Comic book fans who are already geeking out over a superhero-heavy TV lineup this fall, which includes Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and Arrow, have a new reason to get excited: fan favorite Supergirl will star in her own show.
Greg Berlanti, who co-created and produced Arrow and the upcoming CW series The Flash, has teamed up with writer and producer Ali Adler, known for her work on Chuck and Glee, to create a show based on the DC Comics heroine, according to Deadline.
The comic book world’s relationship to female superheroes is complicated. Though Marvel announced early this summer that a woman would be wielding the hammer of Thor, one of its most popular characters, the comic book publisher also came under fire for a recent alternative cover for a new Spider-Woman comic, which showed the superhero in a compromising position.
Onscreen, female headliners have been conspicuously missing from the past decade’s barrage of comic book films. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, struggled to explain why the studio had yet to green light a movie based on a female superhero — such as a Black Widow spinoff from the Avengers series — when recent box office hits like The Hunger Games, Divergent and Lucy suggest that audiences are hungry for more female action stars.
Indeed, studies have shown that movies with robust female roles do better at the box office. And superhero movies that have promoted their female characters from damsel in distress to part of the ensemble attract more female moviegoers and do better at the box office: over 40% of the audience for Guardians of the Galaxy, which set a record for biggest August opening weekend of all time, was female. Years of lobbying from fans has finally convinced Sony to reportedly begin prepping a film based on one of the woman characters from Marvel’s Spider-Man universe.
If Sony’s movie does well and audiences tune in to watch Supergirl on the small screen, more female superheroes might get a big screen debut.
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