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New automatic translations and photo editing on X are powered by the companys flagship AI model.

Avalanche Energy is working on an DARPA project to build a new class of materials capable of turning damaging radiation into electricity.

Neighbors can be a nightmare. I’m sure we’ve all had our fair share of nosy neighbor horror stories. Other times, neighbors might just become your best friend. Or something else entirely. In the trailer for A24’s upcoming film The Invite, it’s not entirely clear which is the case. Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton play neighboring couples in the intriguing first look below.Watch the Official Trailer for The Invite!

The film is described as a charged romantic dramedy, which the trailer makes evident. It keeps things pretty vague, clueing us in just enough without giving too much of the plot away. There’s a strikingly obvious tension between the couples. My takeaway is that Cruz and Norton have got to be swingers.

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The movie follows couple Joe and Angela (Rogen and Wilde), whose marriage rests on thin ice. They invite their mysterious upstairs neighbors (Cruz and Norton) over for a dinner party, which we see unravel in the trailer. The night spirals into unexpected outcomes, leading to a proposition that threatens to change everything. It’s a raw look into the complexities of marriage, one that’s both funny and deeply human.

The Invite is Wilde’s first directorial effort since Don’t Worry Darling in 2022. The Invite is a remake of the Spanish film The People Upstairs. It is co-written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack. David Permut, Megan Ellison, and Ben Browning produced.

A24

The Invite received high praise when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, igniting a bidding war that A24 ultimately came out on top of. The trailer gives us an enthralling first look at the upcoming film. My guess is that it will likely be A24’s next big hit following The Drama. What unforeseen outcomes will unfold at this dinner party? Find out this summer. The Invite heads to select theaters on June 26 and is out everywhere in July.

The post THE INVITE Trailer Sees Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde at a Fraught Dinner Party appeared first on Nerdist.

Arcee is a tiny 26-person U.S. startup that built a high-performing, massive, open source LLM. And it's gaining popularity with OpenClaw users.

Eclipse will put some of that money towards incubating, or building startups.

Any Batman is only as good as his allies. For Robert Pattinson’s (the) Batman, he has a damn good James Gordon in the form of Jeffrey Wright. And though he’s not in the 2022’s The Batman as much as I might have liked, Andy Serkis is a distinctly stabilizing force as Alfred Pennyworth. So, one would hope Alfred would play a major part in the long (long, long)-awaited The Batman Part II. But Serkis is a busy man, both with his upcoming directorial duties for Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum and doing press for his animated Animal Farm. Fear not, however, as Serkis says he should be returning to Wayne Manor.Warner Bros.

Speaking to Collider (via Deadline), Serkis says scheduling has been an issue with the London shoot for Matt Reeves’ The Batman sequel. That has a planned start date for production this June. “I’m pretty certain it’s all going to work out. Yeah, we’re working on it, but I think it’s all looking good.” Serkis went on to say that he “won’t be joining them immediately,” them being Batman II, but “by the end of the year, I will be.”

Look, I’m happy for any and all Alfred we can get in a new Batman movie. Any Batman movie without Alfred would be worse for it. But, sixth-ish months of production without him certainly doesn’t make it seem like we’ll get a ton of Alfred in the movie. Ah well.

The Deadline article ends with a list of the remaining cast. “Colin Farrell as the Penguin, Scarlett Johansson, and Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent.” To our knowledge, Stan has only been rumored to play Harvey Dent, not confirmed. It’s certainly likely, given pretty much everything about Sebastian Stan’s screen persona, plus the fact that Johansson’s role is rumored to be someone named “Golda.” In The Long Halloween, Harvey’s wife Golda plays a major role.

Anyway, Alfred’s back. Yay.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post Andy Serkis to Return as Alfred for THE BATMAN PART II appeared first on Nerdist.

For over seven seasons, Game Changer, the competition series from the indie comedy platform Dropout, has been amassing quite a following. The show, hosted by Sam Reich, even had a crossover of sorts with the ABC procedural series The Rookie. The basic premise of the show has the contestants left completely unaware of the rules, let alone the game’s premise, until the episode starts. And every episode features a brand new scenario, hence the title. And soon, fans will be able to bring this specific Game Changer brand of hilarious insanity home. On May 5, a Game Changer: Home Edition tabletop game is launching via Kickstarter. Fans have waited patiently for this one. You can check out the social media announcement for the Kickstarter below:

🎉 It’s time for a…

Game Changer: Home Edition – coming to Kickstarter on May 5th!

Three games. One box. Infinite possibilities. pic.twitter.com/9njnlvrxts

— Game Changer 👐 (@GameChangerSam) April 7, 2026

And here’s the official description on the Kickstarter page for the Game Changer: Home Edition, the chaotic party game where the rules change with every round.

Three games. One box. Infinite possibilities. Prepare yourself for a chaotic new party game, based on Dropout’s hit game show, where the only rule is that the rules keep changing.

Kickstarter/Dropout

It seems Dropout is keeping most of the details of this new home version of Game Changer under wraps. But we expect it to be suitably chaotic. We imagine that as the months roll on, we’ll get more information once the Kickstarter campaign hits its goals. Game Changer began in 2019, as the brainchild of its host, comedian Sam Reich. Most of the contestants on the show have been comedians of one type or another, or folks adept at on-the-fly improv. These include Howie Mandel, Eric Warheim, and former RuPaul’s Drag Race stars like Bob the Drag Queen and Laganja Estranja. Even esteemed actor Giancarlo Esposito has appeared on the show. Here’s hoping the home edition is just as wild as the version on our screens all these years.

If you want to bring Dropout’s Game Changer home, support the Kickstarter today.

The post Dropout Launches GAME CHANGER: Home Edition Kickstarter appeared first on Nerdist.

Listen, it’s a wild world out there. We’ll take joy where we can find it. And if there are two things that give us joy, it’s LEGO and One Piece. And so, seeing LEGO AND One Piece together gives us a huge shot of adrenaline. In the teaser trailer for LEGO One Piece, we get a taste of what’s to come, and that’s a fabulous retelling of live-action One Piece‘s first two seasons, as told by the Great Captain Usopp. Yes, we’re pretty sure that’s Jacob Romero Gibson’s voice we hear in this LEGO One Piece trailer. And honestly, we’re grinning from ear to ear about this one.

Straw Hat Pirates fans will get not one but two parts of this LEGO One Piece animated special, premiering on September 29. As Netflix shares, “A Netflix first, this animated special produced in partnership with the LEGO Group, Shueisha and Atomic, retells the epic events of the first two seasons of the live action ONE PIECE, in a way only the LEGO Group can —jam-packed with comedy, high-stakes thrills, and brick-built action that is the perfect entryway for new recruits and an exciting new perspective for veteran pirates.”

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From taking down the Arlong Pirates, to dancing with Baroque Works assassins, to battling Devil Fruit users and the insecurities inside of their hearts, we’ll see ALL of the Straw Hat Pirates’ greatest hits come to life in LEGO form. And, of course, there will be the narration of the Great Captain Usopp to keep us full of cheer. And Usopp won’t just be telling his stories to us, he’ll be telling them to the most adorable Straw Hat pirate of all, Tony Tony Chopper. Chopper becomes EVEN cuter in his LEGO reindeer form.

Netflix

We honestly just can’t wait to go on these One Piece adventures with the LEGO crew. And hey, if you can’t wait until September, you can pick up these LEGO One Piece sets TODAY. There’s the Going Merry set, the Baratie, Windmill Village, Buggy the Clown’s Circus Tent, and even a brick Battle with Arlong Park.

You can also head to Netflix to stream One Piece seasons one and two right now. If you haven’t watched yet, we highly recommend it!

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

The post LEGO ONE PIECE Special Makes Us Grin Big (Much Needed) appeared first on Nerdist.

A joint FBI, NSA, and CISA advisory warns that Iranian hackers have 'escalated' their tactics in response to the ongoing U.S.-Israel war with Iran.

When you’ve made as many films, as many amazing films, and as many amazing sci-fi films specifically, as Steven Spielberg, your opinion carries quite a bit of weight. So when the director says—ahead of the release of his own new sci-fi movie Disclosure Day—that Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies are among his favorites, that’s some high, high praise. Villeneuve is about 8 months away from the debut of Dune: Part III, his fifth sci-fi movie in a row. The sweeping grandeur of these movies has made him a must-watch filmmaker. And Spielberg is one such watcher.

Speaking to Empire (via Variety), the Close Encounters of the Third Kind director praised the Dune films. “Recently, I’ve loved the Dune movies. They are among my favorite science-fiction movies, not just recently, but of all time. Especially the second film,” Spielberg said. “I think [Part Two] is the best movie Denis has ever made. I cannot wait to see the third one. I’m sure he’ll show it to me early. I’m such a fan of his.” 

WB/Universal

He goes on to say that the movies aren’t just good, but they would make the author of the source material proud. Spielberg continued, “I love the Dune books, and I just think his tribute to the books is like Guillermo [del Toro]’s tribute to Mary Shelley with Frankenstein: he honored Mary Shelley as I think Denis honored Frank Herbert.”

I legitimately can’t think of a better and more touching compliment from a master filmmaker to another. And he was just handing them out in this interview. Spielberg later went on to heap praise on Zach Cregger’s Weapons in a similar fashion.

Warner Bros.

“I haven’t directed a horror film yet, and I’ve always wanted to, and someday I may. But there have been some great horror films out already that satisfy that itch. When I see a great horror film like Weapons, I don’t have an itch I need to scratch. I see Weapons, and it doesn’t make me want to make a horror film that’s as scary or scarier than Weapons. It satisfies me so completely, it actually arrests my desire to someday make a really, really scary movie.”

Damn, dude. Spielberg loves cinema. Go figure.

Editor’s Note: Nerdist is a subsidiary of Legendary Digital Networks

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post Steven Spielberg Names DUNE Among His Favorite Sci-fi Movies appeared first on Nerdist.

Nvidia-backed Asia AI data center provider Firmus has now raised $1.35 billion in six months.

Sesame Street has been a beloved television institution since 1969, teaching young children basic life lessons with lovable puppets created by Jim Henson. And these days, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Elmo are icons who sell tons of merch to kids. Although Sesame Street aired on PBS for decades, in 2016 HBO started to bankroll new episodes. Later, Netflix took over in 2025. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, several classic episodes from the show’s first 38 years on the air are now on the free streaming service Tubi. Among those episodes is one from 1980, where Star Wars‘ beloved droids R2-D2 and C-3PO appear.

Fox owns Tubi, bringing select episodes from Sesame Street’s first 38 seasons to its platform, which started on April 1. Some 250 episodes of Sesame Street were shot between 1969 and 2007. Now, several of them will be available on the platform as part of a one-year deal. If your favorite episode from your childhood is not among that initial batch, don’t worry. Tubi plans to swap out about ten percent of the available Sesame Street episodes every quarter. So there’s a good chance that one episode that triggers a core memory for you from your childhood will appear down the line.

Tubi

Tubi’s chief content officer, Adam Lewinson, said in a statement, “Few brands have shaped young minds and sparked imagination quite like Sesame Street. By bringing hundreds of episodes to Tubi for free, we’re giving today’s kids access to joyful, foundational learning while inviting parents to share a piece of their own childhood with the next generation.” These days, public broadcasting remains in danger. Other networks have had to pitch in to continue new episodes of Sesame Street. But we’re glad that at least the old episodes have a home for the time being.

The post Tubi Will Air Classic SESAME STREET Episodes for One Year appeared first on Nerdist.

Space is a fascinating place, especially with the zero gravity of it all. If there’s one thing space movies and real life footage have in common, it’s that we’re sure to see some astronauts floating around willy nilly. Just take Grace in Project Hail Mary for example (yes, my every waking thought does still revolve around this movie). It all makes us wonder just how difficult it really is for astronauts to do normal, everyday things. Obviously, they get their own special space food and stuff like that, but what about entertainment? For instance, what it would be like to play Dungeons & Dragons in space? How does one roll a d20 in space with no gravity? Thanks to German astronaut Rabea Rogge, the mystery has been solved. Rogge posted a demonstration video on Instagram on April 4, which has already gone viral after just a few days.

D&D in space? It’s the question everyone has been asking. Ok, not really, but we do have the answer, thanks to Rogge. In addition to being the first German female astronaut, Rogge is also a huge TTRPG fan. And her explanation of how to roll a d20 die in space is actually quite simple. She shows us how in a short video she posted on Instagram.

Rabea Rogge

First, Rogge throws the d20 gently in the air, letting it spin for a moment in the zero-gravity atmosphere. Then, she catches it in her palm. She determines the roll by seeing what number peeks out of the hole between her thumb and pointer finger. That easy. Huzzah, space D&D is possible! If Rocky and Grace ever head back out for another space adventure, it would be amazing to see them playing a little D&D.

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Rogge’s post is already at 258 thousand likes and counting. This d20 space roll even captured the attention of the official Dungeons & Dragons‘ Instagram page. The page left a comment under her video, which reads: “New rule—anything you roll in space is a critical success.”

Amazon MGM Studios

Chances are, most of us are probably not headed to space anytime soon. But, if the opportunity ever arises, it’s nice to know that D&D and other dice-rolling games are space-approved. Maybe we can get the first space campaign rolling. We’d love to roll a d20 in zero gravity.

The post Watch: Astronaut Rolls d20 in Zero Gravity appeared first on Nerdist.

The partnership brings semiconductor experience to Musk's latest high-tech project.

The new model will be used by a small number of high-profile companies to engage in defensive cybersecurity work.

The Boys may be heading into its final season, season five. But that doesn’t mean new faces can’t come aboard the super team of actors that bring this intense, gory, and outrageous show to life. Ahead of its season five premiere, The Boys has revealed five new members of its cast: Ely Henry, Dylan Colton, Emma Elle Paterson, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan. Ely Henry is joining in the role of “The Worm.” Meanwhile, Dylan Colton, Emma Elle Paterson, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan are coming in as members of Teenage Kix, Vought International’s all-teenage superhero team from the original The Boys graphic novel. As we said, it’s never too late to adapt new characters from the original graphic novel. And we know these new members of The Boys season five cast will bring even more excellence to the table.

Prime Video Prime Video

Those who love the original The Boys graphic novel will know that Teenage Kix is a superhero team created by Vought International to specifically appeal to a younger audience. Gotta widen the base, you know? In The Boys season four, Ryan Butcher, the illegitimate son of Homelander and Becca Butcher, received an offer to join Teenage Kix. We’ll have to wait and see how that all plays out in season four.

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For now, here’s what we know: “In the fifth and final season, it’s Homelander’s world, completely subject to his erratic, egomaniacal whims. Hughie, Mother’s Milk, and Frenchie are imprisoned in a “Freedom Camp.”  Annie struggles to mount a resistance against the overwhelming Supe force. Kimiko is nowhere to be found. But when Butcher reappears, ready and willing to use a virus that will wipe all Supes off the map, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever change the world and everyone in it.  It’s the climax, people. Big stuff’s gonna happen.“

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The Boys season five will premiere with its first two episodes on April 8, 2026. We’re excited to see all our favorite familiar supes, as well as this latest new cast, come back to us for one final season of The Boys.

The post THE BOYS Season 5 New Cast Reveal: The Worm and Teenage Kix appeared first on Nerdist.

2026 marks fifty years of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, easily one of the most influential vampire books since Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Rice’s first novel, published in 1976, arrived in a very different era for horror fiction. A time when mainstream publishers often dismissed supernatural novels out of hand. But Interview helped change that narrative. Now, the book that made the Vampire Lestat an icon is getting re-released in a new fiftieth-anniversary edition. It arrives with a new foreword and afterword, the latter from Anne Rice’s son Christopher Rice, himself a successful author. Releasing in October, just in time for Halloween, you can now pre-order the new hardcover Interview with the Vampire fiftieth anniversary edition by clicking here.

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire 50th Anniversary Edition Click To View Gallery Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf

This special edition hardcover arrives decadently styled, with a foil-printed case, blood-red sprayed edges, and marbled endpapers. The new foreword comes from Leigh Bardugo, author of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Rice wrote this lush novel in the wake of her young daughter’s tragic death. She channeled all her grief into the character of the vampire narrator, Louis. He describes his eternal life in Antebellum New Orleans, where he becomes enthralled with the dashing and cruel vampire, Lestat. Together, they create a vampiric daughter, Claudia. But as the decades roll on, this volatile undead family unravels violently.

Alfred A. Knopf

Interview with the Vampire became a cult hit, ultimately finding great success in paperback. This led to Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, which lasted thirteen volumes and forty years. Rice’s first novel finally became a successful film in 1994, starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst. In 2022, after years of development, AMC reimagined the novel as a television series. It launched AMC’s Anne Rice Immortal Universe, which continues still. But it all began with Anne Rice’s novel, which you can rediscover in this new edition, or read for the very first time, just to see what all the fuss is about.

Once again, the 50th anniversary version of Interview with the Vampire can be pre-ordered via this link. The book will release on October 6, 2026.

This post has affiliate links, which means we may earn advertising money if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra, we just have to give you the heads up for legal reasons. Click away!

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Indie horror movies have been killing it (pun intended) for the past decade with their focus on nerve-shredding dread and pathos out the ass. In the video game space, it’s a similar situation. While really only the Resident Evil franchise can keep putting out banger after banger, it’s indie games where most of the really interesting horror arrives. So why not put that particular chocolate and peanut butter together? Just look at the success of Markiplier’s Iron Lung movie. But, when it came to another streamer-friendly uncanny game-turned-movie, I was a bit more dubious. I mean, The Exit 8 game doesn’t even have a story. But, now it’s a movie, and it weirdly works.

Toho

The game, from developer Kotake Create, dropped in 2023. Without even a title screen, the player finds themselves in first-person view, walking down the fluorescent-tiled hallway of a Japanese subway. White tiles, a yellow line on the floor, some signage, and a man walking harmlessly the other direction greet you. But as you round the corners, you find yourself back at the same hallway, with the same signs, and strangely the same walking man, staring back at you. This is our gameplay loop in Exit 8. To find a way out, we have to find any and all anomalies in the hallway. If we see one, we turn around and go back the other way. If we don’t, we don’t. After eight such correct guesses, we can leave. If we mess up one, the counter resets.

Some of the anomalies are super obvious, while others are nefariously subtle. An observant player can complete the game in a matter of minutes. How, then, can Exit 8 turn into a 95-minute movie? To my surprise, pretty effectively. Without ever changing the premise of the game that much, director and co-writer Genki Kawamura and co-writer Kentaro Hirase add enough story, and give interesting wrinkles to familiar elements, that a literal looping hallway actually feels like it’s heading somewhere.

Toho

The story follows of Exit 8 a character simply called “The Lost Man” (Kazunari Ninomiya), who rides the subway as he gets a call from his ex (or estranged) girlfriend. She informs him she’s pregnant, and he begins to spiral. As he exits the train and walks toward the exit, he seamlessly ends up in the familiar hallway and quickly learns “the rules.” He maybe believes the rules are a thing too quickly, but it works for the movie well enough.

From there, the Lost Man encounters strange and uncanny elements, most prominently the Walking Man (Yamato Kochi), who will occasionally behave extra creepily depending on the loop. While never fully explaining anything, the Exit 8 movie does add a bit of context for some of it, and indeed, we learn more about the Walking Man than expected. The anomalies get stranger and more upsetting as the movie goes along, and the Lost Man will have to sort himself out if he hopes to leave.

NEON

One of the movie’s biggest successes is how well it emulates the feeling of an endless, cut-free loop that makes up the game. While the movie does have cuts, both obvious and hidden, the bulk of the action feels like a single take. The film also recreates the Exit 8 hallways to perfection, and its every nook and cranny will seer into your brain. Knowing the geography of the small space is of paramount importance to noticing the eeriness of the anomalies.

Exit 8 doesn’t outstay its welcome, it gets in, gets out, tells a familiar but mainly compelling enough story with a few interesting twists in its many looped hallways. It might not revolutionize the video game movie, but it does show that any game can make for good cinema.

⭐ (3.5 of 5)

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post EXIT 8 Manages to Turn a 20 Minute Game into Compelling Feature Film (Review) appeared first on Nerdist.

The news follows a report from Nikkei Asia on Tuesday that raised concerns the company’s foldable iPhone could be delayed due to challenges during the phone’s engineering test phase.

Superman has had, more or less, one costume his whole career. Sure, there have been some minor tweaks since those early DC Comics days. But he’s essentially worn the same getup since about 1945. But his cousin Kara, a.k.a. Supergirl? She adds to her Kryptonian closet with some regularity. Here’s the history of Supergirl’s costume, from the 1959 “girl next door from space” look, to her DCU costume that Milly Alcock will wear in the upcoming Supergirl film. DC Comics/Warner Bros.

Note: Since the character has appeared in many costume iterations, we’re sticking to outfits worn by the main DCU comics character, not any alternate Earth or Elseworlds versions. So no Power Girl, who is almost an entirely different hero, and no Injustice Kara. And no one-offs, used for a single story, then forgotten just as fast. We are including the movie and Arrowverse versions, as well as the animated ones, because they made a big impact and, in turn, the comics started to reflect them.

The Prototype Supergirl CostumeDC Comics

Less than a year before Kara debuted in the pages of Action Comics, DC tried out a Supergirl character to see if readers would respond in 1958’s Superman #123. DC had flirted with a female counterpart to Superman before, like in the ’40s when Lois Lane got powers. They created this Girl of Steel when Jimmy Olsen wished for a Supergirl to help Superman out by conjuring her on a magic totem. She died in the very same issue in which they introduced her in. But readers liked her enough that DC introduced a real Supergirl one year later. She’d be just a footnote, if not for one thing. The costume she wore, which had a red skirt, would become Kara’s most recognizable costume. But Kara herself wouldn’t wear it until 26 years later in the Supergirl feature film.

Kara Zor-El’s Original CostumeDC Comics

The Supergirl most people know, Kara-Zor-El, first debuted in 1959’s Action Comics #252. When she arrived on Earth from Krypton to greet her cousin she wore this outfit, which remains one of her most iconic. She wore this particular costume for over a decade. It’s basically just her cousin Superman’s costume, but with a skirt and no pants. In many ways, this remains the most iconic Supergirl costume of all, except these days, most people think of it with a red skirt instead of blue. We’ll get to why in a bit. Oddly enough, Kara didn’t wear any version of her costume with a red skirt until 1983, nearly 25 years after her debut.

The Fan-Made Supergirl Costume FashionDC Comics

We know, we said no “one off” costumes. But this Supergirl costume phase was too important not to mention. In 1970, Supergirl fans started feeling like her costume was dated. The look she arrived in was a relic of the Leave it to Beaver era, and it was now a post-Woodstock world. So DC asked fans to send in their best costume designs. And the fans complied. They sent in dozens, and DC actually used a few of them. Since this was the early ‘70s, the aesthetics were, shall we say, very groovy. Most of these costumes were just worn once or twice. But one of them was the first time a Supergirl costume included pants. Something her prime-universe comics counterpart wouldn’t ever really wear until very recently.

The Cocktail Waitress of SteelDC Comics

In 1972, Supergirl finally got her own comic book series instead of merely being a feature in the anthology title Adventure Comics. To celebrate, she got a new costume once again. Only this one stuck for the better part of a decade. It’s another costume very much of its time with a choker, low-cut blouse, and hot pants. Fans have often referred to this one as “the cocktail waitress costume.” As the decade rolled on, the hot pants became regular shorts and the pixie shoes became red boots like she had before. But the basic look remained for a decade. And this costume made it into much of the Supergirl merchandising of the time.

Kara Gets Physical in a Costume to Die ForDC Comics

In 1983, with production about to begin on a live-action Supergirl movie, DC decided to update Kara’s look for the MTV era. To reflect the workout craze, they have the Girl of Steel a perm and a headband. It was all very “Jane Fonda Workout” tape. Actress Helen Slater wore a version of this costume for screen tests, but the producers ultimately ditched the headband and the cape attached to the “S” symbol for the final film. However, they kept the red skirt, which people associate with Supergirl to this day. This costume only lasted a couple of years, but it was the outfit Kara famously died in, saving the universe in Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985.

The Hollywood CostumeWarner Bros.

Supergirl finally made it into live-action in 1984, in a big-budget feature starring newcomer Helen Slater. A spin-off of the Christopher Reeve Superman films, it sadly totally tanked at the box office and was a critical disaster. However, more people still saw that movie versus reading any one Supergirl comic, especially once it went to home video and cable TV. So this costume instantly became Supergirl’s most well-known. Ironically, it was a costume first worn by the version of the character that was just the prototype, and not the Kara version everyone knows.

The Replacement Supergirl Keeps it ClassicDC Comics

Kara Zor-El was dead and buried in DC continuity from 1985-2004. But in the interim, DC introduced a different Supergirl to the Superman family. And her origin was a tad complicated. But here’s the short version. This version of Supergirl was a protoplasmic lifeform called Matrix that could mimic human appearance. She came from an alternate Earth, where that world’s Kal-El died, and Lex Luthor created her to replace him. She eventually “fused” with a human woman named Linda Danvers, becoming an angel on Earth. Yeah, “Superman’s cousin” makes more sense to us as an origin, too. In any event, the costume worn by this Supergirl from 1988 to 1998 or so is almost exactly the same one we saw in the movie.

The ’90s Supergirl Cartoon CostumeDC Comics

Speaking of the ‘90s, Superman: The Animated Series eventually introduced their version of Supergirl, in the 1998 episode “Little Girl Lost.” This version was Kara, but not Superman’s direct cousin. Instead of Krypton, she was a survivor of the neighboring world of Argo. Her costume was very of its time. Belly T-shirt, Doc Marten boots, a super mini skirt, and a headband that looked like Alicia Silverstone’s in Clueless. In a change of pace for Kara, her shirt was white and not blue. She also had white gloves, a first for her. The comics version of Supergirl, who was not Kara at the time but Linda Danvers, eventually adopted the costume herself. Another example of outside media influencing the comics.

Supergirl’s Costume in the 21st Century DC Comics

In the early 2000s, DC decided it was time to reintroduce Kara Zor-El. They didn’t resurrect the original Kara, but reintroduced a younger version as a brand-new character just arriving on Earth. This Kara 2.0, designed by the late artist Michael Turner, essentially had the same outfit as her original counterpart did in 1959. Except she now had a bare midriff, much like Britney Spears would have in that era. The costume has more yellow highlights as well. If not for the ridiculously over-exposed mid-section and wildly short skirt, we’d consider this one an all-timer.

The New 52 CostumeDC Comics

In 2011, DC rebooted its entire universe thanks to the event called Flashpoint. The result was “the New 52,” a new timeline with a new Supergirl. She was still Kara, but now more Kryptonian, more aggressive, and with a very weird costume. It definitely evoked the Jim Lee era of early ’90s comics that the New 52 was mimicking. Her cape made a statement with a very dramatic collar. But the boots that leave the knees exposed? The weird red diamond shape over the crotch? All that extra piping in the costume itself? This was an overdone look, and we weren’t sad to see it go.

The Supergirl Television Show CostumeWarner Bros./CW

When Supergirl got her own live-action TV series on CBS (later the CW) she appeared in a costume that reflected what most people thought of when they thought “Supergirl.” So basically, actress Melissa Benoist wore a more muted version of the 1984 movie costume for the Arrowverse. Actually, it’s a cross between the classic version and the then-current DCEU Superman costume worn by Henry Cavill. So, bright colors were not “in” at this time. But everything else about this costume was fantastic, and worked well on screen for four seasons of television.

The Rebirth UniformDC Comics

In 2016, DC Comics undid the New 52, and go back to something more classic. This era was called “Rebirth,” and it was a rebirth for Supergirl as well. The militaristic look of the New 52 was out the window. With the success of the TV series, DC decided to give Kara a look that reflected her live-action counterpart. Except the colors were brighter, and more, dare we say, comic booky. And this might be the best Supergirl costume yet. This is very similar to the costume she wore in the 2021 Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic, only Bilquis Evely’s design had a larger belt.

The TV Costume, Take Two. Pants at Last!Warner Bros./CW

In the final two seasons of the CW’s Supergirl, Melissa Benoist got something she’d been asking for since season one: pants. Yes, Kara got a new costume this season, which covered up her legs at last. Although Supergirl was barely ever allowed to wear pants in the comics, this outfit changed the game. It definitely drew inspiration from a short-lived costume from the early ‘70s, only it improved on it. The latest comics costume for Kara took a cue from Melissa Benoist and finally added pants. But in a shocking twist, she has no cape, and has a jacket instead! We’re not sure how we feel about that.

DC ComicsThe Flash’s Supergirl CostumeWarner Bros./DC Comics

Sasha Calle played Supergirl in The Flash, and this Kara Zor-El differs from any we’ve seen before. This costume looks more than a bit like Henry Cavill’s version. Although she is Kara, her costume was inspired by a non-Kara version of the Girl of Steel. It’s strikingly similar to Injustice’s Lara Kent, the daughter of Superman and Lois Lane.

The DC “All-In” CostumeDC Comics

Supergirl began headlining her own series again in 2025, as part of DC’s “All-In” initiative, from creator Sophie Campbell. In this ongoing series, Kara returns to a more classic look, as she heads back to her hometown in Midvale. The cape is back, and the outfit is a blend of her Rebirth costume, with her bare midriff from the early ’00s. This is also what she wears in other DC titles, such as Justice League Unlimited.

The DCU Supergirl DC Studios

We now arrive at our newest live-action Kara, Milly Alcock, who portrays the character in the DCU. She made her debut in James Gunn’s Superman in a cameo, and will headline her own feature film this summer. However, she’s already had two costumes. In her first DCU appearance, Kara largely based her look on David Corenswet’s Superman costume. The ‘S’ symbol reflects his, and includes a thick belt with red highlights and what looked like a thick red skirt. For her upcoming movie, the skirt appears to be constructed from lighter materials, and the belt is solid gold. This looks more like Kara’s costume in the comic book this movie is based on, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. We’re fans of this look, and can’t wait to see it in action on the big screen.

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Originally published May 19, 2023.

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