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James Gunn is done playing by the old DC rulebook.

The Superman director and co-CEO of DC Studios has confirmed that Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow will officially be the second feature film in the highly anticipated DC Universe (DCU) reboot. Not because it fits the timeline, not because of box office forecasts, but because of one reason only: the script is “incredible.”

“I didn’t necessarily know that Supergirl would be the second movie we were going to make,” Gunn revealed during an interview with Brazilian outlet Omelete. “But Ana [Nogueira] wrote an incredible script, and then we hired an incredible director. We’re going to do this movie after Superman because it was the best option.”

Let that sink in. This wasn’t a planned rollout. It wasn’t part of some carefully orchestrated multiverse mosaic. Gunn is putting the story first, and everything else second.

The Era of “Quality Is King” at DC Studios

Since taking the reins of DC Studios alongside producer Peter Safran, James Gunn has been steadily dismantling the chaotic infrastructure left behind by previous regimes. While his Superman reboot (Superman, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan) is slated for July 2025, the surprise follow-up, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, is now taking the spotlight as Chapter One’s second major installment, dropping June 26, 2026.

And Gunn has one thing on his mind: excellence.

“Other movies have been written,” Gunn continued, “but they haven’t been as good as this one. So we’re going to keep going with that. Everything has to be good. Quality comes first in every project we do. And that’s more important than telling a grandiose mega-narrative.”

This isn’t lip service. According to Rolling Stone, Gunn recently scrapped a greenlit DC project entirely. A film that had already entered pre-production was pulled because the screenplay wasn’t up to par.

“We just killed a project,” he told the magazine. “Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good.”

This is a full-stop pivot from how Warner Bros. and DC operated in the past decade, when unfinished scripts, rushed timelines, and clunky crossovers often derailed the entire franchise.

Supergirl: A Gritty Galactic Odyssey

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is based on the critically acclaimed 2022 miniseries by Tom King. But Gunn and screenwriter Ana Nogueira, the actress-writer who’s quickly becoming DC’s not-so-secret weapon, are going beyond a straight adaptation.

Australian actress Milly Alcock, best known for her breakout role as young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon, will star as Kara Zor-El, the hardened cousin of Superman. She was raised on a dying fragment of Krypton and is far less enamored with humanity than her more famous relative.

The film follows Kara as she treks across the stars with a young girl seeking vengeance for her father’s murder. A twisted space western with moral weight, existential dread, and intense character work, the comic series shocked fans with its melancholic tone and emotional complexity. The film appears to be following suit.

Craig Gillespie, known for I, Tonya and Cruella, is directing and brings another layer of credibility and creative ambition to the project.

Jason Momoa has been confirmed to play the ultra-violent, cigar-chomping bounty hunter Lobo, a fan-favorite antihero whose inclusion is drawn from Tom King’s unused drafts.

This pairing of Kara and Lobo is totally unhinged and totally brilliant.

What This Means for the DCU’s Future

James Gunn has made it clear. Supergirl isn’t being fast-tracked because of a larger narrative agenda. It’s being prioritized because it’s the best script in the arsenal. That’s it. And in a franchise notorious for sacrificing storytelling in favor of tentpole spectacle, that’s a revolutionary mindset.

Instead of racing toward a rushed Justice League-style crossover or dumping dozens of disconnected projects into theaters, Gunn is building slowly. He is curating each film like a novel, not a chapter in an endless TV season.

That’s why other films that fans expected to hit early, such as The Authority, Swamp Thing, or Batman: The Brave and the Bold, are now on hold. If the scripts aren’t ready, they’re not getting made.

This also means the DCU’s release order will remain unpredictable, guided not by a fixed plan, but by whatever project hits that rare mark of excellence Gunn demands.

With Gunn’s Superman already boasting an all-star cast and cinematic pedigree, and Supergirl shaping up to be a space-bound feminist punch to the face, DC may finally be catching up to Marvel. Not by copying it, but by outclassing it.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is currently on track to release on June 26, 2026.

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