Supergirl director says he didn't read the DC masterpiece that inspired it
Overview & Key Takeaways
Craig Gillespie did eventually read Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and even took a few visuals from it, but that was never the focus of his DCU movie
When DC Studios first announced its Supergirl movie, the official title was Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, a clear signal that the film from director Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya; Cruella) would adapt the critically acclaimed 2022 comic from writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely. So even when that title changed to just Supergirl, fans assumed the film would still draw heavily from King's galaxy-spanning revenge-fueled saga and, even more importantly, from Evely's surreal, cosmic artwork.
As it turns out, that's not exactly what happened. Instead, Gillespie tells Polygon he relied heavily on a script written by Ana Nogueira, a playwright and actor making her feature screenwriting debut with Supergirl and currently said to be working on upcoming Teen Titans and Wonder Woman movies for DCU.
Image: Tom King, Bilquis Evely/DC Comics
"I very deliberately started with the script that Ana wrote," Gillespie says, "and I put together a lot of visuals around that coming from the script, trying to make something that I would be excited about and that had this grit and flavor of the Supergirl character, Kara."
If you're a fan of the original comic, don't throw your phone just yet: Gillespie confirms he did eventually look at the original comic for inspiration, and confirms that he borrowed some visuals from Evely's work.
"After that, I went back and visited Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow and took some images from that," he says, "but I didn't want to start there because I didn't want to just do the comic book."
Supergirl releases in theaters on June 26.
