With Supergirl a month away from hitting theaters, more details about the film are coming out as the movie gets closer to its summer release date. The follow-up to last year’s hit Superman, the new DCU film stars Milly Alcock as the title character as she goes on a cosmic adventure to track down an alien bandit who hurt her dog, Krypto. Based on the acclaimed comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, the film has an epic story to tell. According to the director, it won’t take that long to tell it on the big screen.
Speaking with Collider, Supergirl director Craig Gillespie said the movie will be approximately 110 minutes, or 1 hour and 50 minutes with credits. Gillespie revealed they were “basically at the finish line” before the movie’s Jun. 26 release. Gillespie says they are finishing up the VFX and sound mixing, and feels “really great about it. I’m very excited for everybody to see it.”
The current Supergirl runtime is 20 minutes shorter than James Gunn’s Superman, which was 2 hours and 10 minutes. In fact, Supergirl is the shortest movie based on a DC Comic since 2020’s Birds of Prey at 1 hour and 49 minutes, the shortest of the now-defunct DCEU. Anytime a superhero movie’s runtime is revealed to be under two hours, there is a certain concern, as it can hint that the movie was edited down and will rush through plot points. However, things are never that simple.
Warner Bros.
Last summer, the news of The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ 1 hour and 55 minute runtime raised some eyebrows. Many noted the finished film was cut down with multiple montages and a number of deleted scenes, including John Malkovich’s Red Ghost character being entirely cut from the film. However, there is no hard-and-fast rule that a good superhero movie needs to be over two hours. The Incredibles, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Deadpool were all under that mark.
Supergirl certainly represents an interesting film within the DCU canon. It is a spin-off of Superman, with Alcock’s Kara Zar-El making a cameo appearance at the end of the 2025 film. Yet with Gunn using the name “Superman Saga,” it suggests Supergirl could be important in setting the stage for 2027’s Man of Tomorrow. Gillespie remains tight-lipped about whether Supergirl will have a post-credits scene, as when asked about it, the director laughed and said, “I can’t tease that. Sorry.”