We may not have seen a second of footage from the new James Gunn era of the DCU, but just going by the casting? It sure feels like it’s on the right track, starting with Superman: Legacy. That is certainly the case in the wake of the news that House of the Dragon actress Milly Alcock has been cast as Kara Zor-El, Supergirl.
Alcock rose to instant fame playing young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the first half of House of the Dragon season 1, but a time jump meant that she’d be written out of the show forever with the character aging up. But even from that short stretch, it felt like she was a star. Here’s what I said back in April 2022 when we knew she was leaving the show:
“To me, this is a bummer, because it means House of the Dragon will have to say goodbye to its main standout actress, Milly Alcock, where this has been an absolutely star-making turn for the young Australian actress, the 22 year-old playing a 15 year-old on the show. Even in just two episodes she has put on a powerful display among much more veteran actors, as before this, she only had a few stints in a number of TV shows you probably had never heard of. This is her hitting the big time, and I suppose the good news is that I expect her career will really take off after this.”
Well, good news, past Paul, you were right.
Alcock will take on the mantle of Supergirl starting with Superman: Legacy, in which Kara will appear in a guest/supporting role, before getting her own feature film, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, based on a Tom King comic run.
James Gunn in particular has been gushing about just how well Alcock did during the screen tests for the role. “Yes, I first became aware of her in House of the Dragon but I was blown away by her varied auditions and screen tests for Supergirl.” Then later, to DC’s Jim Lee, “I have to show you the test at some point, you’re gonna freak out.”
Alcock did well at channeling a quiet rage in her time as Rhaenyra, and the Tom King version of Supergirl is a far cry from the bubbly CW version we’ve seen most recently (no offense, I loved your take Melissa Benoist). As soon as I heard her name in the mix along with a number of other actresses testing for the part, I was pretty confident that she’d get it. And so here we are.
Woman of Tomorrow does not yet have a release date, but we’ll see her in Legacy alongside the other absolutely fantastic, at least on the surface, castings of David Cornswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, among others. We’ll see how she fits in with that lineup.
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