Milly Alcock will carry a piece of cinematic history into theaters when Supergirl opens June 26 — her cape was constructed using leftover fabric from the costume Christopher Reeve wore in the original Superman in 1978. Alcock disclosed the detail on Raiders of the Lost Podcast, explaining that the production located approximately 16 meters of the original material, which was then woven into the back of her red cape for director Craig Gillespie’s DCU film.
The discovery of the surplus fabric — nearly half a century after Richard Donner’s Superman shot at Pinewood Studios — represents a rare case of costume history surviving intact enough to be put back to use. Reeve wore the suit across all four of his Superman films between 1978 and 1987, and died in 2004 at 52 following complications from a spinal cord injury he sustained in a horse-riding accident a decade earlier.
The cape detail fits into a broader pattern of deliberate homage that James Gunn’s rebooted DC Studios has woven through its early releases. Last year’s Superman, starring David Corenswet, featured a cameo from Reeve’s son Will — a journalist in real life who appeared in the film as a reporter — along with a score built around a remix of John Williams’ original 1978 theme. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, the documentary about the late actor’s life and legacy, won DC Studios a string of awards last year. The cape choice extends that through line from the abstract into the physical: the connection is literally stitched into the costume.
Alcock first appeared as Kara Zor-El in the Corenswet Superman before getting her standalone vehicle. Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, adapted by Ana Nogueira from Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s 2022 comic series, follows Kara across a galactic journey with her dog Krypto, before she teams with a young alien girl named Ruthye to track down the man who murdered her father. Jason Momoa co-stars as the mercenary Lobo, with Matthias Schoenaerts as the villain Krem and Eve Ridley as Ruthye. The film opens in the U.K. on June 25 and goes wide globally the following day.
