Comic book fans don't miss much, so when James Gunn started referring to Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow as Supergirl on social media, speculation about a title change started immediately.
Talking to Rolling Stone about next month's Superman movie, Gunn was asked about the apparent shakeup, and after a pause, responded, "I think it’s just called Supergirl." Pushed on whether he was on set to keep an eye on how the second DC Studios movie was taking shape, the filmmaker admitted it was "zero" or "very little."
He continued, "I mean at the very beginning, but I’ve been pretty busy, as you might imagine. I was really involved at the script stage, but then [director] Craig [Gillespie] has just been such a great partner. He’s just been doing his thing. You never know how something cuts together, but right now it looks amazing. It’s really cool stuff."
Back to that title change, and we're sure you'll recall that Superman was originally known as Superman: Legacy. Gunn elaborated on why he ditched Legacy, sharing some fascinating insights into his creative process.
"I’m always cutting. 'Legacy' was really — we do something called a premortem," he shared. "A premortem is you get together with your group that’s doing the project. It’s usually about a couple months before shooting, and you go, hypothetically, 'If it’s an epic disaster, what are the things that we’re doing today that are going to cause it to be an epic disaster? Everyone here can speak freely.'"
"The things you find on other productions are the things that people are whispering. 'Oh, God, I don’t know why they cast that actor — he doesn’t fit the role.' Or, 'The production designer’s never on time.' One of the things I brought up was, it was called Superman: Legacy. Even though I was the one that gave it that title, I just wasn’t sure."
"First of all, I’m sick of the superhero title, colon, other-name thing," Gunn admitted. "And then also it seemed to be looking back when we’re looking forward, even though it does have to do with legacy in the movie itself. And everybody was like, 'Oh, yeah, no, change it.'"
We've already shared insights into DC Studios' continued struggles with Batman, but what of Wonder Woman? Gunn recently confirmed that the script is being worked on, and explained in this interview why Diana Prince isn't proving to be quite so problematic.
"Wonder Woman I think is actually easier for me, because there haven’t been so many infinite portrayals of Wonder Woman — definitely not in movies, but really anywhere — that there have been of Batman," he noted. "Every single Batman story has been told. It seems like half the comics that have come out of DC over the past 30 years have Batman in them."
Supergirl is expected to make her debut in Superman, setting the stage for a solo outing that adapts Tom King and Bilquis Evely's Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow series. The Maiden of Might's movie will also feature Aquaman star Jason Momoa in a new role as Lobo, a character likely to be a major player in the DCU moving forward.
Superman: Legacy and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow were the only DCU movies announced with a subtitle. However, Gunn has already alluded to The Brave and the Bold being a temporary moniker for Batman's next movie.
Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow arrives in theaters on June 26, 2026.