Can Supergirl Solve Superman’s Weird Krypton Plot Twist?

The 2025 Superman movie was built around a shocking twist involving the DCU version of Krypton. The unexpected story element ultimately serves to affirm the humanity of the Man of Steel, despite contradicting much of the popular lore of his home world. However, the existence of Supergirl may suggest there is more to the story than meets the eye.

The opening scenes of Superman find an injured Clark Kent retreating to the Fortress of Solitude. As his robot assistants help him heal, he listens to an incomplete recording of his parents, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. They speak of how much they love him and how they sent him to Earth so he might “do the most good and live out Krypton’s truth.”

Superman (2025) offers a unique twist on the hero’s origin story

However, the phrase “Krypton’s truth” takes on a darker meaning when Lex Luthor and The Engineer unscramble the rest of the recording. In it, Jor-El and Lara describe the people of Earth as “weak of mind and spirit and body.” They further instruct their son to take as many wives as possible and rule Earth without mercy.

The video turns many people against Superman when Luthor reveals it to the world. It is repeatedly said to be legitimate, with even Mister Terrific saying there is no way it could be fake. Ignoring that The Engineer’s powers could enable her to generate convincing deep-fakes, there is one thing that suggests the video is fake. And that is the existence of Supergirl.

Will Supergirl reveal Superman’s parents weren’t really weird or reinforce the idea of a fascist Krypton?

Little has been revealed about Kara Zor-El’s background in the DCU. It has yet to be explained how she came to Earth or why she followed after her cousin. This is important, as the details have differed in various comic book timelines and adaptations.

In 1959’s Action Comics #252, Supergirl was born on a colony that survived the destruction of Krypton. When their home was endangered, her scientist father sent her to Earth, having learned of Superman’s existence. In most modern retellings, like the Smallville and Supergirl TV shows, Kara grew up on Krypton and was sent to Earth at the same time as Kal-El to look after her infant cousin. However, she was delayed in getting there until he was already grown-up.

If any case, the DCU Supergirl logically should have been aware of her family’s intentions. Presumably, she would have said something to her cousin, even if he never asked her what their family was like. However, that seems unlikely given how much Superman cherished the only connection he had to his birth parents.

It seems likely these questions will be answered in the 2026 Supergirl movie. The film’s cast is known to feature David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham as Kara’s parents, Zor-El and Alura In-Ze. It’s entirely possible that Superman’s parents were out of synch with Kryptonian society and that Kara didn’t have the heart to tell her cousin the truth after learning what he had become on his own. That seems far more likely than the idea that Supergirl wouldn’t tell Superman he was meant to be building a space harem, if that was the case.