James Gunn Explains Thumbs Down Post Following Supergirl Trailer Worries

DCU fans have nothing to fear as James Gunn’s recent Instagram post has nothing to do with the Supergirl trailer.

DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures’ Supergirl arrives in United States theaters and IMAX this summer. Directed by Craig Gillespie, the movie will see Milly Alcock reprise her role as Kara Zor-El after she briefly appeared at the end of 2025’s Superman, which was directed by James Gunn. Gunn serves as a producer on Supergirl.

What did James Gunn’s post mean?

Yesterday, DC Studios released a video announcing that a new Supergirl trailer was going to be released in the very near future. Coincidentally, Gunn also posted a story to his Instagram yesterday that was nothing but a large thumbs-down emoji. Some DC fans thought this was Gunn expressing displeasure in the Supergirl trailer or movie, though nobody knew for sure what it meant at the time.

Gunn, however, has cleared up the matter, as the post has nothing to do with Supergirl. When asked about it on Threads, he confirmed it was a reference to Project Hail Mary, which is now playing in theaters.

In Project Hail Mary, Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace character meets an alien that he names Rocky. The two initially struggle to communicate, and given they’re from completely different planets, there’s some misunderstanding as to what certain hand gestures mean. Grace attempts to teach Rocky what a thumbs-up means; however, Rocky believes Grace is showing him a thumbs-down. That becomes a recurring joke throughout the movie, as the two characters drop a thumbs-down to one another whenever something goes right.

This means that the post has nothing to do with Supergirl, and fans don’t have to worry that Gunn was in some way talking about the quality of the movie. The new trailer for Supergirl has now been released and can be viewed by clicking here.

Supergirl will be released on June 26, 2026.

Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net