Secrets discovered on the set of Supergirl

In April 2025, Première visited the DC Studios production, still very far from being finished.

In the Leavesden studios, north London, in April 2025, Supergirl was far from having the feel of a finished film. The DC superheroine existed in fragments, among weapons that dry after twenty-four hours of chrome plating, thick leather capes, gravel dust and a mechanical dog whose synthetic fur origins we were forbidden to reveal (spoiler: it’s not as complicated as you might think). In the various hangars hosting the filming, there were also sabers with gold filigree, copies of the Daily Planet (with Superman on the cover) costing $8.50, space slushes, the ruins of a pod world and, on a table, Lobo’s cigar.

In the middle of this carefully organized bric-a-brac, Craig Gillespie stopped by to say hello to the press to assure that he was adapting the spirit of Tom King’s comic book (Woman of Tomorrow). The story of Supergirl (Milly Alcock) finding herself teaming up with Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), a teenager on the trail of her father’s killer, the terrifying Krem (Matthias Schoenaerts).

So there you have Kara crossing worlds, stopping at a fluorescent truck stop, encountering space pirates and chasing Krem to decaying planets. The production readily spoke of a western (we were already thinking a lot about Star Wars and to Guardians of the Galaxy) and we understood why by looking at the models made available to us: a house under a red sun, a saloon where the heroines swallow fried eyes, space journeys, a city collapsing, galactic raiders…

“She puts them in their place”

Head to the costume department, where that of Supergirlclose to the comics one, but made with a very flexible skirt and a cape designed to give movement to the fights. But he’s biding his time. Michael Mooney, one of the costume managers, assured that once slipped into it, Milly Alcock “ looks very powerful, even, of course, she seems tiny when we put her face to face with Krem and the Brigands. But she puts them in their place. » The promise comes from a heroine who stubbornly refuses to let herself be locked into a role.

Kara spends most of the adventure in civilian clothes, notably wearing a Blondie t-shirt or some sort of spacesuit. Producer Chantal Nong explained it this way: “ When we meet her, she’s off duty and when she goes to other planets, it’s her way of taking a break. So it’s more fun for her to be incognito.…That was one of Craig’s (Gillespie) big ideas when he came on the film: actually it’s almost a coming-of-age story, but not in the conventional sense. She obviously fought crime on Earth, but did she do it fully being herself? That’s another story. The film is about accepting who you are, accepting your past, digesting it. »

The visit felt like we were witnessing the construction of a superhero movie that wanted to play spoilsport, or at least step aside. Not a manifesto against the genre but rather an adventure that decenters it. Supergirl arrives there already loaded with her past, she who, unlike Superman, grew up on the ruins of Krypton, in a domed Argo City that tries to preserve the remains of a doomed civilization. At the time of our visit, the teams were filming these flashbacks, with colonnades still immaculate, a lake turning green and death gaining ground.

On the walls, concept art brought together this memory of a lost planet with neon cities and dented vehicles. We notice that the weapons are inspired by real models before being enlarged, colored and “ spacified ”, as they say there. Ruthye’s sabers thus borrow from Afghan decorations, those of the brigands from Viking and Celtic imaginations. A desire for melting pot and heterogeneous science fiction, rather enticing on paper.

Lobo (Jason Momoa) participates in this desire to mix everything. He was not present in the original comic book, but the production presents him like a grain of sand thrown into a well-oiled machine. A circumstantial ally with his own interests who brings his share of chaos to the film, without stealing the journey from Kara and Ruthye. It also reminds us that this world does not operate with a clear line between the good guys and the bad guys.

In April 2025, there were still a few days of filming left in Leavesden, then off to Scotland and Iceland. The teams had the energy of the last week of school, as Gillespie joked, as they continued to adjust final plans. This was perhaps the best way to see this Supergirl in the making: not as a product already perfectly calibrated, but as a studio film where the dirty kids and the craftsmanship have not yet been totally devoured by AI and green screens.

Supergirl is currently in theaters.