Supergirl Milly Alcock Talks Superhero Movie Criticism
by Mychal ThompsonBuzzFeedBuzzFeed StaffAs a junior staff writer for the Pop Culture & Celebrity News team, I write about all things pop culture, whether celebs, movies, TV, music, politics, or trending topics.If you must know, I based my entire personality on Seasons 2-5 of "Girls," and I'm a huge gamer.
You know Milly Alcock. She's best known for her breakout role as young Rhaenyra Targaryen in Season 1 of the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon.
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Given the massive following of the Game of Thrones franchise, Milly is no stranger to the intensity of fandom, so when she joined the DC Universe as Supergirl, the 25-year-old was coming on board prepared for a big project viewed through a critical lens.
Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection
In a March 31 interview with Vanity Fair, Milly shared what it took to prepare for Supergirl and the particularly fickle superhero fanbase. "It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on," Milly said. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women's bodies. I can't really stop them. I can only be myself."
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Milly first appeared as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl in 2025's Superman. Talking to Vanity Fair, she explained that she originally swore off working on another big franchise after House of the Dragon, but "bullied" herself into playing the "Girl of Steel" after she didn't work for a year beyond Netflix's 2025 limited series Sirens.
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"I was so shit-scared that my life was over at 22," she said. "And, of course, it wasn't."
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When Vanity Fair asked her about the discourse around the superhero genre, specifically from filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott, Milly offered a fair take that has driven the conversation further online.
JC Olivera / Variety via Getty Images
Ridley told Deadline in 2021 his main gripe about superhero movies was that “their scripts are not any fucking good.” “I think I’ve done three great scripted superhero movies. One would be Alien with Sigourney Weaver. One would be fucking Gladiator, and one would be Harrison Ford,” he added, further explaining how his movies like Blade Runner and Alien are technically superhero movies.
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Martin discussed his misgivings about superhero movies in a 2019 New York Times interview. He claimed he wasn't intending to insult Marvel, but to explain that "Cinema was about revelation – aesthetic, emotional and spiritual revelation." He felt that big franchise films dominated the box office, leaving little room for the more artistic films. "The situation, sadly, is that we now have two separate fields: there's worldwide audiovisual entertainment, and there's cinema. They still overlap from time to time, but that's becoming increasingly rare … the financial dominance of one is being used to marginalise and even belittle the existence of the other."
Kristina Bumphrey / Variety via Getty Images
In response to these quotes, Milly shared her take. "I get it. They've been around for fucking ever making phenomenal films," she said. "Not every film is for everyone. The beauty of art is that you can be selective."
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As Milly's quotes circulated online, others shared their takes on how superhero films are criticized compared to other projects. Over on this Reddit thread, here's how people are responding to the star of Supergirl's response.
"She is right. Superheroes are just not for everyone!" one person wrote. Another agreed, "She's absolutely right. I have friends who dont even watch horror movies or super hero movies. Then I have others we are the opposite lol."
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—u/KlausLoganWard and u/yoggiez
"There is a difference when the movie is just 'product with superhero' as opposed to 'film about superhero,' one redditor wrote. "For instance, the classic Sam Raimi Spider-Man compared to any of the Marvel ones. Or the original X-Men movie compared to the recent ones. There's a massive difference. I think what they are critical of is the meaningless slop product movie. This goes beyond the superhero genre of movies, but this genre happened to be the big deal when this pattern started taking place."
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—u/Stormrage117
"Who cares?" another redditor wrote. "A couple filmmakers and actors not liking superheros obviously isn't something that would hurt the genre. What hurts the genre most is probably over saturation and lack in quality. All the good superhero movies usually perform well, and Scorcese or Alcock saying what they said isn't going to hurt anything. Everyone has their own tastes and folks can't seem to get over that. I'm a superhero movie guy in a normie way, but I'm not mad at others for not liking them."
Warner Bros. / Via youtu.be
—u/HenryViper
"I don’t understand why people ge