Trailer
Plot summary
Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin, lives in Argo City, a community that survived Krypton's destruction inside a pocket of trans-dimensional space. Its power comes from the Omegahedron, an orb the wizard Zaltar let Kara observe after borrowing it without the city government's knowledge. A mishap sends the orb into space, and Kara takes a ship to follow it to Earth, where she becomes Supergirl and Earth's sun grants her powers. There, Selena, a power-hungry would-be witch helped by Bianca, recovers the orb and understands it can give her true magic. Living as Linda Lee, Kara enrolls at an all-girls school, befriends Lucy Lane and becomes enamored with Ethan, the groundskeeper.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Supergirl (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Supergirl was meant to appear first in Superman III, in a plot line designed to set up her own film, but the character was cut out of it. The Salkinds announced the spin-off in April 1982, before Superman III had even begun production.
- The first version of the story had Supergirl rescuing Superman, written as her cousin and mentor. That plot was heavily rewritten once Reeve chose not to be involved, leaving the film without its Man of Steel.
- Hundreds of actresses tested for Supergirl, Demi Moore and Brooke Shields among them, and both were rejected because an unknown was wanted for the part. Helen Slater got it for $75,000 in a three-picture deal and spent four months in physical training. Dolly Parton reportedly turned down the villain Selena before it went to Dunaway.
- Warner Bros. supervised the whole production for a July 1984 opening, but the Salkinds insisted on moving it to the holiday season to avoid other big films and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The studio said it had no holiday slot, relinquished its distribution rights, and the Salkinds handed the film to Tri-Star Pictures.
- North America never saw the film as finished. Test audiences found it overlong, so it was cut from 135 minutes to 105 for the release Tri-Star Pictures gave it on 21 November 1984.
- Helen Slater never played Supergirl again, but she twice came back to the family: as Lara, the biological mother of Clark Kent, on Smallville, and as Eliza Danvers, the adoptive mother of the heroine, on the 2015-2021 Supergirl series.
