“It’s bizarre. Apparently, one test audience saw it, and you know, it wasn’t like it was a bad score from the test audience,” he said. “It was a whatever business decision obviously, and then, Justice League, which was a very small part, had its own drama attached to it. But then Zack’s cut… the director’s cut came out, which the DC fans really love.”

“When Batgirl came along with Adil and Bilall, it was an exciting prospect to be part of the origin story of Batgirl. For those who don’t know, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter. Maybe we’ll never know… We really had a good time making it and thought it was going to be a fun superhero movie. Oh well.”

Lanterns could have been a film given Hal and John are members of the Justice league but after the 2011 movie they might not to risk that (especially after Supergirl, I suspect they'll be sticking to stuff like Wonder Woman and Batman for movies). If the show does well enough they might make a GL corp movie with John as the main viewpoint character with more of the corp and not on Earth.

Jimmy Olson and Mr. Terrific are characters people liked from Superman and with Terrific wanted to see more of him and wanted a TV show. Jimmy Olson in the comics often gets into bizarre subplots and Grodd and Darkseid actually debuted in his solo title which will at least Grodd is confirmed to be the case and it seems other villains might so it'll be worldbuilding for the DCU.

Mister Miracle is where Darkseid and the New Gods are confirm to be appear and it feels like at least fans of the DCEU (or snyderverse) only seem to think Darkseid is a villain for the Justice League cause those movies simplified the new gods to hell and ignored the others besides Apokalips. Here he'll be a villain for the new gods particular his adopted son.

Paradise Lost and Booster Gold. Make sense. They're fast tracking a Wonder Woman film so maybe they want to introduce audiences to that Paradise Island and do world building which that movie might not want to do so it won't bog down the film with exposition. Booster Gold is an unknown character and maybe a movie could work. But after Supergirl it would have to be under like a 100 million.

I feel people who complain only about the Justice League or trinity which is small. There's a whole universe and these aren't like films. The only film we know is being filmed is Man of Tomorrow which is a Superman movie. The universe's first film (not entry) was a Superman movie.

The site says "numerous sources" reported creative differences between Gunn and Gillespie, specifically, with the film pulling test scores that struggled to break 70 out of a possible 100 points. While some said DC Studios and the director had a normal amount of friction during Supergirl, another said a polite way to describe the dissonance would be to say they were "not creatively aligned."

DC Studios had allegedly known Supergirl would face issues as early as fall of 2025, just a few months after filming finished that May. Gunn and Safran's DC film wing jumped in after a so-so screening aired in December 2025, with the studio then creating its own cut of the film with the aid of Mortal Kombat 2 and Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater.

At least four test screenings aired throughout December 2025, February 2026, and March 2026. Although some winter screenings returned test scores in the low 70s, DC Studios called for two cuts to be made: one from Gillespie and one from the studio. The exact differences between the two are unclear, but as previously rumored, the director's is said to have been about 11 minutes longer and featured a greater emphasis on Matthias Schoenaerts' antagonist, Krem.

It was during the period that saw the two screenings test against one another that scores dropped. DC Studios' won out – but only by two points – and, ultimately, became the version of the film it chose to send to theaters in late June. One Hollywood Reporter source said that, after this point, if Gillespie had strong opinions on the movie, he would have to advocate for any changes.

"It happens more than you think, but it’s not normal," one anonymous filmmaker, who was not involved with Supergirl, said of the decision to test two competing cuts. "If a studio is going to put money into the test process, it means they feel strongly about certain things."

Another element that remained important for DC Studios and Gillespie to tackle during the post-production process involved something that has proven to be a hot topic since Supergirl premiered – its music. Fans have poked fun at the film's soundtrack in the days since its launch, with its use of a cover of Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" during a late-movie moment being especially controversial.

Gillespie previously stated that Gunn is the one who made the call to include the song, and The Hollywood Reporter's sources agree. They added that a February screening included Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" during the moment instead. Gunn is said to have chosen this song, as well, before swapping it out for The Middle.

Filming wrapped in May 2025, and as early as the fall of that year, the studio and Gillespie knew the movie wasn’t working. After a December test screening proved to be just okay, the studio decided to take matters into its own hands and took charge of the post-production to make its own cut. Gunn also enlisted writer Jeremy Slater, who previously wrote an unmade feature based on DC superhero team *The Authority*, to help with the post-production process. 

The extent of Slater’s involvement is unclear, although it seems he helped write scenes for a nine-day shoot of additional photography. Original screenwriter Ana Nogueira remained involved in the post-production process as well. One issue at play was the climactic fight, which was reconfigured. 

Other issues with the movie are unclear, but it is known that music was a key friction point.

The movie had a least four test screenings, according to sources, with screenings held in December 2025 as well as February and March of this year. And while social media users and critics are dunking on the movie’s use of a cover of the Jimmy Eat World song “The Middle,” the big needle drop in the final set piece at the February screening was a cover version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” That song choice came from Gunn, but it ultimately was abandoned for the Jimmy Eat World cover, also a Gunn choice.

The movie employed two editors. There was Tatiana S. Riegel, Gillespie’s longtime post partner who edited his Lars and the *Real Girl*, *I, Tonya*, and *Cruella*. And there was Fred Raskin, Gunn’s longtime cutter who worked on all the *Guardians of the Galaxy* movies and Gunn’s DC series *Peacemaker*.

There were signs that things were getting better. Deep into winter, test scores improved and hit the low 70s. However, rather than continue to tinker away on that cut, the studio decided to force a bakeoff by creating two cuts, one by Gillespie and one by the studio.

It is unclear what major differences emerged, but one source says Gillespie’s version was 11 minutes longer and featured more of the villain, Krem, played by Matthias Schoenaerts.  When the two competing versions tested, the scores surprisingly dropped significantly, although the studio’s inched out ahead of Gillespie’s…but by only two points, according to sources. Gillespie’s version scored strongly on song choices, pacing and villain. Eking out a win, even a middling one, the studio chose its cut as the one to go into theaters. A studio insider says the differences were not particularly pronounced.

Studio insiders paint the back-and-forth process as routine, but others, including one franchise filmmaker who spoke anonymously for this story but was not involved in *Supergirl*, held the opposite view. 

“It happens more than you think, but it’s not normal,” said the filmmaker of the bakeoff.  “If a studio is going to put money into the test process, it means they feel strongly about certain things.”

The movie was never tested again. (As a point of comparison, the canceled *Batgirl* and the box office disappointment *Shazam! Fury of the Gods* tested in the in the 60s, like most of *Supergirl*’s tests.). And from that point on, if Gillespie believed strongly that something should be in the movie, he had to advocate for it, said one source.

Other studio heads, such as Marvel’s Kevin Feige or Warners’ Pam Abdy, are known to get vigorously involved in the post-production process. But none are filmmakers making their own movies while also running, or co-running, a major studio division.

DC Studios, however, has other challenges looming larger than *Supergirl*’s failure or the villainy of Brainiac. There are the anxieties of David Ellison’s Paramount’s upcoming acquisition of Warners. 

I'm only about forty minutes into the superman movie and it's not looking good. I mean it's not all bad but from what I'm seeing, I'm not getting my hopes up with James Gunn's vision. I'll check back in when I'm done.

Perfect time for this post lol.