Supergirl Filming Locations

DC Studios’ ‘Supergirl’ spends much of its running time sending Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) and Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley) across planets that look far removed from anything on Earth. In reality, the production created those worlds using a combination of Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, the Scottish Highlands, and Iceland, with additional production activity around London. Principal photography began in January 2025 and continued into May, with the unit leaving its studio base near the end of the shoot for the much colder and more physically demanding Scottish and Icelandic locations. The film’s arrival on HBO Max on September 10, 2026, gives those landscapes another chance to stand out on the small screen.

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Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, Hertfordshire, England

Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden was the main production base for ‘Supergirl’. The studio sits in Hertfordshire, roughly 20 miles northwest of central London, and filming officially got underway there on January 13, 2025. Screen International, Film London and several journalists invited to the production all confirmed that Craig Gillespie’s film spent a substantial portion of its four-and-a-half-month shoot at Leavesden.

Leavesden was not simply being used for green-screen stages. One of the more interesting things to come out of the film’s set visits was just how much of Kara’s interplanetary journey was physically constructed. Journalists saw an enormous ruined town square representing Evely, a city on the planet Bilquis, complete with rubble, alien vehicles, storefronts and back alleys. The name itself is a tribute to Bilquis Evely, the artist behind the ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’ comic that inspired the movie.

The production also built substantial sections of Argo City, the surviving Kryptonian city where Kara spent part of her childhood. During one set visit, Gillespie was filming a Kryptonian funeral sequence involving Kara and her father Zor-El (David Krumholtz). The same constructed location could be altered to represent different periods in Argo City’s decline, including an earlier, cleaner version of the city and the damaged environment seen closer to its destruction.

Other Leavesden sets included alien bars, interplanetary transportation, Ruthye’s wood-heavy home world, Krem’s brigand environments, Kara’s Metropolis apartment and the Fortress of Solitude. The filmmakers even relied on hand-painted scenic backdrops for some environments rather than constructing everything digitally. That practical work explains why many of the movie’s alien interiors have more texture than the completely virtual settings viewers might expect from a modern superhero film.

Gaick Pass and the Cairngorms, Scotland

The production moved north to Scotland near the end of principal photography, using rugged mountain terrain for parts of Kara and Ruthye’s journey. Alcock and Ridley later remembered the Scottish filming as particularly demanding because they repeatedly had to climb a steep mountainside while the crew attempted to capture a wide drone shot in difficult winds.

A detailed post-release location investigation identifies the landscape surrounding Glentromie, Kingussie and the Gaick Estate in Cairngorms National Park as one of the Scottish areas used by the production. In particular, Gaick Pass is identified as the landscape around Kara’s interplanetary trailer. The area lies in the Highlands south of Inverness and provides precisely the sort of empty valleys, mountains and exposed terrain that can pass for a remote planet once modern signs of Earth are kept outside the frame.

The Scottish material matters because Gillespie did not want every distant planet to feel like a soundstage. Wide real landscapes give Kara and Ruthye’s journey a sense of scale that would be difficult to reproduce entirely indoors. The conditions were not particularly accommodating to the actors, but that discomfort also helped the environments look genuinely inhospitable rather than simply scenic.

South Iceland

Iceland was the final major filming destination for ‘Supergirl’. Contemporary production reporting had listed Iceland as a planned location before shooting began, and the cast and filmmakers later confirmed that the unit traveled there after Scotland. One production report places the conclusion of the shoot in Iceland around May 9, 2025, with principal photography wrapping by May 10.

Alcock and Ridley have both spoken about just how punishing the Iceland shoot became. When asked about their hardest scenes together, Ridley immediately mentioned Iceland, recalling temperatures cold enough that Alcock struggled to move her face and hands between takes while wearing Kara’s comparatively light costume. Their comments provide much firmer confirmation of the Iceland work than the early production listings alone.

Post-release location research identifies South Iceland and Reynisfjara Beach near Vík í Mýrdal among the landscapes used to represent the volcanic world of Barenton. Reynisfjara is famous for its black sand and severe North Atlantic landscape, which makes it a natural substitute for one of the hostile planets Kara crosses during her pursuit of Krem.

Iceland’s black earth, volcanic formations and bleak horizons also fit the movie’s broader space-western look. Rather than constructing a recognizable Earth location and digitally disguising it, the filmmakers could begin with scenery that already appears alien before visual effects were added.

Was Supergirl Filmed in London?

London is regularly listed among the film’s production locations, although the best-documented British filming took place at Leavesden rather than recognizable central London landmarks. Principal-photography reports described the production as shooting at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and in London, while Film London followed the project throughout early 2025.

That distinction is useful because viewers should not expect ‘Supergirl’ to function like a London location showcase. The story is overwhelmingly cosmic, and even its Earth scenes are limited compared with the amount of time Kara spends traveling between worlds. Leavesden, which lies outside London in Hertfordshire, supplied the production infrastructure, backlots and large stages necessary to construct most of those places.

Some film databases also list Los Angeles in connection with the production, but the strongest contemporary reporting on principal photography consistently centers on England, Scotland and Iceland. Los Angeles was involved in the wider production and post-production process, but there is far less evidence for treating it as one of the film’s major physical shooting locations.

Supergirl Used Real Landscapes to Make Its Alien Worlds Feel Bigger

What makes the ‘Supergirl’ location work interesting is the balance between enormous constructed environments and landscapes the production barely needed to disguise. Leavesden provided Argo City, Evely, alien bars, spacecraft and many of the story’s more elaborate interiors. Scotland supplied the windswept mountains around Kara and Ruthye’s travels, while Iceland contributed the black sand and volcanic severity required for still stranger planets.

That combination suits a movie that is essentially a road story stretched across the galaxy. Kara and Ruthye are constantly moving, so every destination needs enough personality to feel like somewhere new. Instead of depending completely on digital environments, Gillespie’s production built entire alien streets in Hertfordshire and then sent its actors hiking across Scottish mountains and freezing Icelandic landscapes. The places are Earthbound, but very little about them feels ordinary on screen.