‘Supergirl’ Director Craig Gillespie Opens Up About Kara’s Shocking Ending, Superman’s Cameo, and the Deleted Scenes That Nearly Made the Cut
The DCU’s second chapter has officially arrived, and with it comes a hero who couldn’t be more different from the one who started it all. ‘Supergirl,’ directed by Craig Gillespie and starring ‘House of the Dragon’s Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, was designed as a deliberate answer to the hopefulness of James Gunn’s ‘Superman,’ offering a darker and more emotionally volatile take on what it means to carry a cape. Now, days after the film hit theaters, Gillespie is peeling back the curtain on how it all came together.
Unlike her cousin Kal-El, Kara’s past trauma left her cynical and resentful of the role of protector thrust upon her, and that emotional turbulence sits at the center of the film. Gillespie worked with writer Ana Nogueira on a script based on Tom King’s comic miniseries ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,’ crafting what he described as an action-packed western of sorts that allows Kara to spend over half the runtime without ever putting on a supersuit. That tonal restraint, it turns out, was a deliberate and closely guarded creative choice from the very beginning.
In an exclusive interview with Collider, Gillespie confirmed that the film’s most talked-about element, its ending in which Kara makes a lethal choice, was locked in from the earliest drafts. The director revealed that James Gunn felt very strongly about the ending being part of the film, and that even when the team debated shooting a backup version, the answer kept coming back as no. Gillespie explained that Gunn’s ‘Superman’ is built around hope and redemption, while ‘Supergirl’ represents a different lived experience shaped by suffering and survival, with the two characters designed to complement rather than mirror each other.
The reunion between Superman and Supergirl was originally intended to serve as the film’s post-credits scene, but Gillespie ultimately moved it into the body of the film itself, telling Polygon that the scene felt better as part of the movie than as a stinger. When it came to determining how much screen time to give Jason Momoa’s Lobo and David Corenswet’s Superman, Gillespie described the process as a constant balancing act, noting the importance of keeping ‘Supergirl’ firmly at the center of her own story while still acknowledging audience appetite for those characters.
On the question of deleted footage, the director acknowledged that roughly ten minutes of material was trimmed from the final cut. Gillespie told The Hollywood Reporter that he actively dislikes long films, and that keeping the road trip between Alcock and co-star Eve Ridley lean and true to their mission ultimately made for a better movie. Reports from test screening attendees noted the earlier cut ran only around ten to fifteen minutes longer than the theatrical version, with one viewer saying the finished film didn’t feel dramatically different from what they had seen in February.
Looking ahead, Alcock is set to reprise her role as Kara Zor-El in next year’s ‘Man of Tomorrow,’ which will reunite her with Corenswet’s Superman. James Gunn has also noted that Supergirl being at odds with Superman will be a significant part of that upcoming sequel. Whether the deleted material from this film resurfaces in any form remains to be seen, but Gillespie’s candid reflections suggest that every cut was made with intention. Whether Kara’s morally complex debut sits right with you or leaves you unsettled, drop your thoughts below because this ending clearly has more to say.
