According to Cosmic Book News, the backlash for the Supergirl trailer has been more severe in its first 24 hours on YouTube than the Superman trailer received its first six months. Keen-eyed viewers of the Supergirl trailer noticed that while Superman was celebrated for saving a town, all she’d done was rescue some cats. Now, it seems she’s failing to measure up in another, more quantifiable way.
The poster for Supergirl – DC
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From its opening shot of Supergirl’s dog, Krypto, urinating on a picture of Superman, to the drunk and dour Supergirl herself, the trailer has generated discussion. Seven days after the trailer’s release, it had 21 million views, with 373,828 likes to an estimated 43,323 dislikes.
Roughly one in eight reactions being negative doesn’t necessarily spell disaster for Supergirl or future projects in what producer James Gunn has called the “Superman saga.” But the backlash for the Supergirl trailer may be a point of concern for the studio. With only one other film in the new DC Universe (DCU) for comparison, executives at Warner Bros. are likely taking these numbers very seriously.
The State of the DCU
The trailer for last summer’s Superman has been on YouTube since May 14, 2025. It currently has 36 million views, 578,619 likes and an estimated 21,180 dislikes. Unfortunately, the movie was another casualty of a lukewarm summer. The final worldwide box office total for the film was around $616 million. Many noted that while it was a respectable performance, it was likely far from the success Warner Bros. hoped it would be.
Superman had the benefit of launching a new comic book universe from James Gunn. Since the film’s release, the DCU has been expanded on TV with the second season of the extremely mature Peacemaker series on HBO Max. The show proved divisive and experienced a significant drop-off in viewership as the season progressed.
David Corenswet and John Cena in costume as Superman and Peacemaker in a selfie on the set of Peacemaker – X, @CultureCrave
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If Supergirl continues on the same trajectory, as indicated by the swift accumulation of dislikes on the trailer, Gunn and Warner Bros. may need to course correct. Many, if not most, fans are aware that the movie is based on comic writer Tom King’s Woman of Tomorrow series. The Supergirl in the source material, and suggested by the trailer, is embittered because, in the words of Gunn, she “watched everybody around her perish in some terrible way.”
While Supergirl was directed by Craig Gillespie from a screenplay by first-time screenwriter Ana Nogueira, some fans felt Gunn’s influence was overwhelming. A few users on X compared it to Gunn’s early work at Marvel, noting that Supergirl looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy retread.
That “Kryptonians of the Galaxy” trailer was underwhelming.#Supergirl
— Verbal Riot (@verbalriotshow) December 11, 2025
Additionally, with the exception of 2017’s Wonder Woman, female-led superhero movies have struggled to capture audiences.
Girl Power at the Box Office
The nine-year-old Wonder Woman trailer has 31 million views, 264,585 likes and an estimated 9,959 dislikes. The numbers stand in sharp contrast to those for the Supergirl trailer, especially given how much time has passed.
Perhaps a better comparison is 2023’s The Marvels. Its trailer from two years ago has 26 million views and almost an equal number of likes to dislikes. The worldwide box office for that movie was considered a disappointment at only around $206 million.
THE MARVELS. © 2023 MARVEL.
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After Superman underperformed at the box office and Peacemaker failed to hold its audience on streaming, engagement for the Supergirl trailer is DC’s latest barometer for the health of the DCU. Fortunately, Supergirl doesn’t arrive in theaters until July 26, 2026 and the marketing team at Warner Bros. has plenty of time to give audiences a clearer picture of what to expect.
Whether that will be enough to win over a cautious audience remains to be seen.
What do you think of the like to dislike ratio on the Supergirl trailer? Does it spell disaster for the DCU? Let us know in the comments!
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Was it “Aliens”? She reminds me of this feral child that was found on some deserted somewhere. All it did was grunt.
That’s all I think of when see jim gunn’s less-than-super Girl.
super-mongoloid
all that indicates is people were initially curious about superman. now that audiences have seen supermid, they know for a fact this trash film won’t be for them.
So they’re trying the Captain Jack Sparrow ad campaign strategy again…
A woke, drinking street girl, a Karen who hates the American Way. Backlash? Well I never!
This movie will get boycotted the heck out of, and, well, who is the audience for this woke slop anyway? Gay tossers who like Jason M?
I’ve never been a big fan of derivative heroes and the teenager that doesn’t care seems like such a tired trope at this point, throw in the fact that it’s clearly trying to emulate guardians of the galaxy and we have to ask the question if James Gunn is even capable of creating something which isn’t just old pop songs and crude humour. I think there are franchises which suit that approach well, but much of the appeal comes from a scarcity which no longer exists. I’ll be skipping this one and likely the rest of the DCU as it is now.