousands of images and by the time I’d narrowed it down there was a narrative to it, and something that was very exciting and tactile and messy.
“I showed all of that to James, and then I asked him, ‘How much do you want me to be in your world, coming off of Superman?’ He said, ‘Not at all. I’m approaching all of these films like they’re their own graphic novels, and every graphic novel has its own illustrator and its own writer that make it distinctive, so this is your version.’ That answer, for a filmmaker, is amazing!
I’ve got hundreds of versions of Lobo on my laptop.
“I was trying to make it feel unique. I kept coming back to the story: what would be happening on this planet? What kind of disrepair would it be in? How many different alien species? Who’s in charge? What’s the hierarchy? It was a constant conversation, and that was probably the most surprising amount of bandwidth that I wasn’t expecting. Everything has to be invented and discussed. Even a menu. What language is it in? What’s the typeface?”
Supergirl’s planet-hopping leads to an encounter with another DC legend. Brawling, cigar-chewing Czarnian bounty hunter Lobo makes his big-screen debut, played by Jason Momoa – Aquaman in the pre-Gunn DCU. It’s a piece of casting so perfect you half suspect Momoa snuck back in time to inspire the character in the first place.
“He was so ready!” laughs Gillespie. “Years of waiting and wanting to get that character. He was very involved with the R&D on that, in the best way.
“For me, it was an education, going back and looking at all the Lobo comics through the decades. What are we going to narrow in on, wardrobe-wise and look-wise? I’ve got hundreds of versions of Lobo on my laptop, but we all narrowed in on a particular version: the armour, the knee-pads, the boots, all of it. Jason was involved in all of that.
“Then, when we got to the set, it was like, ‘How intimidating or foreboding is he? How much fun is he having?’ Jason gives the gamut. He was fearless in that way. It was so much fun to have that energy that came in, because it’s been a very serious mission for Kara and Ruthye. [Milly and Eve] had been shooting for two months at that point. Then to have this energy that kind of verbally attacks her, and they just go at it, and have this banter… It’s just so fun to watch.”
She’s lost it all, and they’ve lived through it together, all of that pain and suffering. So he embodies so much more than just being Krypto to her.
Did Gillespie feel any pressure bringing such a fan favourite to the screen? “Yeah, you kind of want to put the blinders on and not let that get into your head too much! He’s so beloved, Jason, and he’s so comfortable in this role that you can just feel it. From the early screenings we’ve done with audiences, he’s just so loved.”
At Supergirl’s side is superhound Krypto. A scampish scene-stealer in Superman, he proves a crucial part of the plot here as his mistress races to find the antidote to the poison that threatens his life.
“It’s Supergirl’s dog,” says Gillespie, promising a different dynamic to the one we saw in Superman. “They have such a strong bond. It’s such an intimate relationship that they have because Krypto came from Krypton. It’s the only tangible thing she has left of that life. She’s lost it all, and they’ve lived through it together, all of that pain and suffering. So he embodies so much more than just being Krypto to her. He’s a little physical touchstone. She’s maybe not as concerned as Superman, with him being well-trained! She’s a much freer spirit in that sense.”
Gillespie seems to specialize in maverick souls. From Lars And The Real Girl to I, Tonya and Cruella, he has repeatedly shown us people who exist beyond society’s expectations. Is Supergirl part of that throughline of flawed, fascinating characters?
“I feel like I keep getting attracted to outsiders,” he nods, “people that have been marginalized. Parts of them are dealing with trauma, and they’re working through that. I don’t know why I keep being attracted to that story!
“What Supergirl’s been through is quite intense. Superman grew up in a very loving, nurturing environment and was almost groomed for the role and the responsibility. She grew up in a situation where her planet is dying, she’s losing all of her loved ones and this responsibility has been thrust upon her.
She’s coming from a very different headspace. It gives us license to go to a darker place, in a way. I enjoyed being able to have that opportunity.”
Supergirl is in theaters from 25 June.
SFX magazine is available from 17 June, featuring an exclusive new interview with Milly Alcock.
Words: Nick Setchfield
