It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's A New 'Supergirl' Movie Officially In The Works

More than 30 years after the last feature film attempt at bringing the super-cousin of steel to the big screen, a new Supergirl movie is in the works at Warner Bros. And she'll be making her big debut in the DC film universe under the guidance of the writer of 22 Jump Street and The Cloverfield Paradox.

Warner Bros. and DC are developing a Supergirl movie penned by 22 Jump Street writer Oren UzielDeadline reports. The Supergil film will be part of the studio's DC cinematic universe which includes Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, and Justice League.

No producer or director has yet been tapped for this film, which is still on the drawing board according to Deadline. But the choice of Supergirl for a solo film in the embattled DC Extended Universe (or whatever it's called now) may be indicative of Warner Bros.' pivot to sunnier fare following the poor reception of dour films like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the ecstatic enthusiasm surrounding Patty Jenkins' bright and earnest Wonder Woman.

Introduced in DC Comics in 1959, Supergirl is the teen cousin of Superman, who arrives on Earth long after the Man of Steel had established himself as Earth's greatest hero. Though her origin tends to be a bit muddled, Supergirl is generally known as Kara Zor-El, and she was originally sent to Earth to protect Kal-El (Superman) until her pod got knocked off course and she arrived decades after him. Young, isolated and grieving the loss of her planet, Kara overcomes a particularly tragic backstory to become one of the brighter characters in the DC canon. While she's often portrayed in the shadow of her cousin, Supergirl is still a fan-favorite character who has headlined many solo titles on her own.

This will be Supergirl's debut in the DCEU but Melissa Benoist has played the superheroine on the well-regarded CW TV series, Supergirl. However, this won't be the first time Supergirl has appeared on the silver screen. She made her feature debut with the campy 1984 film Supergirl starring Helen Slater in the title role.

Today, Benoist's delightfully cheery depiction of Supergirl has become a defining depiction of the Girl of Steel, and a high obstacle for the feature film actress to overcome. But despite Supergirl doing great work on the TV side, it's still incredibly (dare I say, super) exciting to have her make the leap to film. Right now, Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman carries the burden of being the lone solo female hero in the DC universe, but Warner Bros. continues to built its repertoire, with Supergirl joining Batgirl and Harley Quinn as one of the studio's female-led films currently in development. And thank Rao for that — the female-led era of DC heroes couldn't come soon enough.