What ‘Supergirl’ Has to Do with John Wayne and the Coen Brothers
How much do you know about the Woman of Tomorrow? Although Supergirl is on her third cinematic appearance—after 1984’s film led by Helen Slater and the character’s supporting role in 2023’s The Flash—her big-screen legacy is light compared to that of her cousin. Most millennials are likely familiar with Kara Zor-El through the Superman and Justice League cartoons, her stints on Smallville, or her own CW television series. But the character’s history is still underexamined enough that it’s open to bolder reinterpretations.
Enter: Supergirl, led by House of the Dragon breakout Milly Alcock. The second cinematic entry in James Gunn’s DCU just dropped its first teaser trailer, and it looks like a departure from this past summer’s globe-spanning but largely Earth-bound Superman. That’s by design. Directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella) and written by Ana Nogueira—who’s also attached to the DCEU Teen Titans and Wonder Woman films—the movie is a more-or-less direct adaptation of writer Tom King and artist Bilquis Evely’s 2021 comic-book miniseries Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. King has said that series was directly inspired by Charles Portis’ novel True Grit, in which an orphaned farm girl, Mattie Ross, hires grizzled, hard-drinking U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn (played by John Wayne in the original 1969 True Grit movie and Jeff Bridges in the 2010 Coen Brothers version) to help her track down her father’s killer.
Supergirl’s Mattie Ross is a character named Ruthye, played by newcomer Eve Ridley; the footage in the trailer briefly hints at their Rooster/Mattie dynamic while playing up other elements derived from King and Evely’s story, chiefly Kara’s hard-drinking lifestyle and the lawlessness of the galactic frontier. New for this adaptation is the emphasis on music, from the Blondie record spinning on Kara’s turntable (which looks suspiciously like an intergalactic version of a Crosley—Kara, girl, you deserve better than those built-in speakers!) and the Walkman headphones she’s wearing in the teaser poster. That last detail in particular feels straight out of Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies, in which Star-Lord’s Walkman was pivotal—although the idea could very well also have come from Gillespie, who infused his Cruella de Vil prequel with a punk sensibility and a soundtrack heavy on retro hits (including one montage set to Blondie’s “One Way or Another.”)
Also new for the film is the inclusion of bounty hunter Lobo, played by Jason Momoa in an example of perfect fan-casting come to life; Momoa, who was Aquaman in the Justice League films but won’t be returning to that role, actively lobbied to play the character in Gunn’s DCU. Created by writer Roger Silfer and artist Keith Giffen in the 1980s series Omega Men, Lobo became a fan favorite in the ‘90s, first as an exaggerated parody of “gritty” characters like Wolverine and then as an unironic fan-favorite antihero. Interestingly, the decision to include him in the film restores an original portion of King’s pitch for Woman of Tomorrow, where the character would have helped Kara on a Mattie Ross-like quest. Based upon the fleeting (and menacing) glimpse we see of the character, it’s likely Lobo will play more of an antagonist role in Supergirl (although if we’re following the True Grit arc here, he’s probably the Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, played by Glen Campbell in the John Wayne version and by Matt Damon in the Coens’ update.)
Swapping an Earth-bound narrative for a cosmic one worked quite well for the MCU in its early days, but will lightning strike twice for the DCU? If nothing else, there’s an increased level of excitement to see what Alcock does with the role after she stole the show in House of the Dragon’s first season. We’ll find out when Supergirl releases on June 26, 2026.
