RUMOR ALERT: Take this information with a grain of salt, as it pertains to the still in-development ‘Supergirl’ movie at Warner Brothers.
Last week, there was a frantic day or so, after it was reported that Henry Cavill was leaving behind his role as Superman in Warner Brothers movies, but almost as soon as this rumor surfaced, Warner Brothers and Cavill’s manager refuted it on Twitter. Buried within coverage of this confusion, The Wrap slipped in this description of the ‘Supergirl’ movie that is in the works at the studio: “likely a period piece set in the 1970s (though this could change) with the young Kryptonian as a teenager.”
Word surfaced that WB was developing a ‘Supergirl’ movie in early August, with ‘The Cloverfield Paradox”s Oren Uziel working on a script and with the information that WB was hoping to land a female director, with ‘The Handmaid’s Tale”s Reed Morano‘s name surfacing as a top contender. But this is the first word that this picture was expected to be a period piece.
The main question is “Why?” In the comics, Supergirl premiered in 1958 and enjoyed varying levels of popularity over the years, but she wasn’t particularly more popular in the ’70s. Rumor has it that this setting is in order to separate her entirely from Cavill’s Superman, but why set it so far back in the past? That’s a 40-50 year difference. That would mean that she could never really interact with the modern movie characters and if she did, she would have be known as Superwoman.
True, ‘Wonder Woman’ and its upcoming sequel, ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ are period pieces, but that works for that character. She originally emerged during World War II, which was rolled back to WWI in the first film. And the 1980s were a period in which Wonder Woman (along with most of the DC Universe) was rebooted for a more modern audience and actually became a bestselling character for the first time since her early days.
It also ties into her crusade against Ares the god of war, since WWI was the first globe-spanning conflict and the film also touched on the use of mustard gas, one of the most horrific instruments of war ever utilized. And the ’80s were the Cold War, when tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union had the world fearing the threat of nuclear destruction.
But ‘Wonder Woman’ raised a lot of questions as the DC film slate is built upon ‘Man of Steel’ in which it was pretty clearly laid out that Superman was the first superhero in the world. How else do you explain all that Jesus imagery? But if Wonder Woman, who will now be shown as active in two previous time periods and now possibly ‘Supergirl’ in the ’70s, no one would really be that impressed with Superman’s arrival. (Unless they kind of try and cover up Supergirl’s activities the way that it’s been hinted was done with Wonder Woman’s.)
But since this is the only real mention of ‘Supergirl’ being a ’70s period piece, let’s just chalk it up to misinformation for now, but check back for any updates!
