According to the authoritative publication The Hollywood Reporter, DC Studios management realized that "Supergirl" had serious problems many months before its premiere. According to insiders, the first alarming signals appeared in the fall of 2025 — just a couple of months after the completion of filming.
The first test screenings of Craig Gillespie's director's cut received low scores — around 60 out of 100, although one source mentions 70 points. THR informants also mention a conflict between the studio and the director. Opinions here traditionally differ: some claim that Gillespie and the management did not agree on the creative vision of the film, while others call the disagreements a "normal and healthy" working process.
Nevertheless, realizing the unviability of the current version of the film, DC Studios began working on its own cut. For additional reshoots, James Gunn secretly brought in screenwriter Jeremy Slater ("Mortal Kombat 2"), who, together with the original screenwriter Ana Nogueira, prepared new material. Based on this, the team conducted nine additional days of filming. In particular, the changes affected the final battle and the musical score.
As a result, two editors worked on the film in parallel: Tatiana S. Riegel (Gillespie's choice), who defended the director's vision, and Fred Raskin — James Gunn's regular co-author. According to THR, the studio version performed slightly better in test screenings, scoring around 72 points. And when both versions — the director's cut (which was 11 minutes longer) and the producer's cut — were shown to final focus groups, the difference between them was only two points.
Ultimately, DC Studios management made the strong decision to release the shortened studio version. However, as the current catastrophic box office receipts show, this did not save the project from commercial failure. Moreover, such a move only intensified the debate surrounding James Gunn's role: in social networks, many viewers now believe that the responsibility for the final fiasco lies primarily with the head of the studio, and not with Craig Gillespie.