Published Sep 22, 2026, 7:55 PM EDT
Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more.
Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being “Politics Reflected In American Comics.”
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Supergirl just got worse months after the DC Universe movie was released in theaters, as its most controversial moment could have been avoided, as DC itself has just revealed. *Supergirl *was the second movie of the DCU, following the success of *Superman *in 2025, which was both written and directed by James Gunn, the creative mind behind the new shared universe.
*House of the Dragon *star Milly Alcock made her debut as the Girl of Steel in Superman, interacting with David Corenswet’s Man of Steel in a brief scene to set up her own solo film. That project was the first in the DCU to be a straight-up adaptation of a singular comic book storyline. *Supergirl *was even originally titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, just like Tom King’s comic book series.
However, despite the fact that King is one of the main creatives in the DCU, he did not pen Supergirl’s script; Ana Nogueira did. The finished product was a film that distanced itself quite a bit from the original DC Comics storyline, even if it kept the broad strokes of the cosmic journey Kara and Ruthye go on. *Supergirl *was not well-received.
Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for HBO’s Lanterns episode 6.The DCU *Supergirl *movie brought in only $126.4 million at the box office, with the film sitting at a low 53% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 377 reviews. *Supergirl *also holds a fine 72% audience score. While the movie’s reputation has started to change recently, with *Supergirl *currently the most-watched movie on HBO Max in the United States, the latest episode of HBO’s Lanterns made Supergirl look even worse.
*Lanterns *impacted *Supergirl *due to a line spoken by Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner in episode 6. While telling Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart that he could get in trouble for going to OA and stealing Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern ring and suit for the DC hero to be buried with in the live-action series, Guy specifically says the Guardians of the Universe could beam him to the Phantom Zone for it. Given how this is the first, and possibly only, time that Fillion appears as Guy in Lanterns, some fans might have missed the importance of that quick line of dialogue.
That said, the confirmation of the Phantom Zone’s existence in the DCU is a major event that could have ramifications for several projects in the DCU’s slate of releases. For instance, the Phantom Zone could play a major role as early as next year, as 2027’s *Man of Tomorrow *could explain that Brainiac has been trapped in the Phantom Zone for a long time, now coming to take the Earth/Metropolis, or used at the end of the movie to trap a powerful villain that will take on the combined might of heroes like Superman, Supergirl, multiple Green Lanterns, and more.
The Phantom Zone is a prison dimension where time does not work, with prisoners existing in a ghost-like state for what could be eternity. Due to that, they have plenty of time to think about what led them to be sent there, which either helps villains repent, or leads to great psychological harm.
The Phantom Zone is not only an important DCU development for the franchise’s future, but also its past. After all, if DC is already planting the seeds of that concept in Lanterns, the franchise could have easily used the Phantom Zone in 2026’s *Supergirl *movie. The film’s most controversial moment came at the end, as Supergirl’s ending featured a major change from the original comics, with Alcock’s Supergirl murdering Krem of the Yellow Hills, rather than trapping him in the Phantom Zone.
In a *Supergirl *deleted scene shared by ScreenRant, which can be seen above, Kara even talked to Ruthye about that very comics-accurate ending, claiming they would send Krem to the Phantom Zone, rather than Ruthye killing him. Why this was dropped remains a mystery, as Supergirl’s ending opted to muddle the message from the comics, with Supergirl not properly teaching Ruthye that anger and grief don’t define us, but rather taking the burden of corrupting who she is for herself. Lanterns’ confirmation of the Phantom Zone in the DCU after ***Supergirl ***deleted a scene that would have done the same makes the movie’s ending even worse.
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Science Fiction
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Survivor Kara Zor El is still haunted by Krypton’s collapse, drifting across the galaxy with Krypto at her side. When a young warrior named Ruthye begs for help avenging a family tragedy, Kara gets pulled into a ruthless hunt for Krem of the Yellow Hills.
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Science Fiction
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Lanterns is a 2026 DC superhero detective series centered on veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan and new recruit John Stewart. The two intergalactic peacekeepers investigate a murder in Nebraska, drawing them into a dark Earth-based mystery with deeper implications for both men.