“Supergirl” Star Helen Slater Is &x27;Fully On Board&x27; with Milly Alcock&x27;s Take on the Character: &x27;I Can&x27;t Wait to See It&x27; (Exclusive) Daniel S. LevineTue, June 23, 2026 at 10:11 PM UTC 0 Helen Slater as Supergirl; Milly Alcock as Supergirl.Credit: TriStar/Kobal/Shutterstock; Warner Bros.
“Supergirl” Star Helen Slater Is 'Fully On Board' with Milly Alcock's Take on the Character: 'I Can't Wait to See It' (Exclusive)
Daniel S. LevineTue, June 23, 2026 at 10:11 PM UTC
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Helen Slater as Supergirl; Milly Alcock as Supergirl.Credit: Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock; Warner Bros. Pictures -
Helen Slater tells PEOPLE she has been "fully on board" with Milly Alcock's version of Supergirl ever since she saw James Gunn's Superman last year
Slater was the first actress to play Supergirl on screen, starring in the 1984 Supergirl film
"It's just really tapping into something beautiful, irreverent, salty and gritty and great," Slater says of the new version of Supergirl
The first Supergirl is "fully on board" with the new Supergirl.
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Helen Slater says she was impressed with Milly Alcock's portrayal of Kara Zor-El from the moment Alcock appeared onscreen near the end of James Gunn's Superman last year.
"It was just so fun," Slater, who played the titular role in the 1984 Supergirl film, says. "It was refreshing. I just was fully on board."
Slater, 62, could tell just from Alcock's brief scene that Gunn and Supergirl director Craig Gillespie have "just really got it right."
"It's just really tapping into something beautiful, irreverent, salty and gritty and great," Slater says.
Helen Slater at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Screening Room in 2023.Credit: Araya Doheny/Getty
While the new Supergirl stars Alcock, 26, as a very different kind of Kara from the one Slater played, the actress believes this new story fits perfectly within the character's mythology. Supergirl shares creative DNA with Superman, whose creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were inspired by the heroic tales of the past.
In the new film, Kara joins a young girl (Eve Ridley) on an intergalactic journey seeking revenge for her father's death. The same man (Matthias Schoenaerts) who killed the girl's father also wounded Supergirl's dog Krypto.
That story "tracks" with the trauma Supergirl has gone through after Krypton's destruction, Slater, who has a PhD in mythology, explains.
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"That fits very much into myth, into the hero's journey or the heroine's journey," Slater tells PEOPLE. "How do we navigate these giant emotions or these fractures in our past? How do we do that?"
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The 1984 Supergirl film was a major milestone, as the first big-budget movie centered around a female comic book superhero. Produced by the same team behind the Christopher ReeveSuperman movies and directed by Somewhere in Time filmmaker Jeannot Szwarc, it was less successful at the box office than those films. However, today it's been embraced as a cult classic. The movie also featured Faye Dunaway as the evil witch Selena and Peter O'Toole as Kara's Yoda-like mentor Zaltar.
"I think it's interesting to reflect on how do we get the story right? Like, a female superhero versus a male superhero," Slater tells PEOPLE. "And I'm really hoping, and I have a good feeling, that this iteration that's about to open [on June 26], they will have gotten it right and it'll be huge."
Slater recently appeared on ABC's The Rookie, where she played a professor of religious studies. She's still open to acting, but she tells PEOPLE that she's really enjoying "carving out" a new lane as a mythologist ready to work with actors, writers and directors.
"Nothing is ever really brand new," Slater tells PEOPLE. "There's usually going to be a resource for that. And it's my joy to do that kind of research and put it together, doing it in person or on Zoom, that kind of lane. So I love that very, very much."
Supergirl hits theaters on Friday, June 26. The 1984 Supergirl film is now streaming on HBO Max.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: June 23, 2026 at 06:36PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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