DC Studios’ next big film, Supergirl, will soon be released in theaters, and the film’s promotional run is coming at us like a speeding bullet. We’re already seeing the usual rollout of final trailers and TV spots for the film, but now DC and Warner Bros. are launching a whole wave of tie-in marketing alongside some big-name branding partners.
Once again, the DC Universe has Supergirl’s dog, Krypto, out front as the branding mascot for tie-in campaigns with brands like Milk-Bone and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Now, DC is capitalizing on the latter part of Supergirl’s name, with a tie-in campaign with beauty company Ulta. However, if you look closely at Supergirl star Milly Alcock’s fit in the ad, you’ll see a clever little Easter egg that says some big things about Supergirl‘s story, and how it sets up the next Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow.
As you can see in the Ulta Beauty commercial, Supergirl actress Milly Alcock is wearing a t-shirt that reads “Kandor City.” That’s not just any name-drop: Kandor is the name of Kara Zor-El’s home city on Planet Krypton. Unlike her cousin Kal-El/Superman, Kara’s city wasn’t destroyed when Krypton exploded: it was taken by the villain Brainiac, an android (or cyborg) superintellect, who obsesses over “collecting” samples of every species in the galaxy, with the ultimate goal of creating the greatest library of knowledge in the universe. However, Brainiac’s twisted mind often sees him wipe out the worlds he collects samples from, in order to increase the “exclusivity” of the sample and the cultural knowledge it contains.
Both Supergirl and Brainiac have undergone some of the biggest retcons in DC lore, but the one that has caught on most is their shared history. In the early 2000s (see: Superman: Birthright), it was established that Kandor met its end when Brainiac shrank it down to a miniature size and added it to his collection. With Milly Alcock sporting a “Kandor City” shirt, we can lock it in that the movie version of the story will follow that path.
Now, getting confirmation about Kandor City doesn’t rule out the theory that the Supergirl movie will also borrow from the character’s “Earth-One” continuity. In that version, Kara’s home is “Argo City,” which is saved from Krypton’s destruction by a protective shield created by her father, Zor-El. The city floated in space for years before Kara’s parents sent her to Earth, escaping Argo’s radioactive fate. The DCU Supergirl movie could easily combine the two storylines, so that Kandor survives after Krypton, only to have Brainiac find it (read: hunt it down) in space, as the last remaining “sample” of Krypton.
That could be a pivotal plot point of James Gunn’s Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow. The film is rumored to be based on story arcs like Geoff Johns’ Superman: Brainiac (2008), which revealed the backstory of Brainiac stealing and keeping Kandor, as he threatens to do the same with Earth in the present day. It featured Superman teaming with Supergirl and others to save the planet, and had major plot twist changes for both Kara Zor-El and Clark Kent’s respective families. In the DCU, Man of Tomorrow could be a culmination of both the Superman and Supergirl movies, with Kara potentially battling not to avenge her people, but rather to save them… including her parents, Zor-El (David Krumholtz) and Alura In-Ze (Emilly Beecham).
Supergirl will be released in theaters on June 26th. Discuss the DCU with us on the ComicBook Forum
