James Gunn’s Unique Take on Supergirl Compared to Guardians

According to DC Studios head James Gunn, Supergirl is taking a similar approach to Guardians of the Galaxy by not strictly adhering to its original comic book stories.

The new DC Universe film will draw inspiration from Tom King’s 2022 Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic book, but director James Gunn says it will feel similar to his Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The film will keep the main ideas from the comic while also exploring new storylines and directions.

In an interview on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast, the 59-year-old director described the film as a space fantasy, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. He explained it’s inspired by the Tom King book of the same name, but doesn’t strictly follow the source material, retaining many of its key themes and ideas.

He explained that while they aren’t directly adapting Woman of Tomorrow, they’re using pieces of it for inspiration. The overall feel, style, and basic outline of the project are influenced by the source material, but they’re telling a different story.

The director of the upcoming Superman film expressed his enthusiasm for audiences to finally see Supergirl, played by Milly Alcock.

He added: “It’s going to be awesome”.

The initial trailer for Supergirl shows a troubled Kara Zor-El (Alcock) floating in space, still affected by the destruction of Krypton and trying to cope with her pain on her 23rd birthday. An encounter with Ruthye (Eve Ridley) sparks memories of lost worlds and intense battles, along with a glimpse of Lobo (Jason Momoa), hinting at a darker, more action-packed story within the DC Universe.

The new film, scheduled for release in June 2026, features Matthias Schoenaerts as Krem of the Yellow Hills, alongside Emily Beecham as Alura and David Krumholtz as Zor-El.

The new season of Supergirl begins with a personal attack that forces Kara Zor-El (Supergirl) to team up with a surprising ally. Together, they embark on a massive, galaxy-spanning quest for both revenge and to do what’s right.

Supergirl director Craig Gillespie previously teased the film was “really an anti-hero story.”

After releasing the first trailer for Supergirl, director Gillespie explained that the story will focus on an anti-hero’s journey.

She’s dealing with a lot of personal issues and past trauma, which is a stark contrast to Superman’s current, more stable situation.

Gunn added Supergirl was not perfect “at all.”

The creator of Peacemaker explained that female superheroes are often portrayed as flawless, but their character isn’t like that at all. He pointed out that male superheroes have been given more leeway to be imperfect for quite some time.

The Worst Blockbusters of 2025

10. Captain America: Brave New World

Many recent Marvel movies have talented actors but weak stories, and Captain America: Brave New World is a prime example. While it finally gives Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson his own movie as Captain America, it’s let down by a dull villain and a plot that relies too much on references to the poorly-received The Incredible Hulk. The film strangely focuses on events from that 15-year-old movie – did audiences really need to know what happened with Betty Ross all these years later?

9. Jurassic World Rebirth

Can a Jurassic Park sequel ever truly be good? After so many attempts, it feels like we’d have one by now. Jurassic World Rebirth is a slight improvement over previous films in the series, but that’s like saying a sprained ankle is better than a broken foot – it’s better, but still far from great. The movie delivers more dinosaurs and more problems, introducing a new cast including a mercenary with PTSD (as she puts it) and a paleontologist who lost his job because “people just don’t care about dinosaurs anymore!” (his words!). If that’s true, the Jurassic World series – which has produced four mediocre films in the last eleven years – has only itself to blame.

8. Karate Kid: Legends

Okay, let’s be honest, this movie felt…familiar. Like, really familiar. It basically lifts the entire plot from the original Karate Kid – we’ve got the new kid in town, the single mom trying to make a better life, the cute girl, the jealous ex, the beating, and of course, the tournament. And the training? Forget originality, they’re using everyday objects as weapons just like before! What’s even wilder is that they mashed together the storylines of both previous Karate Kid movies, even though they don’t really fit together at all. It’s clear this film prioritized packing in as many recognizable faces as possible, and a genuinely new story? That seemed to be an afterthought. It’s a bit of a rehash, to say the least.

7. Snow White

Disney cleverly disguised the fact that Snow White was a musical, so I was completely surprised when the characters started singing during the movie with my daughter. Surprisingly, the music was actually one of the best parts of this live-action remake, and I even liked Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. However, the CGI dwarfs were incredibly strange – Dopey, in particular, looked like a bizarre combination of Alfred E. Neuman and a stereotypical ‘Chad.’ These characters, along with attempts to make Snow White a more proactive heroine (even though she still falls asleep for a long time in the third act, as the story requires), ultimately held back what could have been a really good-looking and good-sounding film.

6. Anaconda

Big-screen comedies are really struggling. Looking at 2025, most of the releases were just reboots or updates of older films – one was even a remake of Anaconda, which wasn’t originally a comedy! The movie stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd as two friends and film buffs who finally get a chance to make their dream movie when Rudd buys the rights to remake Anaconda. The film starts with some promising scenes between the leads and a few supporting actors, but things quickly fall apart when they head to Brazil to film with a tiny budget. The movie’s quality declines as it gets bogged down in a ridiculous plot involving gold miners and giant snakes. While Black and Rudd try their best with a weak script, both they and the genre deserve better than this disappointing effort.

5. The Alto Knights

It’s still baffling why Robert De Niro played both main characters in The Alto Knights. While it’s common to see an actor play twins or family members of similar ages, De Niro portrayed two completely unrelated men. This unusual decision didn’t improve the film—it likely just increased the budget with expensive effects and gave Warner Bros. a unique marketing angle: Robert De Niro acting opposite himself. Beyond that, The Alto Knights was a fairly unremarkable gangster movie, especially considering it came from the writer of Goodfellas and the director of Bugsy.

4. M3GAN 2.0

Wow, the new M3GAN movie really missed the mark. The first one was a fun, lighthearted horror comedy, but the sequel was just… confusing. It wasn’t funny, barely scary, and the plot – that the solution to dangerous AI is more AI – felt completely off. It seemed like they tried to turn a charming little film into a big, over-the-top summer movie, and it just didn’t work. Unfortunately, it failed on all counts.

3. Fountain of Youth

Despite boasting top-tier stars like John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, and a director as skilled as Guy Ritchie, the movie Fountain of Youth feels surprisingly empty. It’s visually impressive, but ultimately predictable and uninspired – almost like an elaborate screensaver. The film centers on estranged siblings (Krasinski and Portman) on a quest for the legendary Fountain of Youth, but it feels like a tired rehash of adventure classics like Indiana Jones and Uncharted, mixed with a dull commercial. It seems designed for viewers who are simply looking for something to watch to get their money’s worth from their existing streaming subscriptions, rather than offering a truly compelling experience.

2. The Electric State

There was a lot of talk about the $320 million Netflix reportedly spent on this sci-fi film by the Russo brothers, and it feels like an excessive amount. Even if the budget had been half that, it still wouldn’t have been worth the money. The Electric State simply doesn’t look good – the characters and visuals are bland and uninspired. The film follows a young woman (Millie Bobby Brown) traveling through a world filled with robots to find her brother, aided by Chris Pratt, who seems to be playing the same character he always does, complete with a strange haircut. The story, based on a book I haven’t read, doesn’t make much sense, but the film could have been enjoyable despite that if it was at least visually appealing. Unfortunately, it isn’t.

1. Star Trek: Section 31

While I’ve seen all the Star Trek movies, I haven’t watched every single episode of the TV shows. But Star Trek: Section 31 is easily the worst of everything I’ve seen. It just looks and feels cheap, the conversations are poorly written, and the action sequences are confusing. What bothers me most is that it seems to think cool spaceships and gadgets are what make Star Trek special. But the best Star Trek was always about hope and exploring big ideas. Why watch a Star Trek that’s just as mindless as any other sci-fi action movie?

Star Trek used to lead the way in science fiction, inspiring other shows with its unique characters, stories, and visuals. But Section 31 – which feels like a copy of Guardians of the Galaxy and an attempt to make Star Trek more like Marvel – proves those days are over.

2026-01-06 17:57