As someone who’s been a Superman fan for most of my life, it goes without saying that I’m excited about James Gunn’s Superman debuting on the 2025 movies schedule later this week. While the Man of Steel’s previous theatrical offerings have been a mixed bag for me overall, David Corenswet’s take seems like it’ll be something special for multiple reasons. The latest of those came to me recently while rewatching the Superman trailers and looking over its cast, realizing that the upcoming DC movie has a large female showing.
Let’s be honest, superhero movies of the 2000s and earlier were oftentimes sausage fests. Sure, the X-Men movies gave us heroes and villains like Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue and Mystique, but then you’d have features like Spider-Man, Batman Begins and Iron Man with a lone female lead surrounded by a bunch of men. That’s not to say that this still doesn’t happen every now and then, but there are at least more concerted efforts to include more fleshed-out women in these stories.
Superman is going above, if not quite beyond, in this regard. By my count, the movie has six women appearing in prominent capacities… and maybe even a seventh.
Rachel Brosnhan was perfectly cast in the role. The actress from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel worked with “modern” journalists to prepare to play the Daily Planet reporter, and if you’re like our own Mike Reyes, you greatly enjoyed that moment with her from the Superman trailer released in April.
Then, since we’ll be spending time with Clark Kent’s adoptive parents, we’ll get to see what kind of mother Neva Howell’s Martha Kent is alongside Pruitt Taylor Vince’s Jonathan Kent.
Isabella Merced + Maria Gabriela De Faria
We also have some superpowered ladies in the Superman mix, both on the protagonist and antagonistic sides. On the former, there’s Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, who makes up the Justice Gang with Guy Gardner and Mr. Terrific. I look forward to seeing this version of her in action, and she’ll be back next month with Guy for Peacemaker Season 2.
Then over on the latter side is María Gabriela de Faría’s Angela Spica, a.k.a. the nanotechnology-powered Engineer, who’s working for Lex Luthor. While it remains to be seen if we’ll actually see Angela in The Authority movie still in development given that she’s on the team in the comics, she definitely looks like a formidable threat, holding her own against the Fortress of Solitude’s robots, Krypton and the Man of Steel herself.
Sara Sampaio + Mikaela Hoover
Finally, we have Sara Sampaio’s Eve Teschmacher and Mikaela Hoover’s Cat Grant. The former is Lex Luthor’s assistant and girlfriend, and from what’s been shown of her in marketing material, she loves to be on her phone. The latter is a columnist for The Daily Planet, although it hasn’t been clarified if she writes about gossip like her comic book counterpart or different subject matter.
In addition to all these women playing significant roles in Superman, it’s rumored that Milly Alcock will debut as Kara Zor-El, Clark Kent/Kal-El’s Kryptonian cousin, ahead of her taking center stage in the Supergirl movie. In her case though, it’s likely she’s only cameoing in the movie, otherwise we would have seen at least a little footage of her in marketing. James Gunn confirmed that Superman has a post-credits scene, so I’m betting that’s where we’ll see her.
Even without Kara, I’m glad Superman will have the other aforementioned six women meaningfully participating in the story. We’ll see how the events revolving David Corenswet’s title character affect them starting on July 11, and then Supergirl will provide the platform for the DCU’s first leading cinematic superheroine to shine on June 26, 2026.