The DCU's New Set Photos Prove It Nailed Its Hardest Castings

Via MovieStillsDB Published Jul 29, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account The DC Universe's newest set photos and set reveals confirm the franchise has nailed two of its hardest castings, and two castings that should pay off for the universe in a major way going forward. Setting up a superhero cinematic universe is not for the faint of heart, as has been clear with many of the missteps and retcons that franchises like the Sony Spider-Man Universe, DCEU, and even the MCU have been responsible for over the years. With the standard for superhero movies and franchises being higher than ever, the DCU timeline is in a situation that is both exciting and somewhat more complex overall. There's a colossal range of reference points for how to pull off a truly good superhero series and use it to build a wider world, but also a lot of potential pitfalls to encounter in this regard too, especially given audiences have become so used to the conventional superhero movie story and tone. As such, it's all the more crucial for the franchise to get its biggest early moves right, and to ensure the DCU's trajectory is as smooth as possible via some solid cornerstones for future DCU releases to build upon. Promisingly, the DCU appears to have done just that by getting two of its most important castings right - as has been further underscored by our latest look at the franchise and the actors within it. The DCU's Latest Superman & Supergirl Set Photos Prove The Franchise Nailed Its Kryptonian Castings The digital release of Supergirl has come complete with a range of bonus features, including some behind-the-scenes looks at the DCU's production process thus far, which has included some set photos and videos of Milly Alcock and David Corenswet in their Supergirl and Superman costumes. These behind-the-scenes snippets have already attracted considerable attention online, both because the duo are convincing as the heroes in these set photos, and because they work well together while taking on their respective roles. Ultimately, it's one thing to be a good Superman or Supergirl casting on paper, and another to be able to truly embody the characters and also work well alongside other heroes or villains with close ties to the figure in question. Naturally, this makes the matter of how well Alcock and Corenswet are able to pull off the complex dynamic of being two family members who met late due to their origins being on a now-destroyed planet and who are trying to build their familial relationship years later all the more impressive. Why Superman & Supergirl Are The DCU's Most Important (& Most Challenging) Hero Castings While the DCU has a lot of crucial castings to get right in the coming years, Superman and Supergirl are the franchise's most important for a range of clear and major reasons. First and foremost, the duo are the heroes of the first two DCU movies, which makes their roles natural focal points for the franchise in this early stage of development - and while Supergirl drew more divided reception, audiences were far more unified in praising Milly Alcock's casting and performance, which bodes well for the franchise's future. Similarly, the duo are two of the DCU's more complex castings given the live-action DC movie backdrop that's been established in the decades prior. Superman's expansive live-action movie history has included a range of stellar castings that set a seriously high bar for Corenswet's own performance, and inversely, Supergirl's relative rarity in DC's live-action worlds meant Alcock's performance also needed to be strong to prove to audiences that the character could be a lively and engaging figure worth being invested in for the long run. Hopefully, the reaction to the newest reveals around the two actors will continue to benefit the DC Universe, and mean that Superman and Supergirl can be used by the franchise to further set up more of its universe and heroes - as appears to be the case soon thanks to the impending release of Man of Tomorrow in 2027.