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Supergirl: How to watch DC's Girl of Steel in movies, TV shows, and cartoons

It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s an extensive guide for Supergirl’s on-screen appearances!

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow — Image credit: Warner Bros.

Features by Avery Kaplan, Contributing writer

Published on Wed May 08 2024

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Supergirl, also known as Kara Zor-El, is the cousin of Superman. And like Superman, she also hails from Krypton. Supergirl first appeared in Action Comics #252 in May 1959. Written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino, the heroine was an instant success. The DC Comics offices were subsequently flooded with stacks of letters favorably reacting to the introduction.

Supergirl was subsequently killed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series in 1985. Between the mid-80s and 2004, various characters assumed the mantel of Supergirl, including Cir-El, Linda Danvers, and Matrix. However, during this interval, editorial sought to emphasize that Superman was the sole survivor of the destruction of Krypton. For this reason, these incarnations of Supergirl possessed origins that did not involved the doomed planet.

But in February 2004, Batman/Superman #8 by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness reintroduced Kara to DC Comics continuity. Kara’s popularity continued to grow, and the character was soon headed up, up and away from comics and into on-screen media.

But how and where can you watch the various on-screen incarnations of Supergirl? Never fear! Popverse has you covered. Here’s your guide to watching live-action and animated Supergirl. Plus: where to find her in the video game realm!

How to watch live-action Supergirl

Here’s how to watch live-action Supergirl.

First up are several appearances on the big screen. Kara’s first appearance in live action was in the 1984 movie Supergirl. The movie featured Helen Slater as Kara and was technically a spin-off of the Ilya Salkind produced Superman film series. However, the movie was a box office bomb, and no sequels or continuation of this incarnation of the character transpired.

The next time Supergirl appeared in a feature film was in 2023’s The Flash. In this incarnation, Kara was played by Sasha Calle. And in January 2024, it was announced that Milly Alcock has been cast in the role of Kara, to debut in the upcoming DCCU movie Superman. After that introduction, Supergirl is to star in a solo standalone film, reported to be derived from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow by Tom King and Bilquis Evely.

Supergirl has also appeared in live-action across several television shows. Her first appearance in live-action on the small screen was in the CW’s Smallville season 7. In this incarnation, she was portrayed by Laura Vandervoort. After playing a major role in the seventh season, Kara made guest appearances in Smallville seasons 8 and 10.

The next time Supergirl would appear in the small screen, she would be appearing in the CW’s Arrowverse. Originating with Arrow in 2012, the Arrowverse would eventually expand to six shows. One of these was Supergirl, which debuted on CBS in 2015 before moving to the CW in 2016. This series, which ran for six seasons, stars Melissa Benoist as Kara. Beginning with its first season, the show had multiple crossovers with others shows in the Arrowverse. This includes the ambitions 2019 five-episode crossover series, 'Crisis on Infinite Earths.'

How to watch animated Supergirl

Here’s how to watch animated Supergirl.

Supergirl’s first appearance in animation was in 1996’s Superman: The Animated Series. Played by Nicholle Tom, this incarnation of the character was named Kara In-Ze, and was not a biological cousin to Superman, having been born on Krypton’s neighboring-but-equally-doomed planet, Argos. Nevertheless, this incarnation becomes something of an adoptive cousin to Superman over the course of her appearances in the series.

The next appearance by Supergirl in animation was in the direct-to-video 2010 movie Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. In this incarnation, Kara Zor-El is played by Summer Glau. Aside from some minor plot differences, this version of Kara’s origin is largely inspired by the aforementioned 2004 re-introduction of Supergirl to the DC Universe in Batman/Superman #8.

In 2012, a series of shorts called Super Best Friends Forever was launched. These five shorts debuted on Cartoon Network before being released online. This teen version of Supergirl was played by Nicolle Sullivan.

Supergirl next appeared in the DC Super Hero Girls franchise. This was originally a website with short videos and games launched in 2015. The success of the website was followed by a direct-to-video animated movie, DC Super Girls: Hero of the Year, released in 2016. In this incarnation of the character, Supergirl was played by Anais Fairweather.

An animated alternative version of the character appears in the 2017 CW Seed animated series Freedom Fighters: The Ray. In this series, Benoist reprises the role of Overgirl, a parallel world supervillain version of Supergirl. Overgirl originally debuted in live-action in the Arrowverse crossover 'Crisis on Earth-X.'

In 2018, a DC Super Hero Girls short called “#TheLateBatsby” debuted at San Diego Comic Con before being released in theaters, playing before screens of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.This short is included in the Blu-ray release of the Teen Titans Go! movie. This was followed by the early 2019 debut of the webseries DC Super Hero Girls: Super Shorts. Later in 2019, the DC Super Hero Girls TV series was launched. This incarnation of Kara is once again voiced by Nicolle Sullivan.

And finally, Supergirl has made a guest appearance in the 2019 animated series Harley Quinn. In the season 4 episode “Getting Ice Dick, Don’t Wait Up,” Supergirl appears and is voiced by Lacey Chabert.

Where to find Supergirl in video games

In addition to her appearances in movies and TV shows, Supergirl has also appeared in several video games. Here’s where to find Supergirl in video games.

First, Supergirl appeared as a playable character in the Playstation Portable version of the 2006 game Justice League Heroes.

Several Lego games have included Supergirl. These include 2012’s Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, 2014’s Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and in 2019’s Lego DC Super-Villains via the the “DC Super Heroes: TV Series DLC Character Pack.”

Another Lego incarnation of Supergirl appeared in 2015’s Lego Dimensions. In this incarnation, she was voiced by Kari Wahlgren. However, the minifigure and base used to unlock the character was comparatively rare. It was only available during the BrickLive convention, and then exclusively in the starter pack for the Playstation 2 version of the game (although the minifig unlocks the character on any console’s version of the game). This version of Kara could transform into a Red Lantern, an allusion to the “Red Daughter of Krypton” comic crossover published in 2014.

Supergirl also appeared in the 2017 game Injustice 2. In this incarnation, she is voiced by Laura Bailey.

Finally, the teenage version of Supergirl appeared in DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power for Nintendo Switch.

Which incarnation of Supergirl is your favorite? We want to hear from you. And be sure and follow Popverse to keep up with all of the latest news about superheroes from DC, Marvel Comics and beyond!

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Avery Kaplan: Avery lives and writes in Southern California. She is the co-author of Double Challenge: Being LGBTQ and a Minority with her spouse, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan. Avery is Features Editor at Comics Beat, and you can also find her writing on StarTrek.com, The Gutter Review, Geek Girl Authority, and in the margins of the books in her personal library.