Superman Lawsuit Threatens 2025 Movie Release
Superman Lawsuit Threatens 2025 Movie Release
POST PRODUCTION
February 6, 2025 0
As part of its “Summer of Superman” publishing initiative, DC recently
announced that they would be celebrating Superman Day on April 18 this year
(the anniversary of the release date of “Action Comics #1” back in 1938) with a
list of titles featuring the Man of Steel.
Amongst that list is a Golden Age-Size Facsimile Edition of “Action Comics #1”
featuring an homage cover by superstar artist Dan Mora.
Thanks to Ovrlord’s Bluesky social media account, we now have our first look at
the artwork for that cover, featuring Mora’s version of David Corenswet’s
Superman from James Gunn’s upcoming movie.
Superman was born in 1938 from the creative minds of Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster. Debuting in Action Comics #1, Superman originated in the precursor to
DC Comics, Detective Comics Inc. Superman quickly became the most iconic
superhero in the world and a primary player in the DCU timeline, leading to
decades of comics, movies, and television series. Much of the legal issues
surrounding Superman relate to Siegel and Shuster not receiving fair restitution
for their creation, which has since spawned into a multi-million dollar franchise.
Why Joseph Shuster's Estate Is Suing Warner Bros. Discovery & DC Comics
Over Superman
Complex Copyright Laws Have Opened A New Avenue For Shuster’s Estate
Joe Shuster’s estate filed suit on January 31, 2025, for the rights to Superman
(via Deadline). At the heart of this lawsuit is foreign copyright law. In
jurisdictions based on UK law, (including Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the
UK), copyright laws contain provisions that automatically terminate previous
agreements 25 years after the author’s death. As Shuster died in 1992 and
Siegel in 1996, the copyright in these territories reverted to Seigel's and
Shuster’s estates in 2017 and 2021 respectively.
This brings into question all Superman media released in these countries after
2017 and jeopardizes the release of Superman (2025). As the lawsuit explains:
The Shuster estate is pushing for a jury trial, but, in the meantime, has also
asked the judge for a cease-and-desist order regarding new Superman projects
until the lawsuit is resolved. This jeopardizes the DCU's Superman (2025),
which is due to be released internationally on July 9. A Warner Bros. Discovery
spokesperson gave that statement: “We fundamentally disagree with the merits
of the lawsuit, and will vigorously defend our rights.”
The lawsuit hinges on the idea that modern legal interpretations of copyright
laws could supersede older contracts. In jurisdictions where the law mandates a
reversion of rights, the Shuster estate contends that Warner Bros. Discovery’s
continued commercial exploitation of Superman should legally entitle the estate
to a share of the profits – and perhaps even partial creative control. While the
estate is pursuing a reallocation of revenue from recent film releases, they are
also seeking a broader reassessment of the character’s ownership moving
forward.
It's worth noting here that this was common practice in the comic book industry,
and Siegel and Shuster had done the same with numerous other properties.
Moreover, the pair still worked and wrote for DC Comics on a very reasonable
salary as two of its top creatives. Nevertheless, issues began when it became
obvious that Superman was going to make DC a lot of money.
David Corenswet's Superman flying and Henry Cavill's Man of Steel looking
I’m Convinced David Corenswet’s Superman Can Beat The Best Part Of Henry
Cavill’s Man Of Steel After The New DCU Trailer (But It Will Be Hard)
The first legal case began in 1947 when DC published a story depicting
Superboy, a character based on an old Siegel script. As Superboy’s rights had
never been sold, courts ruled in favor of the pair. However, the court also ruled
that DC Comics owned the rights to Superman. Siegel and Shuster settled out
of court, with DC paying $94,013.16 (equivalent to $1,192,222 in 2023) for the
rights to both characters. Both were fired by DC shortly after.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Seigel was very vocal about his displeasure
with DC Comics. A matter compounded by the copyright infringement case
against Captain Marvel/Shazam. Captain Marvel originated as a Superman
knock-off in Fawcett Comics, whom DC were suing. In the process, Fawcett
Comics repeatedly subpoenaed Seigel, despite him having no more ownership
of Superman. Much of this was captured in a series of poison pen letters
penned by Seigel (via Bleeding Cool).
After Shuster died in 1992, his family was offered the same annual benefits as
he enjoyed. Seigel’s family, on the other hand, sought to reclaim the Superman
rights after his death in 1996. Warner and DC Comics once again negotiated
and agreed in 2001 that it would pay the Siegel heirs several million dollars and
a yearly stipend of $500,000 in exchange for permanently granting the rights to
Superman.
Then, in the early 2000s, both families attempted to gain the rights again. In
2003, Shuster’s heirs filed a termination notice for their half of Superman’s
copyright. While in 2004, Seigel’s family sued DC/Warner. While the judge
initially ruled in favor of Seigel, the appeals court determined that the 2001
agreement was legally binding. As was the 1992 deal with the Shuster family.
Now, in 2025, new developments have given the Shuster family another
potential avenue.
How The Superman Lawsuit Could Affect The Release Of James Gunn's DC
Movie
One of the immediate concerns for Warner Bros. is the potential impact of this
lawsuit on the release schedule of James Gunn’s upcoming DC film. Although
the lawsuit centers on international copyright issues, its timing could complicate
the film’s distribution in regions where the disputed laws apply. While the United
States and other major markets are expected to remain unaffected, smaller
territories that adhere strictly to the reversion rules might experience delays or
altered release strategies.
Much of the fallout will depend on how quickly DC settles the lawsuit. However,
it’s very possible that DC will proceed with the planned release, assuming that it
will be resolved in time. The company might also not put too much stock into the
lawsuit itself. Indeed, the the case contradicts the numerous agreements made
over the years to give DC the sole rights to Superman. As such, this latest
Superman row will likely follow a similar trajectory.
Superman has me the most excited that I have been about a movie in years,
and a certain detail from both the DC Universe film's trailer and TV spot has me
fascinated by what James Gunn intends to do with this character and world.
Following in the footsteps of several live-action Superman portrayals, David
Corenswet has much to live up to in the film, although all signs point to the
creation of an iconic new take on the character. While there is much familiar to
be seen in these trailers, there is even more new stuff to obsess over.
The world around Superman will be prominently featured in the new film, and
this has some people worried. However, James Gunn has revealed many set
details that have made it clear that Superman, Lois, and Lex Luthor will be the
focal points of the film. The rest of the characters, settings, and choices, will all
contribute to the world that surrounds the iconic hero in so many exciting ways.
Alongside shots of Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl, I have found myself captivated
by one particular image from the latest trailer for the film.
In the comic books, Kelex is a Kryptonian robot who used to serve Jor-El. In
many iterations of Superman stories, Kelex stays in the Fortress of Solitude,
and works to serve Superman himself. He is typically presented as the
caretaker of the Fortress, and has featured in a number of prominent stories. It
is unclear if the robot in the pictures is Kelex, as it certainly looks different,
although it seems likely that at the very least the inspiration of Kelex is being
used in this story.
Adding to this are the details of Krypto the Superdog, and I am excited to see
how all of it fits together. This world is so unusual, and this new Superman
could fit into it especially well. Rather than focusing on Superman's lonely status
as an incredible power, such as the DCEU did, this new universe may instead
see Superman have many contemporaries in this bright and colorful world. I
can't wait to see what all of this means for the story of the film, which I hope to
be exceptional.
Superman's Robot Scene Has Helped Convince Me The DC Universe Will Truly
Take After The Comics
The DCU Is Poised To Be Something Truly Unique
It seems that James Gunn has looked at his new DC Universe as a vast and
lived-in place, populated with exciting and colorful friends and foes alike. Using
his unique style and humor, the filmmaker has previously crafted comic-
accurate, outlandish worlds in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad.
It seems that this pattern is far from over, and that a rich and interesting world
that pulls the strangest comic book stories will make up the framework of the
new DCU.
I can't wait for Superman for so many reasons, and many of my hopes for the
movie are already satisfied in this one small scene where the titular hero can be
seen cradling a broken robot. I want a Superman who is able to see the good in
others, whether they be human, alien, or machine, and I want a DC Universe
where those kinds of stories make sense. It seems that Superman is going to
give us that, and I couldn't be more excited for what is to come from this new
world in 2025 and beyond.
Superman (2025) Official Poster
Superman
By
Kevin Erdmann
Following the most recent Superman television spot, I'm fairly confident I know
why David Corenswet's Kal-El is lying bloody in the snow. While there are very
few things that can physically harm the Man of Steel, he's not completely
invincible. With that in mind, I feel as though a key shot is teasing how
Superman will be beaten into submission, so much so that he has to call his
super dog Krypto for help.
The original Superman trailer opens with Kal-El crashing in the Arctic and lying
in the snow, having taken some major hits by something or something.
However, it's not explicitly revealed who or what delivered the beating. That
being said, a new shot from Superman's new "Icon" TV spot implies who went
after Superman, while also supporting one of the biggest villain theories for the
upcoming DCU movie.
The New Superman Movie Trailer Teases What Happened To The Man Of
Steel In The First Scene Of The Original Trailer
Without a doubt, the big shot from the new television teaser was the ending with
Superman flying across the Arctic, presumably near the Fortress of Solitude
which was shown in the original trailer. However, there's also a key shot of
Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor. Not only is the classic DC villain accompanied by a
mysterious figure whose face is covered by a black hood and goggles, but the
two of them are also shown exiting a jet in the Arctic.
Thanks to this new shot, the implication is that there will likely be some sort of
confrontation between Lex and Superman in the Arctic, as well with Lex's
bodyguard, whom many have theorized to either be the DCU's take on
Ultraman, Bizarro, or the two characters from the comics combined as one new
foe. This will likely be due to Luthor eventually figuring out where Kal-El's
Fortress is located. If so, one can imagine that Lex will be responsible for the
shot of Superman bleeding in the snow from the first trailer.
How The Setup For Superman Supports The Lex Luthor Theory
Apex Lex Luthor In DC Comics
It stands to reason that Superman could meet his match if Lex's bodyguard is
secretly a Bizarro clone of Superman, just like the one Lex created in DC's New
52 comics. However, it's also possible that Lex is seeking the Fortress to collect
resources that would allow him to take on Superman himself, whether that's
kryptonite or some means of enhancing his own physical abilities (which I think
would be a lot more exciting).
Interestingly enough, it was rumored during the casting process for Superman
that one role was being referred to under the codename "Apex". Because
there's a superpowered version of Luthor in the comics known as "Apex Lex",
many assumed that the role was indeed the DCU's new Lex Luthor. Combined
with the confirmation that Hoult worked out for the role, it certainly feels possible
that Lex may be looking to rival the Man of Steel's strength using something
from the Fortress, regardless of how effective or not his bodyguard may be
against Kal-El (who is shown in the original trailer taking on Superman).
The Lex Luthor Theory Means I'm Even More Excited To See The DCU's
Superman Movie
A Lex Luthor To Rival Superman Both Physically and Mentally
At any rate, I'm convinced that Lex Luthor will find a means of hurting Superman
in the upcoming DCU movie, and will indeed be the one responsible for Kal-El
becoming incapacitated as seen in the first trailer. Ultimately, it would be very
cool if Lex's bodyguard is indeed revealed to be some form of Ultraman and/or
Bizarro created by Luthor to kill the Man of Steel. However, I'd also love to see
Lex completely obsessed with personally becoming Superman's superior in the
DCU, both in mind and in body.
According to Deadline, the estate of the Man of Steel's creator Joseph Schuster
is suing Warner Bros. Discovery/DC Studios/DC Comics, claiming that the
studio lacks the rights to release the DCU reboot in a handful of key territories,
including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia.
The lawsuit was filed today in Federal Court, and the estate is seeking
“damages and injunctive relief for Defendants’ ongoing infringement."
The matter has to do with foreign copyrights to the original Superman character
and story. Though Siegel and Shuster assigned worldwide rights to DC’s
predecessor in 1938, the copyright laws of countries with the British legal
tradition contain "provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25
years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s
undivided copyright interest in such countries."
.
“Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign
copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these
territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit
Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s
authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and
merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which
require the consent of all joint copyright owners to do so.”
We're not sure how far this will go, but a jury trial has been requested.
“We fundamentally disagree with the merits of the lawsuit, and will vigorously
defend our rights,” said a WBD spokesman in response.
Superman stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as
Lois Lane, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy
Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
Sara Sampaio is on board as Lex's assistant/lover Eve Teschmacher, Pruitt
Taylor Vince and Neva Howell will play "Ma" and "Pa" Kent, and Milly Alcock's
Supergirl has been confirmed to make her debut ahead of her own Woman of
Tomorrow movie.
"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted earlier this year when filming concluded. "God
bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have
brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a
world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve
encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward
when I felt too spent to move on my own.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The
destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the
laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set -
and for that I am forever grateful."
You can check out an updated synopsis for the movie below.
"In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly
imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart,
delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the
goodness of humankind."
By
Allison Hambrick
David Corenswet as Superman in flight
A brand new TV spot for James Gunn Superman has dropped early to DC Fan
First members. The spot features new footage of Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor
and, most importantly, the best look yet at David Corenswet's Man of Steel in
flight. The 30-second teaser, which also uses a reimagined version of John
Williams' Superman score, showcases both scenes from the previously
released full-length trailer and a few new shots. It opens on the same image of
Clark Kent/Superman badly beaten up and whistling for Krypto the Superdog's
help, before transitioning to the hero protecting a young girl.
In a new clip, Lex Luthor is seen arriving in the Arctic, possibly to locate
Superman's Fortress of Solitude. Shots from the last trailer include a fire-
breathing monster attacking Metropolis, Superman punching through what
appears to be a glass cage, a young boy raising a Superman flag, Superman
holding a damaged robot, him fighting on a baseball field, Krypto rescuing
Clark, and Superman and Lois sharing a dance as they lift off of the ground,
among others.
Perhaps the standout moment from this new TV spot is the footage of
Superman flying. As with the shot of Lex, Superman is shown in the Arctic, and
he is seen flying both from behind and facing forward as he weaves around
glaciers. The new Superman footage lasts for about 4 seconds, giving a short
but valuable look at what Clark's flying will look like in the film.
In the brief scene, two perspectives of Superman's flight are shown, from the
front and the back. The ability to show multiple angles as well as motion is likely
the effect of using drones. Additionally, Corenswet's appearance is fairly
normal, avoiding a common pitfall of CGI flight sequences that can look
uncanny or like a PlayStation 2 render. No mid-flight fight sequences were
shown during the spot, however, so it remains to be seen how the drone
method impacts action sequences.
Superman's flight ability is an essential part of the character, and for a film
about him to succeed, the audience must be able to suspend their disbelief. A
key example of this is Christopher Reeve's take on the character. Though the
visual effects of his era were far from convincing, the actor drew from his
experience as a pilot to sell the illusion that he was flying, and it worked.
Judging by the positivity in the YouTube comments for the TV spot, Gunn might
just do the same with the modern techniques used in Superman.
January 26, 2025
“Superman,” DC Studios’ first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
DC Studios heads Peter Safran and Gunn are producing the film, which Gunn
directs from his own screenplay, based on characters from DC, Superman
created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The film stars David Corenswet (“Twisters,” “Hollywood”) in the dual role of
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) as Lois
Lane and Nicholas Hoult (the “X-Men” movies, “Juror #2”) as Lex Luthor. The
film also stars Edi Gathegi (“For All Mankind”), Anthony Carrigan (“Barry,”
“Gotham”), Nathan Fillion (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “The Suicide
Squad”), Isabela Merced (“Alien Romulus”), Skyler Gisondo (“Licorice Pizza,”
“Booksmart”), Sara Sampaio (“At Midnight”), María Gabriela de Faría (“The
Moodys”), Wendell Pierce (“Selma,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”), Alan Tudyk
(“Andor”), Pruitt Taylor Vince (“Bird Box”) and Neva Howell (“Greedy People”).
“Superman” will be in theaters and IMAX nationwide on July 11, 2025, and
internationally beginning 9 July 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
In less than one month since its release, the first Superman teaser has topped
Man of Steel to become the character's highest-viewed trailer ever. You can find
more details on that after the jump...
News
By JoshWilding –
Jan 07, 2025
The teaser trailer for James Gunn's Superman was released shortly before
Christmas and, in less than one month, it's received more views than the third
Man of Steel trailer.
It's unclear when we'll get our next look at the movie, though a new trailer being
released in time for the Super Bowl does seem likely.
"James suggested All-Star Superman to read for Clark, specifically, because
there are interesting challenges with Clark," David Corenswet said of his
approach to the character in a recent interview. "It was interesting having a
silent version to look at. I hadn't read so many Superman comics that I had
since all the different Clarks that have appeared in the comics."
"I knew the ones that appeared in television and films, but it was great having a
silent one and getting the impression from that. So, I drew a lot from that,
specifically, for Clark," the actor continued. "I also loosely stole some stuff from
my brother-in-law, who's 6’8” and 270 pounds, and has the deepest voice, and
is always in the way and always trying not to be."
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Also appearing are Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
Superman (2025)
What Sets “Superman” Apart?
While these films have generated immense buzz, none have captured the
imagination of fans quite like “Superman”. Gunn’s promise of a hopeful,
compassionate Man of Steel—played by David Corenswet—has reinvigorated
enthusiasm for the character. Add to that the teaser’s glimpses of a vibrant DC
world filled with iconic heroes like Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, Green Lantern, and
Krypto the Superdog, and it’s no surprise this film is at the forefront of audience
anticipation.
Superman
The Man of Steel Leads the Way
Scheduled for release on July 11, 2025, “Superman” doesn’t just promise to
redefine the DC Universe but also to remind audiences why the Man of Steel
has stood as a cultural icon for decades. By topping IMDb’s most anticipated
list, it proves that, even in a year filled with cinematic heavyweights, Superman
still reigns supreme.
So mark your calendars, as 2025 belongs to the Man of Tomorrow.
The first teaser trailer for Superman was released last month and the version
posted by DC's YouTube account has already racked up a massive 50 million
views (meaning it's close to topping Man of Steel).
News
By JoshWilding –
Jan 02, 2025
Despite recent rumblings about negative reactions from test screenings, the first
Superman trailer received positive reviews from fans and helped to increase
interest in both the reboot and James Gunn's wider DCU plans.
In recent years, there's been a lot of chatter online about whether the Man of
Tomorrow is still relevant. Well, proving that there's still plenty of interest in the
character is the fact Superman's teaser trailer has so far racked up 50.3 million
views on YouTube.
Not only does the main version shared by DC continue to trend on the platform
after being released on December 19, but it's only 700,000 or so views away
from topping the most-viewed trailer for the last Superman movie, 2013's Man
of Steel. The difference is that it took Zack Snyder's reboot over a decade to
reach 51 million views.
Even before reaching this landmark number, the Superman teaser trailer
became the most-viewed and widely discussed trailer in the history of both
Warner Bros. and DC (when views and online chatter were counted across all
social media platforms). Within days, it had hit the 250 million mark.
Gunn recently said that his approach to Superman is about finding "the
compassion of the human spirit" and delivering a version of the character "who
is about kindness, love and compassion."
"He is the best of humanity, even though he is an alien from outer space," the
filmmaker continued. "That came naturally as the story evolved. It’s one of the
things that’s a little bit different than some of the other Superman movies. It’s
about Superman’s external struggle, but it’s also about his internal struggle."
"It’s about who he is as a person, where he comes from, his parents - both his
Kryptonian parents, and his, human parents. And we get to know who this guy
is on a real elemental level. And that brings in all those other elements too."
You can rewatch the first Superman trailer - and add to that view count - in the
player below.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Also appearing are Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
Much of the DCU's future depends on the success of its first theatrical release,
as Gunn himself acknowledged. Just as Superman is essential to the Justice
League, Gunn's Superman film is the DCU's most crucial foundational piece.
Thankfully, if the viral, action-packed trailer of Superman is any indication, fans
are in store for an eventful journey through the DCU. The first Superman teaser
was released in December and led to millions of fans scouring every second of
footage for visual clues and comic book Easter eggs. Featuring appearances by
Hawkgirl, Krypto the Superdog, Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern and Mr. Terrific,
as well as the Man of Steel himself in his classic red, blue and yellow garb, the
Superman trailer was a promising preview of what's to come for the DCU. In
less than three minutes, the trailer of Superman revealed that the film could
remedy several major DCEU flaws and set the DCU on an exciting course.
Starring David Corenswet as the Last Son of Krypton, Superman follows the
busy life of Clark Kent/Superman and will be the DCU's first live-action film.
Although Gunn, the film's director, already confirmed that Superman won't be
an origin story for the classic hero, it will contain elements that reintroduce the
popular comic book character to the silver screen. This week, DC Studios
released the first trailer for Superman.
James Gunn's Superman Trailer Ripped These Scenes Straight From The
Comics
The first trailer for James Gunn's new Superman film featured stunning visuals
that pulled directly from iconic comic book storylines.
Illustrating DC Studios' fresh start, the Superman trailer featured virtually all the
core components of the Kryptonian's mythos. The trailer resonated deeply with
fans, too, as Gunn pointed out its historic social media engagement numbers.
Gunn announced on Threads that with over 250 million views, the trailer for
Superman has become the most-watched trailer in the history of DC and
Warner Bros. Despite a less than three-minute runtime, the Superman trailer
managed to capture the essence of the young hero and generate global interest
in the DCU's debut film.
The Daily Planet Will Be a Prominent Part of Clark Kent's Dual Life
Superman 2025 David Corenswet as Clark Kent in the Daily Planet office
One of the DCEU's biggest flaws was its incomprehensible, dull construction of
the Justice League. Consisting of Batman, Superman, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder
Woman and Aquaman, the DCEU Justice League appeared together just once
(not counting the Zack Snyder cut) and hardly felt like a team. Of the six
members, only Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman were introduced prior
to the release of Justice League — forcing the film to rush through the origins of
Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. While the MCU constructed the Avengers roster
meticulously over time, the DCEU expedited the assembly of the Justice
League. This led to the audience feeling largely disconnected from the
characters they were meant to invest in, and the hasty approach was the
downfall of the DCEU. Despite boasting one of the highest movie budgets in
history, Justice League registered a putrid 37% score on Rotten Tomatoes,
making the $300 million movie a costly whiff for Warner Bros.
In Gunn's DCU, the formation of the Justice League should occur more
organically. This is evidenced by the appearances of Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner,
and Mister Terrific in the trailer for Superman. When he was announced as the
co-CEO of DC Studios, Gunn acknowledged the shortcomings of the DCEU and
expressed his desire to not repeat those mistakes in the DCU.
"So as many of you know, DC has been disconnected in film and television for a
long time. Our job – mine and Peter’s – is to come in and make sure that DCU
is connected in film, television, gaming and animation; that the characters are
consistent, and played by the same actors, and that it works in one story. And if
something is outside of that, like Matt Reeve’s Batman, or Todd Phillips’ Joker,
or Teen Titans Go, that it is clearly labeled as DC Elseworlds, outside of the
mainstream DCU continuity."
The world of DC is incredibly vast and there are a myriad of notable characters
worthy of cinematic spotlight. Unlike the DCEU, Gunn's DCU hopes to execute
introductions and storylines organically, allowing fans to become invested in the
universe it is creating. The inclusion of Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Mister
Terrific in the Superman trailer also suggests that it may not take long for the
Justice League to take shape in the DCU. With countless threats, including Lex
Luthor, Bane and Deathstroke already confirmed for the DCU, it wouldn't be
surprising for DC's iconic crime fighters to unite sooner than later.
So far, in the glimpses captured in the Superman trailer, it appears that Mister
Terrific is in store for a cinematic renaissance under the DCU banner. Unlike the
anxiety-riddled Arrowverse version, Gunn's Mister Terrific oozes confidence and
closely resembles the tech genius fans adored in the comics. His T-Spheres
were on display as he shielded himself (and civilians) from enemy fire and his
costume design is a spitting image of his iconic comic threads. The full extent of
Mister Terrific's role in Superman is unclear but Gunn recently shed light on the
character's importance straight from the set. During a set visit attended by CBR
and other outlets, Gunn spoke about the film's incarnation of Mr. Terrific. When
asked how he decided which DC characters to incorporate in Superman, the
filmmaker and DC Studios co-CEO admitted that it was as simple as bringing in
some of the characters he really loves. Gunn revealed that of all of the
supporting roles in Superman, Gathegi's Mr. Terrific is the "main character of
those characters," playing a major part in the movie's story.
"I think it was just who I wanted to really, honestly. I love Mr. Terrific," Gunn
explained. "These characters all get their moment in the sun. They all have their
moments. They're not just cameos, these are the characters. They're supporting
cast, but Mr. Terrific is the main character of those characters. He actually has a
big part of the plot. And so that was fun."
Green Lantern Corps Will Play a Pivotal Role in Maintaining Order in Gunn's
Chaotic DCU
Back when Gunn announced Chapter 1 of the DCU, which will consist of five
movies and five television series released between 2025 and 2027, many were
thrilled to hear of the return of the Green Lantern Corps. The division of ring-
wielders was virtually omitted from the DCEU and the previous live-action
representation of the Lanterns was a complete disaster. Like many DC
characters, the Green Lantern Corps is in need of the cinematic rebranding the
DCU provides. Lanterns, the upcoming HBO series centered on the cosmic
duties of the Green Lantern Corps, was confirmed by Gunn to be a pivotal
project of the DCU.
"Okay, the next thing is a big premiere HBO television series called Lanterns,"
Gunn announced. "This is the story of a couple of Green Lanterns, John
Stewart and Hal Jordan, and we have a few other Lanterns peppered in there,
but this is really a terrestrial-based TV show which is almost like True Detective,
with a couple of Green Lanterns who are space cops watching over Precinct
Earth. In it, they discover a terrifying mystery that ties into our larger story of the
DCU." As exciting as the Lanterns series sounds, the first Green Lantern entry
in the DCU will take place in the 2025 blockbuster Superman.
Guy Gardner, played by Nathan Fillon, was spotted in the Superman trailer and
may be teaming up with the Man of Steel to defend Metropolis. Though his
appearance in the trailer was brief, it's refreshing to see the Green Lantern
Corps included so early on in the DCU after their surprising DCEU absence.
Plus, fan favorite Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart are confirmed to be
patrolling the vast DCU landscape. In a joint statement, the DC Studios heads
proclaimed, "John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC's most compelling
characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is
a foundational part of the unified DCU we’re launching next summer with
Superman.”
It will require a bit of elbow grease to rid fans of the sour taste of the DCEU, but
Gunn's Superman could be an important first step in that process. By creating a
more interconnected universe filled with accurate portrayals of beloved DC
characters, the DCU could quickly become a major draw for comic fans. With
Gunn spearheading DC Studios, the DCU is sure to be full of surprises.
Hopefully, though, Superman sets the DCU on a less convoluted course than its
predecessor.
On this week's episode of The Hot Mic, hosts Jeff Sneider and John Rocha
shared some of the things they heard about a recent screening (as far as we
know, there has only been one) of James Gunn's Superman, and the buzz was
definitely leaning negative.
Rocha was told that the DCU reboot had a similar tone to Captain America: The
First Avenger and The Mummy, and that the movie was said to be "decent"
overall. Sneider's source was not as optimistic, suggesting that there is "reason
to be worried" about the finished film.
We've now heard from a well-placed source who has spoken to people who
have seen the movie, and their feedback was a lot more positive.
Apparently, Superman was described as "Guardians of Galaxy-level good," and
while some of the VFX was unfinished, a "lot of the shots were polished enough
with seven months to go" before release. Those in attendance (that shared their
opinions) reportedly "loved the movie."
It's worth keeping in mind that both of these things can be true. It's highly
unlikely that everyone who saw Superman at this screening felt exactly the
same way about it. It's also important to note that plenty of much-loved films
received negative responses from early screenings, and vice versa. At the end
of the day, we won't know what to expect until we're sitting in the theater next
July.
One thing we do know for sure is that the majority of CBM readers were very
happy with the first trailer. According to our poll, 33% of you felt the teaser was
"Great," while only 1% went with the most negative option, "Worst. Trailer Ever."
Superman also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy
Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
Sara Sampaio is on board as Lex's assistant/lover Eve Teschmacher, Pruitt
Taylor Vince and Neva Howell will play "Ma" and "Pa" Kent, and Milly Alcock's
Supergirl has been confirmed to make her debut ahead of her own Woman of
Tomorrow movie.
"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted earlier this year when filming concluded. "God
bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have
brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a
world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve
encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward
when I felt too spent to move on my own.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The
destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the
laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set -
and for that I am forever grateful."
It was part of a series of press events across the world and took place a few
hours after the in-person event in Los Angeles. Over 50 journalists from
Australia, China, and the Asia Pacific region attended the virtual session over
Zoom.
We got to watch the trailer and had the opportunity to ask James Gunn
questions about it. Here’s everything he had to say in conversation with
moderator Erik Davis.
James Gunn: I really want people to get a sense of what to expect from the film
that comes out in July. I wanted to create a teaser trailer that gave the essence
of what this movie is, without giving away too much of the plot.
We can expect a Superman who is about the compassion of the human spirit, a
Superman who is about kindness, love and compassion, while also being a very
strong character. He is the best of humanity, even though he is an alien from
outer space.
I love how the teaser shows that it’s action packed, but there’s humor, there’s
heart, there’s heartbreak, and there’s romance. There’s just a little bit of
everything in this thing.
That came naturally as the story evolved. It’s one of the things that’s a little bit
different than some of the other Superman movies. It’s about Superman’s
external struggle, but it’s also about his internal struggle.
It’s about who he is as a person, where he comes from, his parents—both his
Kryptonian parents, and his, human parents. And we get to know who this guy
is on a real elemental level. And that brings in all those other elements too.
How does David Corenswet Superman differ from the previous versions of
Superman?
I really loved working with David Corenswet. David both has that optimistic boy
scout quality that Superman has, both on screen and in real life, frankly, and a
real down to earth-ness.
Besides the fact that he’s this incredibly good-looking guy, he doesn’t have any
sort of arrogance or ego in that way. But he is a really phenomenally trained
actor who went to school at Juilliard and is just one of the best actors I’ve ever
worked with. He’s incredibly nuanced, incredibly questioning all the time,
figuring out how he can give the best performance.
And there’s never a take that I look at after the dailies, and think he isn’t fully
authentically Superman. He is Superman every moment he’s in the movie. And
even the stuff where I’m cutting together the best performance is possible, his
worst take is still great.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind in terms of what David Corenswet has
brought to this role?
I think an extreme dedication. He was willing to do anything for this role in terms
of preparation. Learning, reading the comics, working out. He went through a
very, very long and arduous audition process in which hundreds and hundreds
of people auditioned for the role of Clark Kent/Superman, and David won it.
I said to David when he got hired “You’ve got to work on two things. You got to
work on your shoulders, and you’ve got to work on your vulnerability.” And
those were two things that he spent the next six months on. Getting bigger and
working on elements of being vulnerable on screen. Which I think was a little bit
more difficult for him, as it is also difficult for Superman.
Speaking of vulnerable, I love the opening shot of this teaser trailer where he’s
at his most vulnerable. I’ve never seen a Superman or comic book movie teaser
start in that way—to put the hero in that place. And I thought that was such an
interesting decision.
I think it was an interesting decision. It shows us what we’re kind of dealing with
here. We’re dealing with Superman, this symbol of really old-fashioned values
and hope, and it’s an idea that’s been a bit battered over the years. Both that
sort of concept of Superman and the concept of just kindness in general. And I
think that this is about letting that be what it is, and allowing those traditional
values to, manifest themselves in a completely new way.
That’s all the movie is about. This movie is about Clark Kent’s humanities. Yes,
he’s an alien from another planet who’s super powerful, but he is also deeply,
deeply human. He has emotions and feelings, and he, you know, every day he
wakes up and tries to make the best choices he can, and sometimes he fails,
and that’s what this movie is about.
This is about a complex character, and I think that’s the thing that audiences are
going to be completely surprised by. That you can’t really see in the trailer, is
these complex relationships between Clark and Lois and Lex and Clark, and
how they interact, and the different values they have and how they, you know,
strengthen each other and make each other weaker.
The music and score of Superman
One thing you hear in this teaser trailer is that iconic score. I got immediately
emotional as soon as you hear those bars. Tell us about your approach to
bringing back the iconic score but putting your own flair to it.
I knew from the beginning. John Murphy composed the score. He’s an
incredibly talented guy who I love working with. And as soon as I finished the
script, he was one of the first people I gave it to. I said, “start thinking of music
for this. The one thing I’ll say is I do want to use the classic Williams score, but I
want you to turn it and mutate it and turn it into your own thing that’ll represent
this film and this story.”
There’s a very powerful thing about it. There’s a slightly melancholy thing about
it. And I think those are both parts of this very emotional and touching story that
we’re telling through the movie.
John Murphy not only wrote that theme, but he put together so much music for
the movie that we then play on set and shoot to so that we know exactly what
the score is now that score is baked into the movie.
This was a very different movie, because music is always very important to me.
A lot of times I’ve used a lot of pop songs throughout my movies, and that is not
the case for Superman. This movie is basically about the score and so it has an
incredibly important role in the film.
I can’t wait for people to hear the whole score, because it does go into that
whole Williams thing, and then it transforms into something else, and then it
becomes something else again. It is a stunning piece of music. I can’t wait.
The thing they can expect from the DCU is that every film and TV project, will
have own vision. Some projects are going to be family oriented, like Superman.
Other ones are going to be a little bit more adult oriented, like Creature
Commandos. And so, they’re all going to be very different.
Superman is interesting, because it’s not as if there’s not a lot of darkness in the
film, I think, to be truly optimistic and to truly be hopeful—if everything’s going
great and everything is perfect, it’s a lot easier.
So, this isn’t Superman dealing with hope and optimism in light times. He’s
dealing with hope and optimism in very difficult, hard times, dark times. And
that’s what the movie is.
Yeah, him and Batman [are the most recognizable]. I think that it is different,
because there are some core values to who Superman is, that maybe I didn’t
feel that same way about Rocket Raccoon—who was a character who I took
some elements from the comic but also created him in a different way within the
MCU.
And I think Superman, that sense of this goodness, of this hope, of this
optimism of almost naivete, but not exactly. This belief in the goodness that he
has of the human spirit. I think that is innate to the character, as well as some of
the other values that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had there from the very
beginning.
There’s a very interesting easter egg in the teaser. It’s in the teaser to the
teaser (the 30-second teaser). You can see Jerry and Joe’s grandkids who are
in the Daily Planet. And they shot with us the whole time in the Daily Planet. So,
they’re two of the reporters are in the background of the Daily Planet.
You see a sort of simple version of his relationship with Krypto in the teaser.
When you see the movie, you realize his relationship with Krypto is much more
complicated.
Krypto is based on my dog, Ozu, who is the world’s worst dog. He’s destroyed
my entire house. We rescued him. He was raised in a woman’s backyard who
was raising 60 dogs in a small backyard in poor section of Los Angeles, and he
had never known humans, so he was just scared of me. He liked my other dog
a lot, and sort of followed her, and then just destroyed all my stuff.
And he was actually one of the inspirations for Krypto. Because I thought to
myself, ‘well, thank God I don’t have a super dog like Krypto. And what if Krypto
was as bad as Ozu was? We’d have a pretty difficult situation.’ And so that is
one of ways that I started to see this, version of Superman in a much different
way. And it was very creatively invigorating.
It’s very different. I don’t think of Guardians or The Suicide Squad primarily as
comedies, but certainly comedy was a big part of those movies. And it’s not that
there’s no humor—there’s plenty of humor in Superman. But at the core of it, it
really is something different.
It’s a different sort of story, and it’s vulnerable for me to make that. Because the
honest truth is, when I make a movie and then you show the movie to the
audience, you got to sit with an audience watching the movie. And the easiest
way that you know people like your movie is when they’re laughing, or if you’re
making a horror movie, they’re screaming, and then also if they’re crying—
which I got a lot of people to do with the last Guardians movie.
So, I like those external things. And in this one, I really had to be sort of strict
with myself when I was writing it and filming it. It’s all about the character. It’s
about the actions. It’s a big deal. Shooting flying in a different way. And so, it’s
just totally different from the movies that I’ve done in the past.
Well, if you’re going to ask David to be vulnerable, then I think you’re going to
need to be a little vulnerable.
That’s absolutely true.
You are used to making films about outsiders. However, Clark Kent, Superman
is not one of those characters. So why did you choose this film to direct?
I didn’t know about the trunks. I wanted to use the trunks, but I couldn’t, I kept
taking them off. And I came in, it’s very colorful, the trunks are on, and I’m like,
‘God, I don’t know. It’s just so colorful. David, how do you feel?’ He’s like, ‘I love
it.’ And I’m like, ‘Really, it’s that colorful.’
And David said, ‘I’m an alien from outer space who can fly and lift buildings, and
I shoot laser beams out of my eyes that can dissolve things. I want kids to not
be afraid of me. So, what am I going to wear?
That was really part of where the costume came from. I saw the character in a
new way. And it also showed me how David, before we started even shooting,
really took everything, every moment, very seriously in all his choices and what
he would do. And he wants to not be scary to kids. I thought that was a pretty
cool thing that I’ve kept in mind for the character ever since that moment.
Difficult editing decisions and an alternate ending
Writers and filmmakers are always talking about the importance of ‘killing their
darlings’ I was wondering if you could share something about a particular
‘darling’ that you had to sacrifice in the making of Superman.”
Oh, boy, that is a good question. And I’m so in the middle of editing. Of course,
there are lines and moments of things, and I’m like, “oh I guess I have to cut
that to make this thing move more elegantly.”
Because at the heart of what I’m about as a filmmaker, first and foremost—and
people are going to think this is funny coming from me who makes things that
are thought of as outlandish. But for me, it’s always elegance above and
beyond everything else.
And that means that everything has to be fluid and smooth. And whether you’re
making something crazily outlandish, something ridiculously grounded,
something dark, something bright, there needs to be an elegance to it.
For me, when it comes cutting stuff, I don’t I don’t have emotions over those
things. I’ve been doing this for 30 years. I don’t have many emotions about
killing my darlings.
But at one point, I had a very different ending that I wrote to the Superman
script that I went in and I told my wife about. I had written the first draft, and
asked her, ‘and then what if this happens?’
And it was very different, and maybe I’ll be able to share that someday. That
was hard. I had a pretty cool ending that was a little bit different than the ending
we get—actually, a lot different.
One of the things that was important to me was to make a Lex Luthor who was
absolutely Superman’s equal. Maybe more that. You’ve got to be scared, and
this Lex is scary. And it’s not just because he is a bad guy—because he’s pretty
bad—but he has his reasons for thinking what he thinks, which we get into. And
it’s a lot of ideological things about what Superman represents versus what he
represents as the world’s most intelligent man.
And so, it really is this battle of ideologies between the two of them and how
they look at the world. One of whom is very generous in his point of view, which
is Superman, and one of them is not very generous in his point of view, which is
Lex. But also, his intelligence and his way of dealing with the sort of henchmen
that Lex has around him makes him incredibly dangerous to Superman.
And when you’re willing to fight, and there are no rules, you always have an
upper hand over the person who’s willing to fight and has a lot of rules—which
is Superman.
Nicholas Hoult looks he looks great. He’s just doing tremendous stuff right now.
When we were on set and Nick walked in there, he’s every ounce of the big
time movie star you can imagine. And the women were swooning over Lex
Luthor. And I’m like, ‘Oh, everybody loves a bad boy.’
What are some of the things you are paying attention to and the challenges
you’re facing in rebooting a hero that almost everyone in the world knows?
The biggest challenge is that everyone in the world knows who Superman is
and where he came from. Some of that’s a benefit, like we don’t go into origin
stories in this. Practically everybody knows that Clark Kent came here in a
rocket as a baby, sent by his Kryptonian parents, and a farm couple adopted
him. So, we don’t have to go through all that. That’s a benefit, in a way.
But also, so many people in this world are so intimately attached to Superman,
Batman, and Wonder Woman—The Big Three. They have specific ideas about
what that character is to them.
Most people have come up to me and said, ‘I never really related to Superman
because he’s just too powerful. I relate to Batman because he’s like the
underdog.’ So that’s something I took into account from the beginning, that a lot
of people don’t relate to him. I think it’s a little bit to do with how we see him at
the beginning of the trailer, and the beginning of the movie, too.
And other people like Superman because he can punch planets in half. So
you’ve got to deal with all these different people who have different ideas of
what Superman is supposed to be. And you have to deal with all of them and
hopefully people are able to go and say, ‘Well, okay, I like my idea what
Superman is. Let’s see what this idea of Superman is. Let’s, let’s sit down for
two hours and watch this movie and see what it is.’
That’s what you’ve got to do with the DCU, because things are going to keep
changing and evolving. A lot of people keep telling me, ‘Oh my god, you made
this trailer just for me! I can’t believe it!’ And you know, other people are going
to feel differently about it, but they can still enjoy the story and enjoy how our
view of Superman is, or whatever other DC character there is.
Lois is a journalist of the highest order. She believes in the truth pretty much at
almost any price. And that makes her a real force to be reckoned with. One of
the things I love the romance between Lois and Superman in the original
Donner film is it was really beautiful. But in a way, it was a little of Lois being
‘Goo-goo-ga-ga’ over Superman, right? Because he flies around, and he can
pick up buildings.
And I wanted to see, why does Superman love Lois so much? So, from the
beginning, we did chemistry reads with Superman and Lois. And David and
Rachel got these roles, not because they were just individually great as those
characters—but together as a couple, they bounced off of each other in an
incredibly dynamic way.
From the very beginning, you start to see why she is as strong of a force as
Superman, just in a different way. And why someone, as cool and as good
looking and as powerful as Superman would be in love with her. he’s the one
who’s lucky at the end of the day.
Yes, definitely. There are all sorts of things from the other movies that I was
impressed by. Seeing the Donner movie as a kid was very cool for me, and I
loved it. I took a lot of stuff from that. Zack Snyder did a lot of amazing things
with action, and I took a lot of stuff from that, and already have before then.
I took a lot of different things from different time periods. But I really go back to
the comic books, because I’m first and foremost a comic book fan. I really took
more inspiration from the comics than I did from the film adaptions.
I’m excited for people to see all the different elements of the teaser trailer. The
big silver age science fiction stuff, the romance, the action beats, Krypto. And
the one really, kind of potent line to me in the trailer that moves me, is when he
says “Krypto, take me home”. And Krypto starts dragging Superman home. And
that’s at the end of the day, what this is about.
For me, it’s about bringing the innate goodness of Superman, bringing it home.
Bringing this character home, bringing our battered world to a brighter place of
healing and bringing that home.
And hopefully Superman can be a symbol of that as well. I think that this is the
right time for this movie, and I’m excited about people seeing the trailer. And I’m
even more excited because the trailer really is a good representation of the film,
I think it is an authentic representation of what the film is. And I just can’t wait
for people to see the full movie in July.
Thanks for reading our coverage of this exclusive Q&A with James Gunn! When
sharing any quotes from this interview, please tag @ScreenBrief on social
media and link this article.
A very big thank you to Warner Bros. Australia and Universal Pictures Australia
for inviting us to the press launch of the trailer! Stay tuned for more Superman
coverage from Screen Brief in 2025!
Another character who will be updated for 2025 is Lois Lane. The intrepid Daily
Planet reporter is a print journalist in a digital world. Social media and fake news
aren't something we've ever seen Lois forced to tackle, something Superman
star Rachel Brosnahan is all too aware of.
"I’ve always been inspired by this character," the actor started. "She’s
somebody who is ambitious and courageous and hungry and determined to get
the greatest story almost at any cost. I’ve always loved this character and was
so excited by the opportunity to bring all of those things that have been true of
her in every iteration."
"One of the things I love about this character is that almost more than any other
character in these comics, and in the movies, she evolves to fit what it would
mean to be an intrepid journalist of each generation or each decade that she’s
presented in," Brosnahan explained.
"So, I think our challenge... Today we’re living in a world where print journalism
to some is perhaps an endangered art form and she’s somebody who has
dedicated her entire life to it," she continued. "I think as far as what else is
different, you’ll have to check out the movie to see, but I love that she’s
somebody who doesn’t understand what the word 'no' means and it’s motivating
for her. We definitely see that side of her in this film."
Lois is a fascinating and complex character in her own right and, unlike other
comic book love interests, she's not defined by romance. The trailer showed her
getting close to both Clark Kent and the hero, of course, but she was also
spotlighted in the Daily Planet newsroom.
The most exciting part of Superman will be seeing Lois potentially match wits
with Lex Luthor and, if Brosnahan's comments are any indication, this version
isn't someone who takes "no" for an answer.
SUPERMAN Director James Gunn Reveals Why He Turned To Zack Snyder
For Advice And Talks Alternate Ending SUPERMAN Director James Gunn
Reveals Why He Turned To Zack Snyder For Advice And Talks Alternate
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 24, 2024
Source: Screen Brief
David Corenswet's Man of Tomorrow being compared to Henry Cavill's Man of
Steel was inevitable. Unsurprisingly, social media has been blowing up about
exactly that since the first Superman trailer was released earlier this week.
While there will always be fans who want to pit the DCU against the DCEU (or
"SnyderVerse"), James Gunn and Zack Snyder don't appear to have an issue.
In fact, the Superman helmer turned to the Man of Steel and Justice League
director for some very specific advice about the hero's costume.
"There was a time when I was developing the Superman costume, with David
Corenswet and Juliana [Makovsky], our costume designer and it was coming
together, but it had the red trunks, it had the whole thing," Gunn recalled in an
interview with Screen Brief. "And we really went back and forth a lot about the
red trunks."
"I even talked to Zack Snyder about it. He said, 'I tried like a billion versions with
the trunks and just never got there.' And I said, 'I see how that’s the case,'" the
filmmaker continued. "I didn’t know about the trunks. I wanted to use the trunks,
but I couldn’t, I kept taking them off. And I came in, it’s very colorful, the trunks
are on, and I’m like, 'God, I don’t know. It’s just so colorful. David, how do you
feel?’ He’s like, ‘I love it.’ And I’m like, 'Really, it’s that colorful.'"
"And David said, ‘I’m an alien from outer space who can fly and lift buildings,
and I shoot laser beams out of my eyes that can dissolve things. I want kids to
not be afraid of me. So, what am I going to wear? And I think that was really
part of where the costume came from. And I saw the character in a new way,"
Gunn admitted.
Most expected Superman to skip the trunks given how challenging they are to
get right on screen. Since 2011's "The New 52" DC Comics relaunch, that part
of the hero's costume was ditched in both the DCEU and Arrowverse, so the
fact this reboot embraces them is sure to be welcomed by longtime comic book
fans.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Gunn was asked whether there was ever a "kill
your darlings" moment for Superman (in other words, something he had to
sacrifice from the movie for one reason or another he may not have wanted to).
"When it comes cutting stuff, I don’t I don’t have emotions over those things. I’ve
been doing this for 30 years. I don’t have many emotions about killing my
darlings," he confessed. "But at one point, I had a very different ending that I
wrote to the Superman script that I went in and I told my wife about. I had
written the first draft, and asked her, ‘And then what if this happens?’"
"And it was very different, and maybe I’ll be able to share that someday," Gunn
teased. "That was hard. I had a pretty cool ending that was a little bit different
than the ending we get - actually, a lot different."
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
Superman arrives in theaters on July 11, 2025.
The teaser trailer for the new “Superman” not only wowed fans of the Man of
Steel, it also caught the attention of “Dragon Ball Z” fans with Superman shown
in a pose unmistakably reminiscent of the infamous “Yamcha Pose”.
While this visual Easter egg is a treat for anime enthusiasts, its inclusion in the
trailer does more than nod to pop culture – it signals the bold new direction of
David Corenswet’s Superman under James Gunn’s vision for the DC Universe.
Here, however, the pose takes on a different meaning. It isn’t just a humorous
reference; it’s a deliberate visual choice that highlights Superman’s vulnerability.
The shot paints a raw and unfiltered picture of the Man of Steel, showing him at
his lowest point – a stark contrast to the invincible figure often depicted in
previous adaptations.
The moment is made even more poignant by Krypto, Superman’s loyal canine
companion, who comes to his aid in the scene. It’s a visual metaphor for the
interconnectedness of heroism and humanity – a reminder that even Superman
can’t do it all alone.
Superman
“Superman,” DC Studios’ first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
DC Studios heads Peter Safran and Gunn are producing the film, which Gunn
directs from his own screenplay, based on characters from DC, Superman
created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The film stars David Corenswet (“Twisters,” “Hollywood”) in the dual role of
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) as Lois
Lane and Nicholas Hoult (the “X-Men” movies, “Juror #2”) as Lex Luthor. The
film also stars Edi Gathegi (“For All Mankind”), Anthony Carrigan (“Barry,”
“Gotham”), Nathan Fillion (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “The Suicide
Squad”), Isabela Merced (“Alien Romulus”), Skyler Gisondo (“Licorice Pizza,”
“Booksmart”), Sara Sampaio (“At Midnight”), María Gabriela de Faría (“The
Moodys”), Wendell Pierce (“Selma,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”), Alan Tudyk
(“Andor”), Pruitt Taylor Vince (“Bird Box”) and Neva Howell (“Greedy People”).
“Superman” is executive produced by Nikolas Korda, Chantal Nong Vo and Lars
Winther. Behind the camera, Gunn is joined by frequent collaborators, including
director of photography Henry Braham, production designer Beth Mickle,
costume designer Judianna Makovsky and composer John Murphy, along with
editors Craig Alpert (“Deadpool 2,” “Blue Beetle”), Jason Ballantine (the “IT”
films, “The Flash”) and William Hoy (“The Batman”).
“Superman” will be in theaters and IMAX nationwide on July 11, 2025, and
internationally beginning 9 July 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
With James Gunn helming the new “Superman” film set to release on July 11,
2025, the question I receive from most people when they hear that a new movie
is coming out is: Who is playing Superman?
The answer is David Corenswet. A name that might not have been familiar to
everyone when he was first announced, Corenswet is already capturing hearts
and generating excitement for his portrayal of the Man of Steel. Here’s
everything you need to know about the actor bringing Superman back to the big
screen.
Superman (2025)
What We Know About Corenswet’s Superman
David Corenswet’s portrayal promises to bring a youthful energy to the role. The
film is set to depict a younger Clark Kent navigating life as both a journalist at
the Daily Planet and Earth’s greatest protector. His chemistry with Rachel
Brosnahan, who will play Lois Lane, is anticipated to be a highlight of the movie.
Brosnahan’s acclaimed performances in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” have fans
confident she’ll bring an equally compelling Lois Lane to the screen.
James Gunn’s teaser trailer, released on December 19, 2024, has already
given fans a glimpse of Corenswet in action. The trailer’s vibrant tone,
combined with heartfelt moments of Clark Kent’s humanity, suggests that this
version of Superman will blend nostalgia with a contemporary perspective. Fans
have lauded the choice to include Krypto, Superman’s loyal canine companion,
as a nod to the character’s comic book roots.
Superman
Why David Corenswet Could Be the Definitive Superman
While comparisons to past portrayals by Christopher Reeve, Henry Cavill, and
others are inevitable, Corenswet’s casting reflects a thoughtful decision to
bridge tradition and innovation. He has expressed admiration for Reeve’s
Superman, noting in interviews that he hopes to capture the same sense of
optimism and moral clarity that made Reeve’s portrayal so iconic.
Superman's Fortress of Solitude has one silly element from the comics that
James Gunn should include in his Superman movie for an important reason.
Henry Cavill's Superman, who debuted in the DCEU's first movie, 2013's Man of
Steel, received a butchered and heavily-altered version of the Fortress of
Solitude, with the Kryptonian scout ship hardly being comparable to the giant
crystalline and frozen structure. The Fortress of Solitude has also been seen in
various TV shows, including Smallville, Superman & Lois and Krypton, but
2006's Superman Returns was the last time a comic-accurate depiction of the
Fortress of Solitude has been seen in a feature film. That is, until now.
James Gunn's Superman reboot is scheduled to premiere on July 11, 2025, and
will be the first feature film in the new DCU, followed by Supergirl: Woman of
Tomorrow, Swamp Thing, Clayface and more.
While little is known about what role the Fortress of Solitude will play in
Superman, it seems that the location will be the site of a huge battle that would
end with Kelex being injured. This could perhaps pit the new Man of Steel
against Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor or even the Kaiju monster that he can be
seen fighting in the movie's first trailer. Whatever the case may be, the Fortress
of Solitude's reinvention in 2025's Superman is great to see, particularly since
we haven't had a comic-accurate depiction of the iconic setting in almost two
decades.
December 22, 2024
The first teaser trailer for the new “Superman” movie has not broken viewing
records for a DC property, it also sparked intense speculation about a
mysterious figure featured on the front page of the Daily Planet newspaper
visible in several scenes.
SPOILER ALERT! We are not sure if the following information will have any
bearing on the plot of the “Superman” movie directly, but continue reading at
your own risk.
The “Hammer of Boravia” appears to be an original character created by Gunn
for the film, rather than an established DC Comics villain. According to the
newspaper story, this super-powered individual attacked Downtown Metropolis
in retaliation for Superman’s intervention in Boravia’s invasion of its neighboring
nation, Jarhanpur. The attack resulted in over $20 million in property damage
and sent 22 Metropolis citizens to the hospital.
While Boravian President Vasil Glarkos has distanced his government from the
attack, claiming the Hammer is an independent vigilante, the incident raises
intriguing questions about the film’s exploration of Superman’s role in global
politics. When questioned about his intervention in the Boravian-Jarhanpur
conflict, Superman defended his actions, stating, “While critics thousands of
miles away from this conflict continue to argue if what I did was right or wrong,
the bottom line is peoples lives were threatened. I had to act.”
The plot appears to draw inspiration from classic Superman comics, including a
storyline where the Man of Steel halted a Boravian civil war. This political
dimension of Superman’s activities has been a recurring theme in DC Comics,
most notably in Action Comics #900, where the character renounced his U.S.
citizenship, declaring, “Truth, justice and the American way – it’s not enough
anymore. The world’s too small. Too connected.”
The political ramifications of Superman’s actions may also tie into the
involvement of Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, with speculation arising about
potential LuthorCorp interests in the Boravian invasion of Jarhanpur. These
elements suggest Gunn’s film will explore the complex implications of a
superhero operating on a global scale in today’s interconnected world.
Here is the text decipherable from the Daily Planet newspaper prop:
Boravia has been the source of numerous headlines worldwide in recent weeks
as it invaded its neighboring country Jarhanpur, only for the brief war to be
swiftly ended by the Superman. The President of Boravia, Vasil Glarkos(?),
maintains the Hammer of Boravia is not a representative of the national
government, but rather an independent vigilante…
The company also promised to offer employees affected by this attack a paid
recovery holiday and says any requested therapy will be fully covered. No
employees could be reached to confirm these offers…
DC Studios heads Peter Safran and Gunn are producing the film, which Gunn
directs from his own screenplay, based on characters from DC, Superman
created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
The film stars David Corenswet (“Twisters,” “Hollywood”) in the dual role of
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) as Lois
Lane and Nicholas Hoult (the “X-Men” movies, “Juror #2”) as Lex Luthor. The
film also stars Edi Gathegi (“For All Mankind”), Anthony Carrigan (“Barry,”
“Gotham”), Nathan Fillion (the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, “The Suicide
Squad”), Isabela Merced (“Alien Romulus”), Skyler Gisondo (“Licorice Pizza,”
“Booksmart”), Sara Sampaio (“At Midnight”), María Gabriela de Faría (“The
Moodys”), Wendell Pierce (“Selma,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”), Alan Tudyk
(“Andor”), Pruitt Taylor Vince (“Bird Box”) and Neva Howell (“Greedy People”).
“Superman” will be in theaters and IMAX nationwide on July 11, 2025, and
internationally beginning 9 July 2025, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Superman director James Gunn has once again answered fan questions on
social media, this time offering updates on his next DCU project and a hidden
cameo in the trailer. He also debunks another wild rumor.
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 21, 2024
Superman writer and director James Gunn has to be positively buzzing
following the response to the movie's first teaser trailer. Between this and
Creature Commandos, December has got DC Studios' new DCU off to an
undeniably strong start.
While we're sure Gunn is planning to take some time off over the holidays, he
recently took to social media to once again answer all manner of queries from
DC fans.
The filmmaker started by confirming that The Engineer appears in the first
Superman trailer, though you'd be forgiven for having missed that on a first
viewing.
Gunn often gets asked the most random questions on platforms like Threads,
including whether one particularly memorable scene from the teaser featured
David Corenswet's real hair.
He also shared some insights into another uniquely shot moment featuring the
Man of Tomorrow.
Later, Gunn commented again on Superman's runtime, his key source of
inspiration for Krypto's portrayal, and shrugged off a question about what
designation the DCU's Earth will be given.
As you might expect, the DC Studios co-CEO is also pretty happy with the
response this week's trailer has received thus far.
Never one to let bogus rumours float around for too long, Gunn has set the
record straight on Jeff Sneider's claims that he fired the majority of Superman's
VFX team.
The reporter is nothing if not opinionated and some make the mistake of
passing on his comments as fact (take what he recently said about Robert
Pattinson's Batman joining the DCU, for example). In this instance, though, you
can see why Gunn felt the need to chime in.
Finally, Gunn confirmed that he's already hard at work "pre-writing" his next
DCU project. We don't know what that is - or even if it's among the projects
already announced - but he's clearly keeping busy.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Also appearing are Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
“I knew from the beginning what I wanted to do with the music,” James Gunn
shared at a recent trailer event. “I thought about it a lot. Are we going to do
something completely different? Are we going to use the Williams theme? The
Williams theme, that soundtrack is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time.
When I was a kid, really the thing that I loved the most about the movie was the
music. That was the thing I took home with me more than anything else. But I
knew we were doing something that was hearkening back to the past, but was
also looking forward to the future, so it was about finding that balance.
“John Murphy is a composer who I love working with. He started working on the
music before the script was even finished and was one of the first people I gave
the script to, along with Peter Safran and a couple of others, so that he could
start writing music for it. I said I wanted to use a version of the Williams theme,
but I wanted to do our own version of it. So, that’s what you hear. What’s really
amazing is how that leads into a lot of other pieces, some of which hearken
back to the Williams theme, but some of which are purely John Murphy.”
Whenever I see the Daily Planet bullpen, I feel like I’m home. This was our first
look at the DC Universe’s version of the Metropolis newspaper, and I can’t wait
to spend more time there. The bullpen is crowded, busy, and if you look closely,
you might spot some important supporting characters. I saw Skyler Gisondo’s
Jimmy Olsen, Beck Bennett’s Steve Lombard, and of course, Rachel
Brosnahan’s Lois Lane. You can’t have the Daily Planet without Lois, and
Brosnahan nails the ace reporter. Plus, those stolen glances between Lois and
Clark made me smile. We don’t yet know exactly what stage Lois and Clark’s
relationship is in, but it’s clear their courtship hasn’t progressed anywhere near
as far as it has in current comics.
As Superman lies wounded in the snow (who did this to him?), Krypto comes to
the rescue. I immediately fell in love with this good dog, and judging from the
online reactions, it seems I wasn’t alone. Seeing the Superdog carry Kal-El
through the snow warmed my heart. I wanted to reach my hand into the screen
and pet that dog so badly. He deserves all the cuddles. I can’t wait to see how
Superman explores the relationship between the two of them—which Gunn has
said may not be what we expect.
Folks, this is everything that Superman represents. He’s the hope in a young
boy’s heart when he’s in peril. He’s the champion of the weak and oppressed,
and the teaser was able to communicate that with just one image.
Kaiju
At one point we see Superman fighting a giant monster. Is this one of Luthor’s
creations? Is it an alien from outer space? Could it possibly be Jimmy Olsen
transformed into a Kaiju? Yes, that’s happened before.
Seriously, I have no idea. Gunn doesn’t tell me these things, but I’m dying to
know.
Lex Luthor
The teaser gives us our first official look of Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and I
can’t wait to see more. Without saying a word, we immediately see the
intimidating presence Hoult’s Luthor has. And then there’s the Luthorcorp
building, which towers above Metropolis. Immediately you get why Lex has so
much resentment towards the Man of Steel—he’s no longer on top. And what’s
the deal with that gun Lex was holding? What’s going on?
Super Friends
The teaser gave us a glimpse into the wider DC Universe. We get our first
official look at Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, and he’s rocking Guy’s classic
bowl cut. We even see him using his Green Lantern ring. As a big fan of Fox’s
Gotham, I was thrilled to see Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. I can’t wait to
see how his abilities translate to the big screen.
We get a brief shot of Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl soaring through the sky, ready
to strike with her mace. We also see a few shots of Edi Gathegi as Mister
Terrific, and he was amazing! At one point we see Mister Terrific surrounded by
gunfire as his T-Spheres create a protective bubble around him. So, so cool.
Fortress of Solitude
We briefly see the Fortress of Solitude, and it looks like the architecture is
taking inspiration from the 1978 Richard Donner film. Is that a Kelex robot
Superman is cradling? Did someone attack the Fortress?
Mystery Menaces
At one point we see Superman battling a mystery villain in a stadium. What’s
happening here? Who is this mystery villain, and why are they fighting
Superman? And near the end of the teaser, we get another glimpse of that
strange malevolent orb we saw in the very first image that was released of
David Corenswet in the Superman suit. So, it’s obviously a part of the plot, but
what is it? Any theories?
The Easter Eggs
If you know me, you know that I love searching for Easter eggs and this teaser
gave us some good ones. Some of you might have spotted a few Metropolis
Meteors banners throughout the city. That’s a reference to Metropolis’s football
team, which was introduced in 1973’s Superman #264. Clark’s colleague Steve
Lombard once played for them.
“What I love about their relationship, through every iteration of the comic books,
films and television series, is that they’re soul mates,” Rachel Brosnahan said at
the trailer premiere. “They’re united in the fact that they are both in relentless
pursuit of truth and justice, but they approach the world in totally different ways.
She’s somebody who—because of her profession, but also because of who she
is—questions everything. She questions everyone. She’s trying to see around
every corner, and that’s the way that she faces the world. And Superman is just
radically present in every moment. He solves every issue that’s directly in front
of him. I think the ways that they are opposite is something that is fun to watch.”
This certainly gives us a lot to get excited about and I suspect it’s only just the
beginning. Did you catch all of this? Did you spot anything that I missed? Join
the conversation and share what you’ve found right now in the DC Official
Discord server, where we’ll be talking and speculating about Superman well into
the New Year!
Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a
regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column,
"Gotham Gazette." Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at
@TBUJosh.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of
Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner
Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC
plans.
“I knew that I wanted to have a Superman that stayed true to his origins of being
the ultimate good guy,” shares Gunn. “It’s a movie about kindness. It’s a movie
about being good. When we had our cast dinner the night before we started
shooting, I was like, ‘At the end of the day, the world doesn’t always seem to
have so much good in it, and this movie has to truly be that.’ And that means
that we had to be good to each other, we had to be good to the crew, and it had
to be that authentically.”
It’s a theme that resonates deeply with the writer and director, who believes
people are ultimately good at their core, even if it often doesn’t feel that way.
“I think that’s what ‘Take me home’ is all about,” he says, referring to one of the
teaser’s few lines of dialog. “We do have a sort of battered version of Superman
in the beginning [of the teaser], and I think that is our country. I believe in the
goodness of human beings. I believe that most people in this country, despite
their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to get by and trying
to be good people, despite what it may seem like to the other side, no matter
what that other side might be. That’s what happens when we let the internet
seem like it’s the world, when it’s not the world. The world is us.”
“I walked on set and I had other people who saw me in the suit for the first time,
so I got to see other people see Superman,” recalls Corenswet. “The moments
when they saw Superman fly for the first time. Not getting to be a part of that,
particularly, but getting to witness them witness it. And then the best thing is
seeing kids see it, when crew people would bring their kids to set. Getting to
see a five or six-year-old kid see Superman, there’s nothing like it. It’s just
amazing.”
Though it was hardly just kids, as Corenswet’s costars will happily attest.
“I just remember walking through a field and following [David] with the suit on,”
shares Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane. “I think I ran up to him and was
like, ‘You’re f*cking Superman!’ There were definitely moments, sometimes
when you’d least expect it, like at the end of a really long, otherwise mundane
day, where Superman walks out of a trailer and you’re just like, ‘This is nuts! Is
anyone else seeing this?’
Even Superman’s iconic nemesis, Lex Luthor, wasn’t immune, as actor
Nicholas Hoult—who plays the follicly challenged billionaire—reveals in a
surprisingly sweet story.
“When I saw David in the costume, I was in awe,” he shares. “And I hate to
admit it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It made me feel like a kid again.
There was one scene where he flies into this set, and as I was watching, I had
this little private grin on my face and I thought, ‘This is amazing.’ And I turned
around and I saw everyone else in the room with the same look on their face
watching him, and that’s the effect that he has on everyone. It’s really special.”
“When we were designing the costume, I knew certain things were going to be
different,” explains Gunn. “It was freaking colorful and had the underwear and
the whole thing. I was like, ‘Uh, I don’t know. It’s so colorful.’ And David goes,
‘Yeah, he’s an alien from outer space who’s super powerful, who doesn’t want
children to be afraid of him.’
“It touched me in the moment, and it touches me now as I say it—that’s who
Superman is. He has a reason for why his costume is so colorful. It’s because
he doesn’t want to scare children. He’s got red beams that come out of his eyes
and can blow over things with his breath, but he wants to not be scary to
children.”
That may be who Superman is, but for the foreseeable future, Superman is also
David Corenswet. A relative unknown when he was first announced in the role,
Corenswet’s profile has only grown after he played a sizeable part in last
summer’s Twisters. It should be clear to anyone who’s seen the teaser that the
actor looks like he was born to play the role physically, but his director suggests
he shares much with the character outside of that as well.
“The thing that connects him so much in some ways to Christopher Reeve is he
has a lot of deep training,” reveals Gunn. “I’ve never worked with such a
rigorous actor. He challenged me on a daily basis to really get the most out this
character and this story. Everything he does in the movie is utterly true. We
don’t ever have a moment when we’ve been watching dailies where we go,
‘David did something that feels stupid—that doesn’t feel real.’ Never. He’s
always completely present.”
“Mostly I drew inspiration from the other actors and from James,” he continues.
“It was when I started working with Rachel that I got clear about who Clark and
who Superman was. And especially for Superman, a hero is only as interesting
or cool as the nemesis that they’re up against. So, standing eye-to-eye with Nic
for the first time, that’s where I started to get clear about who I am because I
see so clearly who they are.”
Of course, for a movie with such an eye towards humanity, it’s a bit ironic that
the character who steals the first trailer isn’t technically human.
“His relationship with Krypto is complicated,” teases Gunn with a laugh. “He’s
not nearly the best dog as he may seem. There’s a lot more to Krypto. But I also
thought that it was a way to say we’re embracing all of the Superman
mythology.”
Considering that mythology would ultimately birth the shared DC comic book
universe, that’s no small thing. And while Gunn promises a personal film
centered on the relationships between its characters, he’s also keenly aware
that his movie is designed to do much of the same thing for the new DC
Studios.
“This is an alternative history fantasy world where superheroes exist, but it’s
also incredibly grounded,” he makes clear. “Real people have real lives, there
just happens to be metahumans there. Superman exists. He has friends who
are other superheroes. He has people he doesn’t get along as well with who are
other superheroes. He’s got a flying dog. He’s got a giant fortress that springs
from the ground. He fights giant monsters. He has a lot of things that we love
from the Superman comics and mythology that we haven’t been able to see as
much of in filmed media and definitely haven’t been able to see in a grounded
way, which is what I hope we’ve created.”
Fans will have to wait until next year to experience that world for themselves.
But with Superman now only half a year away, we all have plenty of reasons to
look up.
Superman, written and directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet,
Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult, arrives in theaters July 11, 2025.
Following the release of the first Superman trailer, we have a first look at what
could be an early iteration of Lex Luthor's comic book Warsuit (and it's
seemingly inspired by Superman For All Seasons).
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 20, 2024
We've already broken down many of the biggest reveals in the first Superman
trailer but, on closer inspection, there's another big talking point which could be
key for how this story plays out.
In the scene with Mister Terrific protecting civilians from a group of soldiers, we
see that they're all wearing green and purple armour.
If Ultraman fails to get the job done by killing the Man of Tomorrow, then it's
feasible that Lex uses some recovered tech - perhaps from whatever's going on
in Boravia - to try and take Supes down himself. If so, that would explain all
those cuts and bruises seen elsewhere in the trailer.
Even without trying to fill in the gaps, we find it hard to imagine this purple and
green colour scheme has been included by chance, especially when James
Gunn is a huge comic book fan.
"I love the Silver Age of Comics in terms of the aesthetics of it, but I think...it
isn't completely that," the filmmaker recently explained. "It's also taking the
character of Superman and really getting into who he is as an individual and
what his personal obstacles are in this film. I think that's a really big difference
from not only other superheroes, but other superhero films."
"This is a story about a man and both his external and internal obstacles and
what he's facing in life, and that's what the film is about. And so although some
of the imagery is very Silver Age, I don't think that's a very Silver Age plot,"
Gunn continued. "So it has elements of both the traditional and the new. And I
think that's where we find our balance."
Check out a closer look at what could be Lex Luthor's future Warsuit in
Superman below.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Also appearing are Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
El actor reemplazará a Henry Cavill, que hace diez años dio vida al superhéroe
en el filme de Zack Snyder, "Man of Steel".
El filme se estrenará el 11 de julio de 2025.
Quién es David Corenswet, el actor desconocido que será el nuevo Superman
dirigido por James Gunn
David Corenswet en 2019, cuando solo se lo conocía por producciones de
Netflix como "The Politician". Foto AFP
Redacción Clarín
Cuando el exitoso director estadunidense James Gunn (Guardianes de la
galaxia, Escuadrón suicida) anunció quién sería el nuevo Superman para las
flamentes películas del mundo de DC Studios, y la gente se quedó como
diciendo "¿¿Quién??". Por supuesto que detrás de estos signos de
interrogación hay una certeza: de ahora en más sabremos todo sobre el joven y
altísimo David Corenswet.
Corenswet reemplaza así a Cavill, el último actor que dio vida a Superman
hace una década en el filme de Zack Snyder, Man of Steel, y que se ganó el
corazón de los fanáticos con su interpretación, mientras que Rachel Brosnahan
reemplazará a Amy Adams en el papel de Luisa Lane.
Corenswet recibió su primer cheque como actor cuando iba al colegio primario,
tras ser parte del elenco de una obra de teatro en su ciudad natal. “Tuve una
introducción muy completa al oficio -dice-. Recuerdo que me iba a casa antes
del intervalo para poder acostarme temprano y despertarme para ir a la escuela
a la mañana siguiente”, contó.
Antes del rodaje del Superman de James Gunn, el nombre no era muy
conocido. Sus primeros trabajos profesionales como actor fueron en cortos
como Following Chase y Michael and Clyde, además de la serie Moe &
Jerryweather, que escribió y produjo.
Dieta rigurosa
El personal trainer de Superman se llama Paolo Mascitti y es quine se viene
encargando de la preparación física del reparto. “¡David (Corenswet) dejó la
piel en cada entrenamiento!", dijo en una reciente entrevista.
El actor tuvo que seguir una dieta rigurosa para alcanzar "el superávit calórico
necesario para ganar masa muscular", señaló el entrenador. "Consumió
alrededor de 6000 calorías diarias y tuvo una dieta alta de proteínas y
carbohidratos para alimentar sus músculos y proporcionar la energía requerida
para sus intensas sesiones".
AD
En el adelanto que trascendió hace poco horas, el perro Krypto hizo su debut
en el cine, luego de aparecer en formato live-action para las series Smallville y
Titans.
Warner Bros/DC
He's here! After a lot of anticipation, the world just got their first good look at
David Corenswet in action as the new Man of Tomorrow, AKA Superman. The
first full trailer for the new 2025 Superman has arrived, and it's incredible.
Starting off with Supe lying in the snow after some kind of battle, we get an
electric guitar version of the famous John Williams theme. But why is Superman
whistling? Turns out he's whistling to bring his dog Krypto. And then he says,
"Krypto, take me home." Yes, we knew Superman's pup was in this movie, but
it's outrageously cool to see the dog in the trailer, and to know he's going to be
a huge part of this movie.
From their the trailer goes nuts. We see Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan)
suspicious of goofy Clark Kent at the Daily Planet. We see Superman saving
people. We see people who are furious with Superman. We see the Guy
Gardner version of Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) doing some cool stuff with his
lantern powers. We see Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) pulling out a gun looking
like a maniac.
And everywhere, there is COLOR. This isn't going to be a muted, grimdark grey
movie. Superman and his world is bright, and fully of action, conflict, and hope.
This is a Superman movie that feels like older Superman movies, but also,
brand new. We've never seen Superman quite like this before, and it looks he's
going to be joined by a ton of other superheroes, too.
For those worried that James Gunn's work with Marvel wouldn't quite translate
to DC, the Superman trailer will, for now, silence all those worries. This trailer is
full of the heartfelt, beautiful charm that makes the character so beloved. If you
have any kind of heart inside of you, at some point, you were moved to tears
remembering what it was like to play Superman as a child. If this trailer is any
indication, this could be the best Superman movie...ever? Here's hoping
Today's trailer begins with a badly injured Supes (David Corenswet) crash-
landing in the snow, before whistling for Krypto and asking the Superdog to take
him "home." The pooch drags the hero away by the cape - but we know he's not
referring to Smallville!
Aside from a few quick glimpses of the interior of the Fortress, we don't actually
get a full view of the icy structure in the teaser.
Now, some new promo art has revealed our first full look at the Fortress of
Solitude, and we can see this redesign being somewhat divisive. We've seen a
number of different versions of Superman's home over the years, but this is by
far the most... surrealist!
Check out the artwork below along with some more official tie-in merchandise,
and let us know what you think in the comments section.
Superman also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy
Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted earlier this year when filming concluded. "God
bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have
brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a
world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve
encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward
when I felt too spent to move on my own.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The
destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the
laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set -
and for that I am forever grateful."
You can check out a new synopsis for the movie below.
"In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly
imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart,
delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the
goodness of humankind."
Superman stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult have
all talked more about the movie, weighing in on the costume, their respective
characters, where "home" is, and much more...
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 19, 2024
Christmas came early today with the release of the first Superman teaser trailer
(you can watch it again by clicking here). It's certainly given us plenty to discuss
heading into the holidays and the movie's cast has now talked more about what
to expect from the movie.
For the Man of Steel himself, David Corenswet, Superman was about
embracing the hero's supposed naïveté and exploring what that means for him
as a superhero.
"I was always cut out of the drama when I was in school," the actor told Variety.
"I never felt like I knew the exciting, juicy gossip that was going on. And for that
reason, I always saw people as the best versions of themselves - I don’t think in
a terribly naive way."
"A lot of people consider Superman to be a naive character, and it really is just
a blindness to the little imperfections and the silly little things that we get caught
up with as people," Corenswet continued. "I tend to miss those, and I think
Superman misses those, and that’s what keeps him steadfastly and
determinedly looking at the good and the hopeful."
While Nicholas Hoult is playing the villain in Superman, he still hopes fans might
see there's more to the "smart and ruthless" character than initially meets the
eye.
Rachel Brosnahan describes Lois Lane as a character who "evolves to fit what
it would mean to be an intrepid journalist of each generation or each decade
that she’s presented in." She added, "Because of her profession, but also
because of who she is, she questions everything. She’s trying to see around
every corner. And that’s the way that she faces the world."
As you might expect, talk soon turned to the title character's costume. Due to a
lengthy design process, Corenswet says there wasn't any one moment where
he really wore it for "the first time." However, watching the reactions of others
proved to be even more special.
"I didn’t feel like Superman, but it was so amazing watching my castmates and
the crew members. You’re getting to witness them witness it. And then the best
thing is seeing kids see it. There’s just nothing like it."
According to Hoult, "When I saw David in the costume, I was in awe. I hate to
admit it made me feel warm and fuzzy. There was one scene where he flies into
the set, and I would have a little private grin on my face. And I turned around
and I saw everyone else in the room with the same look on their face watching
him."
ComicBook.com also caught up with the cast and asked Corenswet where
home is for Superman; in the trailer, a bloodied and beaten Man of Steel
crashes into the snow and tells Krypto to take him "home."
"I’ll say this," the actor started. "You see in the trailer Krypto is dragging me
through the snow. Do you think he’s gonna drag me through the snow all the
way to Kansas?" As expected, it's likely the Fortress of Solitude.
In one final tidbit for you, writer and director James Gunn was asked about
Superman's runtime and said it's "under three hours...under two and a half." For
comparison, Superman: The Movie and Man of Steel were both 143 minutes
and Superman Returns was a whopping 154 minutes.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
Robbie Collin
Chief Film Critic
In 2024, the superhero movie finally fell off the peak of pop culture. Yes, there
were hits – all right, hit, singular – but for every Deadpool & Wolverine, there
was a Hellboy, a Crow, a Kraven the Hunter, a Venom sequel and a Madame
Web. (That last trio have a strong claim to being the year’s three worst films.)
Yet fortunately for the IP-addicted studios, a beefy Kryptonian thumb appears to
be hovering over the big red button marked ‘genre reset’.
Per the trailer released this afternoon, James Gunn’s Superman looks like it
might turn out to be the superhero movie we all need. Which is to say: one that
ignores the last decade and a half of franchise-building, Easter Egg-planting
and multiverse-wrangling, and returns the form to its crowd-pleasing first
principles. Dreamy hints of the Christopher Reeve era’s classic John Williams
score, – initially as wailing throwback electric guitar solo – drive the point home.
Then there’s the elegant tagline – “look up” – which promises mass-appeal
optimism: a far cry from the recent vibe at Marvel, whose latest franchise entries
have largely depicted a dwindling in-crowd’s tertiary members under siege.
The trailer’s overall warmth was expected, but its open flirtations with goofiness
still surprise. Clark Kent’s bumbling approach to the Daily Planet offices through
the packed New York streets has an almost slapstick quality, while the
foregrounding of Krypto the Super-dog, Superman’s faithful canine companion,
demonstrates Gunn’s willingness to trust in his source material, even (and
perhaps especially) if it’s out of step with current blockbuster mores.
One brief moment of meathead lyricism aside – an embrace between Clark and
Pa Kent on the farmhouse porch – the divergence in tone from the recent Zack
Snyder films is striking. Yes, there are more toppling skyscrapers, but here they
literally fall like dominoes, while the romance between Lois and Clark looks
more wholesome than impassioned.
Despite the brief glimpse of New Yorkers jeering and lobbing refuse at our hero,
Gunn appears to have pinned down something that no other Superman film has
since 1980’s Superman 2: that the character should be, first and foremost, a
symbol of unity and hope. That makes him an especially welcome protagonist
for the first summer of the second Trump regime: after deciding to pick sides
last time around with ruinous consequences, Hollywood has to reassure its
domestic audience that its output this time round is for everyone, with no
demographic – even Maga – banned from the feast. (Meanwhile, the rest of the
world just has to cross its fingers that America’s national psychodrama spawns
some decent films.)
Not for nothing did the majority of images in Wednesday’s minute-long teaser-
for-the-teaser show groups of people coming together to watch Superman – be
they journalists, scientists, or mobile-phone-wielding civilians in the street. Gunn
and Warner Bros are clearly selling their film as a truly communal experience,
and it’s hard to think of a single character in pop culture better suited to the
task.
From the signature emblem on his chest to the primary-coloured costume and
cape, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation is one of the few superheroes
who can be recognised and enjoyed by almost anyone: there’s no Gotham City
darkness to repel fainter hearts; no MCU winks and smirks to turn off
newcomers. And in the fresh-faced Corenswet – just 31 years old, and notably
svelter and less grizzled than Henry Cavill – Gunn appears to have found an
actor with the same propaganda-poster-boy quality that also made Reeve such
a perfect fit for the suit.
Note that the first three films of the Reeve era, released between 1978 and
1983, all surfaced in a Superman-friendly age – in the United States, at least.
Over there it was a time of questing hopefulness: Nixon had been thwarted, the
Cold War was thawing, and the IT revolution was gathering speed. Not so when
Superman Returns opened in 2006. Hollywood was in its initial post-9/11
whiplash phase – Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and Christopher
Nolan’s Batman Begins, two psychologically rich and determinedly timely
blockbusters released the previous year, left Bryan Singer’s attempted
Superman revival looking mannered and quaint.
And when the tense and divided 2010s rolled around, the idea of a Reeve-like
Superman was simply no longer tenable. Hence Cavill’s more aloof and
unreadable interpretation – which, in both Man of Steel and the expanded
Snyder cut of Justice League did, in its own frosty way, neatly capture the
zeitgeist.
But in the mid-2020s, the job description changed yet again – resulting in
Cavill’s own abrupt departure from the Superman role, mere moments after
popping up in the post-credits sting for 2022’s Black Adam, in which future
team-ups with The Rock’s now defunct caped antihero were teased. The scene.
Cavill’s dismissal felt brutal, but the shifting Hollywood landscape had made him
yesterday’s Superman: today’s had to be a glinting herald of better times ahead.
Not only does Gunn appear to know this, he’s perhaps the most gifted director
working today when it comes to creating superhero films that can meet a
historical moment on the genre’s own terms. Rather than bending the form to
his will, a la Nolan, he’s always leant into its unique virtues and eccentricities.
His Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for Marvel and reboot of The Suicide Squad
for the former DC regime were broadly optimistic films – even the one that had
Peter Capaldi being disemboweled by a giant starfish called Starro. The
challenge for him, this time, is to ensure his Superman feels authentically super
– a tall order when your central character is primarily known for muscles, flight
and freezy breath, but newer B and C-tier heroes can reshape space-time on a
whim
.
“You’ll believe a man can fly”, the famous tagline of Richard Donner’s first
Superman film, was a marketing masterstroke, largely because of its use of the
word “believe”. Gunn’s citing of Top Gun: Maverick as a major influence
suggests he understands this. The flight sequences in that film felt both real and
incredible – a combination which feels as crucial to Superman’s success in
2025 as it was in 1978.
The director’s reference earlier this week to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s
All-Star Superman is also good news, since that comic-book series was less of
a reboot than a refinement, triangulating the character’s essence from the many
ways in which he’d been portrayed beforehand, from epic to eccentric to tragic.
From its grand scale to its teeming supporting cast (Lex Luthor, Green Lantern,
Hawkgirl et al), Gunn’s film looks and sounds capacious, but perhaps the best
thing it can do is give us Superman distilled.
News
By Sean O'Connell
The first moment that we see David Corenswet’s Man of Steel in James Gunn’s
highly anticipated Superman, he isn’t looking very super. The iconic DC
superhero plummets from the skies and crashes down onto the snowy tundra,
seemingly near his Fortress of Solitude. Superman has been beaten and
battered. He’s coughing up blood, injuries sustained in a fight we didn’t get to
see. Speaking of not seeing things, the very next beat of the first Superman
trailer features something we have never seen in a live-action Superman movie.
During an event in Los Angeles to celebrate the launch of the first Superman
trailer, writer and director James Gunn told journalists:
So what do we see? As one might expect from a Superman movie, we see the
dichotomy of the all-powerful Superman in action, and the bumbling physicality
that is Clark Kent (also Corenswet) at The Daily Planet, or in conference with
his paternal figure, Jonathan Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince). We get glimpses of the
staple characters in the universe, from intrepid reporter Lois Lane (Rachel
Brosnahan) to the sinister Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), holding a gun that I have
to assume is loaded to Kryptonite bullets?
But the unique aspect of James Gunn’s Superman is that the hero will be
inserted into a universe that – from a narrative standpoint – already is up and
running. So when the action kicks in, we see Superman (Corenswet) battling
creatures alongside Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Guy Gardner (Nathan
Fillion), a member of the Green Lantern Corp. We catch a shot of Superman
mourning what looks like the robots that protect his Fortress of Solitude, and
fighting a being who is rumored to be Ultraman. There’s a lot happening here
for DC fans to process.
Luckily, we have several months to work it all out. Superman is due in theaters
on July 11, 2025, and will continue the expansion of this new DC universe
under James Gunn and Peter Safran. What was your favorite part of this new
look at the impending blockbuster?
Superman's First Two Appearances In The DCU Show Him Defeated And Now
I'm More Excited For James Gunn's Superhero
By
Felipe Rangel
David Corenswet's Superman looking sad and bleeding in the snow in
SupermanCustom image by Felipe Rangel
The first trailer for James Gunn's Superman movie establishes a surprising
trend for the hero, and it makes me more excited about his future in the new DC
Universe. Excitement has been high for the next Superman film since James
Gunn was announced to direct the project. As a fan of his Guardians of the
Galaxy films, I have always thought that Gunn's Superman movie would turn out
great. After a long time with no announcements, we now have the first trailer for
the DCU's Superman, and it is perfect.
There are many exciting reveals in the Superman movie trailer, ranging from the
first look at both the Clark Kent and Superman sides of Corenswet's character
to his relationship with Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane to plenty of superhero
action and more. I think Superman's star-studded cast shines bright in the first
trailer for the film, which has made my excitement for the rest of the projects in
the DCU's Chapter One go up. Interestingly, Superman does not mark the first
appearance of David Corenswet's Superman in the DCU, and the new trailer
cements a trend that I like.
David Corenswet's Superman flying in the movie poster and Gal Gadot's
The DCU's new Wonder Woman following Gal Gadot's exit has already
debuted, and the character connects to David Corenswet's Superman in a key
way.
The Wonder Woman villain Circe showed Amanda Waller a vision of a future
where Princess Ilana Rostovic was revealed to be evil and had her army take
over the world, killing several heroes, which included Corenswet's Superman
and the yet-to-be cast DCU versions of Batman and Wonder Woman. Following
that reveal earlier in the day, the first trailer for Gunn's Superman was released.
The very first scene in the trailer sees Superman fall into the snow, badly
injured and bleeding. This way, both Superman introductions in the DCU have
him defeated.
Another cool factor of those reveals is that it instantly builds intrigue, as how is it
possible that Superman was defeated? DC knew that, as the studio first
released Superman's Creature Commandos appearance in a trailer weeks
before he actually showed up, sparking many debates. The Superman trailer is
doing the same, and with multiple villains present in the film, why Superman is
bleeding in the snow could have many possible answers. By showing the hero
defeated, DC also shows off other characters in tandem, be it the other dead
heroes in Creature Commandos or Krypto in the Superman trailer.
From what James Gunn and David Corenswet have said and what the footage
from the Superman movie has revealed, the goal of the new film is to go back to
the classic, inspiring version of the Man of Steel. While I liked Henry Cavill's
casting as Superman in the DCEU, I don't think the franchise ever really allowed
him to be the best possible version of Superman. Thankfully, it seems like
James Gunn is getting Superman right from the start. Getting thrown to the
ground by villains, only to rise back up, is what Superman is all about.
The hero is a symbol of resilience, hope, and all that a human being should
strive to be like. By introducing David Corenswet's Superman through the hero
being defeated twice, DC is showing that he is not a war machine, but a man
who fights for the world and is not afraid of risking his life while doing so.
Superman might be an alien, but I find Clark Kent's humanity his most
interesting aspect, and I'm glad that Gunn's Superman movie and Creature
Commandos make sure to establish that trait from the get-go with Superman's
defeats.
By
Molly Freeman
"I Didn't Want It To Have A Bunch Of Fake Muscles": James Gunn And David
Corenswet Address The New Superman Suit Design And What It Was Like
Wearing It On Set
David Corenswet as Superman In Costume Bleeding In The Snow In Superman
2025 Movie
The film side of the DC Universe is preparing to launch next year as DC Studios
releases the first Superman trailer. Writer, director and DC Studios co-CEO
James Gunn has been hard at work on the 2025 Superman movie alongside all
his duties of shepherding in the new DC Universe, which takes over for the
now-ended DC Extended Universe via a soft reboot of sorts. David Corenswet
stars as Superman, taking over from former Man of Steel Henry Cavill, and
offering his own interpretation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's iconic
character.
Now, after revealing the official Superman movie poster and unveiling the first
glimpse of footage earlier this week, DC has released the Superman teaser
trailer. It begins with Superman, beaten and bloody, crash-landing in some
snow before cutting to his Clark Kent persona at the Daily Planet. Krypto the
Superdog plays a key role in the trailer, coming to Superman's rescue, while the
footage is spliced with plenty of other teases from the movie, all set to what
appears to be a new riff on John Williams' classic Superman score.
The DC trailer reveals a lot of footage of the Superman movie cast, including
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Although
Luthor's involvement in the plot of the movie isn't quite revealed, it's clear he
already holds a great hatred toward Superman, and is very much a villain. Lois's
scenes are a little more interesting, because she's shown kissing both Clark and
Superman at different points in the trailer, which seems to indicate she either
already knows they're one and the same or she learns Superman's identity at
some point in the movie.
Beyond the three core characters in the Superman trailer, there are plenty of
others introduced, including Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi
Gathegi), Guy Gardner's Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Jonathan Kent (Pruitt
Taylor Vince) and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). Plus, there are shots of
various creatures and robots, including a massive kaiju and the robot that
Superman seems to be grieving. All of these scenes are interwoven with shots
of Superman saving a little girl, and being called on to help people around the
world, which helps to portray the superhero as well-established in this world.
Quite a lot is revealed in the Superman movie trailer, but perhaps the most
important takeaway I have is just how bright and fun it looks. There are
moments of darkness and despair, of course, and I think it's particularly
fascinating that James Gunn decided to open the trailer with a shot of
Superman when he is seriously injured, but it all balances out well. This looks
like a truly epic Superman movie, with plenty of the characters and hallmarks of
the iconic superhero, and I can't wait to see more from it.
Source: DC
DC Studios has finally released the first teaser trailer for James Gunn's
Superman and, if you're still not sold on the new DCU, something tells us you
will be after witnessing the Man of Steel's return...
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 19,
It's hard to remember the last time there was a trailer as highly anticipated as
our first look at DC Studios and James Gunn's Superman. Avengers: Endgame
and Spider-Man: No Way Home come to mind, of course, but today isn't about
the MCU; it's the DCU's time to shine.
The teaser is packed full of major reveals, though the fact it kicks off with a
beaten and bloodied Man of Steel is bound to be a major talking point.
Fortunately, Krypto arrives to save the day before we catch sight of several
other key characters.
Among them are Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Hawgirl, Metamorpho (at last!),
and Mister Terrific. Nicholas Hoult, meanwhile, looks suitably formidable and
threatening as Lex Luthor, while the mysterious glowing orb from the first-look
image also makes its return here.
There's time for romance too as Clark Kent and Lois Lane (and Superman and
Lois) are shown getting close, and the moment they fly through the sky together
is like a comic book cover come to life. Overall, it's a chill-inducing sneak peek.
Earlier this week, Gunn explained that Superman "[starts] the middle of the
action" and confirmed, "Lois and Clark already know each other." The filmmaker
added, "Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t
know each other personally. So we start right in the middle of the action. It takes
place over a short amount of time."
Asked how he approached Clark Kent and Lois Lane's dynamic, Gunn teased,
"The relationship between David and Rachel’s [characters] on screen is
something I don’t think we’ve seen in – I hate to say stuff like this – but I don’t
think it’s something we’ve ever seen any superhero movie ever."
"It’s a complicated relationship and we really get into it and there’s long scenes
that are about their relationship and the way they relate and what it would be
like for a person who’s this incredibly intelligent, strong-headed, stubborn,
skeptical journalist, to have a relationship with someone who can lift a
skyscraper," he concluded before refusing to reveal whether Lois knows Clark is
Superman.
Watch the first Superman teaser trailer below and check back here later for our
breakdown and a closer look at the action courtesy of some 4K screenshots.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Also appearing are Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
By Adam B. Vary
There is a remarkable amount of symbolism packed into these words, the only
ones spoken by the titular Man of Steel in the first teaser trailer for “Superman.”
The footage premiered Thursday following a press preview on Dec. 17,
introduced by writer and director James Gunn. The filmmaker has said for two
years now that this movie will formally launch the new DC Universe that he and
fellow DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran have been tasked with leading. But as
the teaser makes abundantly clear, this Superman — as played by relative
newcomer David Corenswet (“Hollywood,” “Twisters”) — will debut for the first
time into a cinematic universe inhabited by the full spectrum of DC Comics
characters. Superman is, in effect, coming home to DC.
Of course, the teaser offers a first look of Corenswet as Superman’s
bespectacled alter ego, Clark Kent, reporter for the Metropolis newspaper The
Daily Planet. There are also several quick shots of Kent’s colleague and
Superman’s beloved, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), both at the Daily Planet
and with Superman; and of Superman’s arch nemesis, Lex Luthor (Nicholas
Hoult), glowering as he hatches some kind of nefarious plot. Additionally, there
are a few quick glimpses of Skyler Gisondo as Daily Planet photographer
Jimmy Olsen, as well as Pruitt Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent, Clark’s adopted
father.
All of these characters have been staples of just about every live-action and
animated adaptation of Superman thus far. But, for the first time in the modern
era of live-action superhero movies, we also meet the Last Son of Krypton’s
rambunctious canine, Krypto the Superdog, who rescues a bloodied and
exhausted Superman after he crashes into the arctic ice. There are also quick
glimpses of several other DC superheroes making their cinematic debut. They
include Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, who is seen hovering inside an
impervious sphere; Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, the pugnacious member of
the Green Lantern corps who marches towards Superman with a purpose that
does not appear friendly; Isabela Merced (“Alien: Romulus”) as the winged
Hawkgirl; and Anthony Corrigan as the pale, bald Metamorpho.
As Gunn explained in a Q&A following the press preview on the Warner Bros.
lot, the teaser is meant to demonstrate that this Superman “lives in a world with
superheroes.”
“Superhero movies have taken these characters and said, ‘Okay, it’s Batman
[or] it’s Superman, but it’s not any of the other stuff,’” Gunn said. “We’re
embracing all of the Superman mythology. He has friends who are other
superheroes. He has people he doesn’t get along as well with who are other
superheroes. He has a lot of the things that we love from the Superman comics
that we haven’t been able to see as much of in filmed media, and definitely
haven’t been able to see in a grounded way, which is what I hope we’ve
created.”
Gunn said his DC Universe “shares as many elements with ‘Game of Thrones’
as it does with the Marvel Universe,” in that he wants it to feel like a fully lived-in
world that just happens to include fantastical elements.
Here are some more revelations from the extended Q&A with Gunn, Corenswet,
Brosnahan and Hoult.
Gunn said he wrestled about whether he should include the rousing main theme
composed by John Williams for the 1978 “Superman” movie, which he
ultimately realized is so indelibly connected to the character that his film should
incorporate it in some way — like the electric guitar riff used in the teaser.
The director turned to John Murphy, who composed the scores for Gunn’s 2021
DC film “The Suicide Squad” and his 2023 Marvel film “Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 3.” “I said, ‘I want to use a version of the Williams theme, but I want to do
our own version of it,’” Gunn said. “That leads into a lot of other pieces, some of
which harken back to the Williams theme, but some of which are purely John
Murphy.”
The director brought Murphy in at the very start of the process — a rare early
appointment for film composers — sending him preliminary drafts of the
screenplay nearly two years ago. Gunn then played some of Murphy’s initial
passes at a score on the set while they were shooting the film. “It’s finding that
balance between the novel and the traditional.”
Multiple times during the Q&A, Gunn kept returning to the point that he wanted
the movie, at its core, to be about goodness, and how much he feels the world
could use a story that embraces it.
After the Q&A, Gunn elaborated on that theme while talking with Variety.
“I’m excited for people to get to see the essence of what we’re doing, because it
really has been like this private secret that we’ve all been hoarding,” he said.
“We felt really good about it, like from a moral place, even from the beginning.
We all felt like we were doing something good, both in terms of quality and in
terms of actually something that’s not a fascistic power fantasy.”
“I’m not saying that about other hero movies in general,” he added, as if
anticipating the displeasure that sentiment might spark in the hardcore fans of
Zack Snyder’s DC films — which have been criticized for indulging in, well,
fascistic power fantasies. “But it felt good to be doing something that was about
a person’s kindness.”
At one point in the Q&A, while talking about Superman “standing eye-to-eye”
with Lex Luthor, Corenswet stopped himself short, as if he was about to
disclose something he shouldn’t. “This is my first project where I have to be very
careful about spoilers,” he said with a chuckle. But each of the actors did wind
up sharing some telling insights into their interpretations of their respective
characters.
Corenswet seemed to feel the most personal connection with his character,
specifically what some see as Superman’s naïveté about humanity’s innate
goodness. “I was always cut out of the drama when I was in school,” he said. “I
never felt like I knew the exciting, juicy gossip that was going on. And for that
reason, I always saw people as the best versions of themselves — I don’t think
in a terribly naive way. A lot of people consider Superman to be a naive
character, and it really is just a blindness to the little imperfections and the silly
little things that we get caught up with as people. I tend to miss those, and I
think Superman misses those, and that’s what keeps him steadfastly and
determinedly looking at the good and the hopeful.”
For Superman’s physical inspiration, Corenswet said he drew most from his
brother-in-law, “who’s six [foot] eight [inches] and 270 pounds, has the deepest
voice, and is always in the way and always trying not to be.” But it wasn’t until
he started working with his fellow actors, especially Brosnahan and Hoult, “that I
got clear who Clark and who Superman was,” he said.
For Brosnahan, Lois Lane has been a character who “evolves to fit what it
would mean to be an intrepid journalist of each generation or each decade that
she’s presented in.” So she looked at what it would mean for Lois to live in a
world in which print journalism “is perhaps an endangered art form, and she’s
somebody who has dedicated her entire life to it.”
“Because of her profession, but also because of who she is, she questions
everything,” Brosnahan continued. “She’s trying to see around every corner.
And that’s the way that she faces the world.”
Many of Lex Luthor’s classic qualities are quite present in Hoult’s version of
Metropolis’ titan of industry. “Obviously, he’s smart and ruthless, and he has to
outmaneuver Superman on certain levels, because he can’t match him in
others,” Hoult said. “But there’s also something about this character, hopefully,
from my standpoint, where even though you perhaps don’t agree with his
process, you can understand where he’s coming from and why what he’s
pushing as his ideology is perhaps better for humanity.”
While Gunn said it took “a long process of development” to finalize his version
of Superman’s suit, he was clear from the start what he did not want it to look
like.
“I didn’t want to have it look like a wet t-shirt,” he said. “I didn’t want to have it
have a bunch of fake muscles in it, and I didn’t want airbrushed abs on it.”
For his part, Corenswet said that because there were so many iterations of
every aspect of the costume, he never quite had a moment where he wore it for
“the first time.” Instead, he got to experience how others saw him in the final
version of the suit for the first time.
“I didn’t feel like Superman, but it was so amazing watching my castmates and
the crew members,” he said. “You’re getting to witness them witness it.”
Hoult then relayed his side of that experience. “When I saw David in the
costume, I was in awe,” the actor said. “I hate to admit it made me feel warm
and fuzzy. There was one scene where he flies into the set, and I would have a
little private grin on my face. And I turned around and I saw everyone else in the
room with the same look on their face watching him.”
“And then the best thing is seeing kids see it,” Corenswet added. “There’s just
nothing like it.”
On that note, Gunn related the story, which he’s told versions of before, that he
was complaining during one of Corenswet’s fittings about how silly and colorful
the suit was looking. “And David goes, ‘Yeah, he’s an alien from outer space
who’s super-powerful, who doesn’t want children to be afraid of him.’ It touched
me in the moment, and it touches me now. That is who he is.”
“Superman” will open in theaters on July 11. Watch the trailer below.
The filmmaker and his stars unlock the Fortress of Solitude to talk their 2025
movie: "I believe in the goodness of human beings."
By Aaron Couch
December 19, 2024
Then, there is hope on the horizon — in the form of his trusty friend, Krypto.
“Take me home,” Superman says to his canine friend, later in the trailer (below).
It’s one of only two spoken lines in the piece — the other is a young boy, eyes
closed and holding a makeshift flag who mutters “Superman, Superman” in
desperate hope — but it’s a line that points to a hope writer-director James
Gunn wanted to imbue his new film.
Created in 1939, Superman for decades embodied his motto, “Truth, Justice
and the American Way,” with the character serving as a symbol for the good
things America could represent for the world. That notion has become more
complicated in recent years, leading DC to officially drop the motto, in favor of
“Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow” in 2021.
During a trailer launch event for the press on Monday on the Warner Bros. lot in
Burbank, Gunn was asked how he incorporated the decency Superman can
represent for America and the rest of the world into the movie
“I think that’s what ‘Take me home is all about,’” Gunn said. “We do have sort of
a battered vision of Superman at the beginning, and I think that is our country. I
believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this
country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to
get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like for the other
side, no matter what that other side might be,” continued Gunn.
There is much riding on Superman, which arrives July 11 as the first solo movie
for the character since 2013’s Man of Steel. It is the cornerstone property for
DC Studios co-chiefs Gunn and Peter Safran, who have an entire universe of
TV and films planned after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hired
them with the mandate to re-invent DC. Thus, the team is already doing
everything it can to build excitement, including the early reception with the press
that also included stars David Corenswet (Superman), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois
Lane) and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Corenswet, who came up on Ryan Murphy shows such as Hollywood and The
Politician, acknowledged that he sometimes did not feel like Superman on the
set, but watching castmates’ react to him told him all he needed to know.
“It’s like when you get a nice haircut, and you forget about it, but then you walk
around and everybody’s like, ‘Whoa, you look great, for once!’” he said to
laughs. “I got to see other people see Superman.”
“Even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, there’s an element
where you can understand on some levels where he’s coming from and why
perhaps what he’s pushing as his ideology is perhaps better for humanity,” said
Hoult.
The trailer also gave glimpses of the other superheroes in that world, including
Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (dopey haircut and all), Isabela
Merced’s Hawkgirl and Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific.
Gunn is known for bringing beloved animals to the screen, such as Rocket
Raccoon, who was the central figure in last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.
3.
With Krypto, he may have done it again, with a version that subverts the
decades-long version seen in the comics and other media as a clean-cut canine
with his chest out. This one looks more like a rescue than anything else. Of the
trailer’s canine scene-stealer, says Gunn: “He’s not nearly the best dog. There’s
a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”
As for the themes of the movie, Gunn said, “it’s a movie about kindness.”
17 Dic, 2024
Umberto Gonzalez
December 17,
With just days to go before the worldwide launch of the first teaser trailer,
TheWrap visited the Cleveland set of “Superman” this past June, where director
James Gunn was battling the elements to bring his vision of DC’s Boy Scout to
life. Between takes, Gunn sat with a bunch of reporters and revealed his
approach to the Man of Steel — one that focuses solely on Superman’s story
without getting bogged down in larger universe-building.
“Zero,” Gunn emphatically stated when asked how much of the movie is
dedicated to setting up other characters or future DC projects. “I mean, maybe
two little things, two moments, but basically if something’s there just to set up
something else, f–k it.”
For Gunn, this philosophy extends beyond just this film. “Everything needs to
stand by itself. I don’t want somebody to have to go see this movie and be
relying on anything else,” Gunn said. “If this sets up stuff in ‘Peacemaker,’ which
it does, then that’s great. But that is never, ever, ever, with me, going to be
something that I’m going to sacrifice even a moment or a beat in a story for,
especially a movie.”
Gunn added: “With TV, you’ve got a little bit more leniency to be able to do that.
But in a movie, every beat has to be in there for the movie itself.”
The film starts with Superman already established in his world, with existing
relationships with both Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. “We just start in the middle of
the action,” Gunn said. “Superman’s already existing. Lois and Clark already
know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they
don’t know each other personally.”
Gunn’s vision for the film draws from various influences while maintaining its
own identity. “All previous DC media influenced me,” Gunn said. “I think that
obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there’s also a lot of
things that this isn’t, like I’m not just making a Donner type movie. It’s very
different from that.” Gunn specifically cited “All-Star Superman” as a major
comic book influence, noting its Silver Age feel and science fiction approach.
For the action sequences, particularly the aerial scenes, Gunn and his team are
taking inspiration from “Top Gun: Maverick.” They’re using drones to capture
Superman’s flight scenes. “We shoot a lot of our action with actual drones flying
in and around Superman and the people that he’s flying with, Engineer,
whoever else, that he’s fighting up in the air.” Gunn said. “We got these really
small, crazy drones now. We’ve got some of the best flyers in the world here
who are working with it.”
The tone of the film sets it apart from Gunn’s previous superhero outings. “It’s
humorous, but it certainly is not as comic or as much a comedy as either
‘Suicide Squad’ or ‘Guardians,’” Gunn said. “There’s plenty of humor in it.
People like Rachel (Brosnahan) are so funny and David (Corenswet) is very
funny as well, so there’s humor in it, but it’s trying to create something that is
grounded, but also it’s an incredibly fanciful world, it’s fantasy, it’s taking from
other things like ‘Game of Thrones,’ where it’s this universe where superheroes
actually exist.”
One of the most debated aspects of the production was Superman’s DCU
costume – specifically whether to include the classic trunks. Gunn, who was “on
the no trunks team for a long time,” changed his mind after a conversation with
star Corenswet.
“David said something to me that really affected me,” Gunn said. “Superman
wants kids to not be afraid of him. He’s an alien. He’s this incredibly powerful,
could be considered scary individual and he wants people to like him. He wants
to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional
wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows
that.”
The film’s score, composed by John Murphy, will include nods to John Williams’
classic Superman theme while creating something new. “It’s not a soundtrack,
so it’s not about the songs,” Gunn noted. “It’s much, much more of a score film.”
Gunn also opened about the initial casting process and how he found both of
his leads. Both Corenswet and Brosnahan’s audition tapes arrived on the first
day. “I saw both of those and I went, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to be okay,’”
Gunn said. Their chemistry test proved decisive: “We had this 15-minute-long
scene that they have to act together and talk and discuss and just
communicate. And I mixed and matched all the different couples and it was
simple magic when the two of them came up.”
Gunn also noted that the film explores a unique take on the Clark
Kent/Superman dynamic. “People said all sorts of different things. They said,
‘Clark’s the real one.’ They said, ‘Superman’s the real one and Clark’s the
secret identity.’ But I don’t believe either of those things,” Gunn said. “I don’t
think anybody knows Superman unless they know both of him. And when they
know both of him, they know the real guy. And that means not too many
people.”
The film underwent some changes during production, including moving away
from its original “Legacy” title following a “pre-mortem” meeting where
department heads discuss potential issues before filming begins. “I thought
maybe the title was they had a looking back feeling about it. And this isn’t about
looking back, this is about looking forward,” Gunn said.
ScreenRant’s Rob Keyes was in attendance for a Superman movie set visit
alongside other outlets in Cleveland, Ohio, last June, where James Gunn
revealed his viewpoint on the Superman set photos and videos. Gunn pondered
whether people sharing photos of the movie before release could even be
described as a spoiler. According to Gunn, while he does not like spoilers, he
does not think that the Superman set reveals — and spoilers in general —
"decrease anybody's enjoyment of what they're watching." Due to that, Gunn
thinks fans will enjoy the first movie in the DCU's Chapter One all the same.
Check out the full quote below:
"James Gunn: At the end of the day, does things getting shared earlier by
people taking pictures, even amount to spoilers? I mean, there's even studies
on spoilers. I don't like them. I hate it when people spoil things. I don't like things
to be spoiled, but it doesn't really decrease anybody's enjoyment of what they're
watching. Maybe if you're watching The Sixth Sense and you know ahead of the
fact that he's dead or whatever—he is dead, sorry, spoiler—it might screw
people's enjoyment up, but I don't think in general stuff does and more so stuff
like this, does this really spoil anybody's enjoyment of the movie?"
Superman and Krypto staring at earth in first look of the new 2025 film
When the Superman set photos and videos first came out, James Gunn had
already addressed that by easing fan concerns. On Threads, DC Studios' co-
CEO said that he fully expected the reveals to come out when production on the
superhero film moved from the studio to outdoors. When asked back then about
the movie possibly being spoiled, Gunn said that he would never shoot major
spoilers in the middle of the city. The Superman movie director's comments
about the film's set leaks highlight that stance.
David Corenswet's Superman sitting down and flying
The first poster for James Gunn's Superman movie has been released, and
there are some major reveals we can't wait to see in this week's DCU trailer.
Gunn believes fans' enjoyment of Superman will not be affected by the set
photos and videos. Based on the director's comments, fans should not be
worried that they have already seen a major Superman movie reveal that will
diminish the theatrical experience in any way. Most Superman movie set photos
and videos were focused on revealing the first look at characters like the Green
Lantern Guy Gardner, Mister Terrific, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor. While a few
story beats might have been shown, Gunn's words tease that the movie's major
reveals are still a secret.
I agree with James Gunn's spoiler comments. While it is cool to see a movie's
biggest surprises only when it releases, knowing how certain characters look or
a few story beats beforehand hardly dampens my enthusiasm for a project.
Especially in Superman's case, where most of the film was shot in the secrecy
of a studio, and Gunn himself commented on how no big spoilers were filmed
outdoors, I believe many surprises will be in store when David Corenswet takes
to the skies as the Man of Steel next year when Superman is released.
By
Karlis Wilde
&
Rob Keyes
David Corenswet's Superman surrounded by Chris Pratt's Star Lord Joel
Kinnaman's Rick Flag Rachel Brosnahan in a role that resembles Lois Lane and
NIcolas Hoult in a role that looks like Lex Luthor with hairCustom Image By
Simone Ashmoore
Our conversation with James Gunn and other journalists on the set of 2025's
Superman revealed exciting new information about the first new DC Universe
movie. Alongside a hopeful new Superman poster, plenty of details about the
film have recently been made available, giving insight into the story, characters,
and the shape of the universe being constructed. Some of these reveals were
expected, while others were shocking. All of them, however, contribute to an
incredible new vision for DC's Man of Steel.
15
James Gunn's Superman Starts In The Middle Of Things And Takes Place Over
A Short Amount Of Time
Gunn Emphasized How Much Has Already Occurred Before The Start Of The
Film
James Gunn confirmed that the film takes place with many of its pieces already
set up. Superman is already Superman in the film, and several of his
relationships have already been established. This has been vaguely known, but
what is important here is that, referring to the film, James Gunn said, "It takes
place over a short amount of time."
Gunn explains that "We start right in the middle of the action" with the film,
suggesting it begins at an exciting point of the story and keeps the pace from
there. Much of this suggests a fast-paced tone for the film, with tensions and
relationships already set up. This is a significant contrast to releases like
Christopher Reeve's first film, which took a long, sprawling, and epic approach
to the story of the Man of Steel. Instead, Superman will begin in medias res,
starting likely at a point sure to grab viewers to ensure they're invested from the
first moments of the movie.
14
Superman Is Less Of A Comedy Than The Suicide Squad And Guardians
The Film Will Deviate From Gunn's Usual Style
One of the biggest concerns raised about James Gunn's taking on Superman
had to do with the director's tone. While Gunn has made some of the most
acclaimed superhero films of the current era, those films, including Guardians of
the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad, have had a distinctly irreverent and
comedic tone. Many have worried that Gunn would bring that same brand of
style and humor to Superman, a character who has not traditionally been
portrayed this way in the past.
Gunn addressed this, comparing Superman to his previous work, saying that
"[i]t's humorous, but it's certainly as comic or as much of a comedy." While The
Suicide Squad's funniest characters added a great dimension to that film, it
seems that humor will be more restrained here. This will likely allow Superman
to have more gravitas and room to grow the entire universe around itself.
13
Superman's Casting Process Gave James Gunn One Of His "Greatest
Moments In Filmmaking"
Gunn Was Compelled By The Chemistry Between David Corenswet And
Rachel Brosnahan
Casting has been an important part of the new Superman film, and Gunn
shared several details about a few of the performers. A number of people read
for the main roles, and Gunn was quick to express that he loved Rachel
Brosnahan as Lois and David Corenswet as Clark, saying "it was both of them
as individuals" that drew him to their casting.
From there, however, the director moved into chemistry readings together
before finalizing the casting. Among the contenders for the Superman actors,
the cast was mixed and matched in a way Gunn had not done on previous
projects. When Corenswet and Brosnahan were put together, Gunn described
seeing the chemistry between them as "something magic", and "one of [his]
greatest moments in filmmaking."
12
Lois And Clark Already Know Each Other When Superman Begins
Their Relationship, However, Is Not Entirely Clear
In explaining how the film starts in the middle of all the action, and that much of
the world already exists at the start of the film, Gunn mentions that "Lois and
Clark already know each other" when the film begins. This is an important
contrast to other Superman stories, including Superman and Man of Steel,
which saw the two characters meeting for the first time. With that said, it is
unclear exactly how well the two know one another when Superman begins.
On the relationship between the two, Gunn didn't provide many concrete
details. However, he did address the effectiveness of their relationship on-
screen, stating: "I don't think it's something we've ever seen [in] any superhero
movie ever." Considering some of his casting notes, and the chemistry between
the stars, it seems the film may offer a special and unique look at the
relationship between Clark and Lois.
11
Lex Already Hates Superman At The Start Of The Film
Nicholas Hoult Plays Lex Luthor In The Film
There have been many excellent Lex Luthor actors, and each of these has
brought something special to the role. It appears Nicholas Hoult's iteration will
be no different in this regard based on some comments from Gunn. Most
important, however, is the acknowledgment that Hoult's hatred of Superman will
already be established in the world. Departing from stories like the DCEU and
even the Christopher Reeve films, this conflict will already exist in some
capacity.
Gunn explained this by saying: "Lex hates Superman's guts from the beginning,
although they don't know each other personally." Setting up this conflict with the
idea of Superman will be important to Hoult's take on Luthor. Based on some of
the other known details regarding Superman's Luthor, it seems the movie is
primed to have a fascinating new look at the age-old rivalry.
10
Gunn Credits DC's Entire Past, Including Zack Snyder, As An Influence
Understanding The Past And The Legacy Of Superman Is Important To The
New Film
The new film has several influences, with Gunn explaining that much of the
character's DC history was important to this iteration. He acknowledged the
Richard Donner Superman and the DC animated universe as influences before
revealing his greatest influence: "All-Star Superman, that influenced me more
than anything." This is important, but what is also important is what the
filmmaker said about the Zack Snyder films.
Gunn also let the press know that the Zack Snyder films were also an
inspiration for this new take. While there is still some lingering disappointment
that Snyder's Justice League trilogy and Man of Steel 2 were never made, it is
fortunate that Snyder's work will also serve as one of the many inspirations for
this new version. Seeing how that plays out - and to what degree these
influences are evident in the movie - is an exciting prospect.
9
The Movie Has A Few Songs But Will Be Mostly Score
James Gunn Tends To Use Music In A Prominent Way
The first tease of Superman's music has been made with the poster reveal, and
the new film has been confirmed to contain mostly score for the music. While
James Gunn's needle drops and use of music are an important stamp for the
director, including his incredible opening theme for Peacemaker, it seems that
will be less prominent in Superman. "It's much, much more of a score film,"
Gunn explained.
Gunn clarified that there will still be songs, but that "it's not a soundtrack" in the
ways that his previous projects have been. Paired with Gunn's comments about
humor and comedy, it seems that Superman will be something of a stylistic
departure from the rest of the director's work. It will be interesting to see
whether Superman feels notably different compared to other James Gunn films
with these characteristic differences.
8
Superman Draws From Sci-Fi & Fantasy For Its Approach
Gunn Admitted Some Surprising Inspirations And Details
In addition to pulling from the enormous history of DC media, both onscreen
and off, Gunn made a few comparisons to other projects as inspiration.
Speaking of the DCU as a whole, Gunn said that "it's fantasy, it's taking from
other things like Game of Thrones." This is a world where superheroes exist,
and constructing how those different facets fit into the world and society is an
enormous task.
In addition, Gunn spoke of the sci-fi gadgets pulled from Silver Age comic book
inspiration. On Lex and his use of these tools, Gunn said "I think of him as like a
sorcerer." With these influences in mind, it seems clear that Gunn's new
universe is set to contend with enormous science fiction and fantasy details and
influences in a way that feels sustainable and true to its own world.
7
Future DCU Plans Heavily Depend On The Success Of The Film
The DCU Has Many Plans, But It Is Still Finding Its Shape
Gunn was asked about how much future plans for DCU are dependent on the
success of Superman, to which he answered: "A lot. I mean, we're not just
going to keep making movies." The shape of the universe, and its next projects,
will clearly be directed by the success of the film. Hopefully, Superman will
resonate with audiences and find commercial and critical success. If it does not,
however, there may be other alterations made to the shape of the DCU.
The DCU's Justice League and other overarching story elements have likely
found some shape behind closed doors, but little of that has been shared with
the world. As Gunn and Peter Safran find the direction of their universe, and as
audiences respond to the projects that are released, it seems that some
changes may be made to what the future holds. How big those changes might
be, and their impact on future projects, remains to be seen.
6
Top Gun: Maverick Influenced How Flight Scenes Were Shot
Flight Scenes Are Important To Superman
One of the most important parts of any Superman story is capturing the feel and
tone of flight. This is one of Superman's most important powers, and it can be
used to contribute to all kinds of scenes, both in battle and in the larger story.
From Gunn's description, it sounds like this was important to the film, especially
in action and fight scenes, noting that "being able to shoot stuff in the sky like
that is really hard."
The filmmaker employed the use of drones in crafting these scenes, admitting
that they took a lot of influence from Top Gun: Maverick. The Tom Cruise-
starring 2022 hit resonated with audiences for its story and tone, but the craft of
how it used flight and aerial combat contributed to the immersive feel of the film.
Superman looks to use several of the same filmmaking tools to replicate that
success.
5
Superman's Bright Costume Is Supposed To Make The Hero Look Less
Frightening, Especially To Children
Gunn Spoke About The Trunks And The Colors On The Suit
Notably, the Superman costume is different from Batman's, and much of this
comes from the fundamental purpose of that costume. Batman's suit is
supposed to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers, but conversations
surrounding Superman's trunks in the new movie came to a far different
conclusion. Gunn reflected on this, saying "one of the things David said is that
Superman wants kids not to be afraid of him."
4
None Of This Movie Is Dedicated To Setting Up Anyone Outside The Core Cast
Superman, Lois, And Lex Matter The Most To This Film
When asked by our own Rob Keyes about how much of the movie was for
setting up additional characters and threads, Gunn was succinct in his answer:
"Zero." This may be a bit of a surprise considering how much Marvel, the
template for a shared universe, works at balancing universe expansion with
telling individual stories inside the same project. Instead, it appears that Gunn
has narrowed the focus for this film to the core cast.
Gunn continued with a little bit more detail, saying "If something's there just to
set up something else, f*** it." This is a refreshing approach, especially after so
many MCU post-credits scenes and even the DCEU post-credits scenes in
Black Adam and Shazam! Fury of the Gods have not been fulfilled in their
universes. It is therefore important that the new film understand its own focus,
and it appears that Gunn is doing exactly that with Superman.
3
Of The Supporting Heroes, Mister Terrific Has The Biggest Role
Edi Gathegi Plays The Superhero Role
Edi Gathegi plays Mister Terrific in the film, and Gunn acknowledged that he will
be the most important of the supporting cast of superheroes. Alongside Isabela
Merced as Hawkgirl and Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardener, this is a significant
reveal. When talking about this topic, Gunn explained "They're not just cameos,
these are the characters... but Mister Terrific is the main character of those
characters."
While theories about Hawkgirl and Green Lantern have been shared, Gunn
here makes it clear that all these superheroes are important to the plot of the
film. That said, it seems Mister Terrific will have a larger role in the film, with
Gunn revealing that "he actually has a big part of the plot." Regardless, all these
memorable heroes are there for a reason, not just to set things up for the future.
2
The Title Was Changed From Superman Legacy Because It Suggested Looking
Back When The Movie Is About Looking Forward
The Film Was Changed To Being Titled Only Superman
While series like Superman & Lois were able to take an approach that examines
the history and past of Superman, the new film is much more about looking
forward. With a limited lens and an ending in sight, this looking back worked
well for Superman & Lois, although it is clear that the intent of the new film is
entirely different. Gunn acknowledged this when discussing the former title
Superman Legacy, saying "it felt too looking back."
Gunn explained that "when you see this movie, you'll understand where Legacy
comes from," emphasizing that some of those elements are still important to the
story. Based on Clark's relationships with others, and the history of the
characters, it appears that a more forward-facing idea of legacy will be explored
in the film. How this is done remains to be seen, but Gunn seems adamant that
the former Superman Legacy title makes sense with the film's plot and script.
1
Gunn Emphasized That Neither Clark Nor Superman Are The Man of Steel's
Real Identity, But Rather Both Are
Duality Is An Important Part Of Many Different Superhero Stories
James Gunn was asked about David Corenswet's casting, where he remarked
on the importance of being able to play both Clark and Superman in the film.
"It's not just Clark. It's not just Superman. It's Clark/Superman," Gunn said.
Reflecting on this, it was important to find a performer who was able to embody
both sides of the role. This was something Corenswet did well, which made him
right for the part.
Gunn continued, reflecting on how few people know the Man of Steel's identity
in the film, saying "People said all sorts of different things. They said "Clark's
the real one." They said "Superman's the real one and Clark's the secret
identity." But I don't, and it says in my script on the second page - I don't believe
either of those things. I don't think anybody knows Superman unless they know
both of him." The explanation suggests that this duality will be explored in
Superman, ensuring audiences themselves know both Clark and Superman by
the end of the film.
A full, in-depth description of this Thursday's Superman trailer has just landed
and it sounds like we're in store for something special with James Gunn's take
on the Man of Steel. Read on for details...
By JoshWilding –
Dec 17, 2024
The first Superman teaser trailer will be released this Thursday at 9am ET/6am
PT/2pm BST. Not only is excitement high, but expectations are also through the
roof and the pressure is on James Gunn and DC Studios to blow us all away.
After all, Superman marks the first big screen DCU project and, following the
zany antics of Creature Commandos, it has to set the tone for a new slate of
movies and TV shows with the potential to rival the MCU.
Following in the footsteps of the DCEU and what proved to be two disastrous
years for the brand in theaters will not be easy. That started with Shazam! Fury
of the Gods in 2023 and ended with Joker: Folie à Deux this past October (Blue
Beetle was perhaps the only bright spot). Simply put, fans and regular
moviegoers alike have soured on the DC brand.
And that is why the Superman teaser trailer needs to deliver.
Could this be the Man of Tomorrow we've all been waiting to see on screen?
Superman & Lois achieved that on The CW, of course, but the DC Studios
movie does sound like a much-needed reset for Kal-El.
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into
theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. In his signature
style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC
universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a
Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness
of humankind.
The movie stars David Corenswet in the dual role of Superman/Clark Kent,
Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
The movie also stars Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela
Merced, Skyler Gisondo, Sara Sampaio, María Gabriela de Faría, Wendell
Pierce, Alan Tudyk, Pruitt Taylor Vince, and Neva Howell.
The trailer was screened at a special event on the Warner Bros. lot earlier
today, and star Rachel Brosnahan was in attendance (you can check out some
photos below).
Some vague reactions were posted to social media afterwards, but nothing
particularly detailed just yet. There's a chance that members of the press that
got to see the teaser were asked not to share any in-depth breakdowns, as we
are just a few days away from the official reléase
.
The DCU’s Superman Poster Makes My Biggest Hope For The 2025 Movie
Look Even More Likely
By
Kevin Erdmann
Superman Poster 2025 Compared to Superman 1978 Poster Custom DCU
ImageCustom Image by Kevin Erdmann
The first official poster for 2025's Superman has been released, making my
biggest hope for the DCU movie even more likely. Following a handful of teaser
images for the new movie from DC Studios' James Gunn, the promotion for the
first live-action movie in the new DCU has officially begun. To that end, the new
motion poster and the movie's teased score have me incredibly excited.
It's been confirmed that the first teaser trailer for Superman is set to be released
on Thursday, December 19th. However, the new motion poster is doing some
solid work building up my hype for the upcoming DCU movie all on its own.
Here's why I'm seeing the new Superman poster as such a good sign for what's
to come, before any footage has even been released.
Superman's First Official Poster Has Already Given Me The One Thing I
Wanted: John Williams
Reinforcing One Key Idea About The New DCU Movie
Well before the new Superman poster and trailer announcement were released,
one of my biggest hopes was that James Gunn and DC Studios would
incorporate the classic theme from 1978's Superman: The Movie by composer
John Williams. Known for his incredible contributions to cinema with his scores
for the likes of Star Wars, Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and more, I
strongly believe the Superman theme is one of his most iconic. Almost 50 years
later, the John Williams theme is still incredibly synonymous with DC's biggest
superhero.
As such, I was incredibly happy to discover that a new rendition of Williams'
score can indeed be heard with Superman's motion poster. Likewise, it was also
an amazing surprise to hear the classic theme with orchestration more aligned
with the Man of Steel themes from composer Han Zimmer (which I also deeply
love). As such, this epic new snippet of what will presumably be Superman's
new theme certainly helps reinforce a core idea about the upcoming movie:
legacy.
Honoring The Character's 86-Year Legacy
The poster for James Gunn's Superman (2025) in the DCU next to Clark and
Krypto looking toward EarthCustom Image by Lewis Glazebrook
James Gunn's upcoming DCU movie was originally titled Superman: Legacy.
While I do like the simplified Superman title, it seems as though the core theme
and aesthetic of legacy itself will still be upheld, especially if these new
promotional images and posters are any indication. Beyond the exciting score,
the poster itself is quite brilliant as well.
"The new poster certainly represents the timeless concept that has been teased
by James Gunn himself for the upcoming Superman movie..."
Featuring new Superman actor David Corenswet front and center, the new Man
of Tomorrow is the single subject in this new DCU poster, surrounded by an
aurora borealis effect of reds, blues, and yellows. It's a truly simple yet striking
poster, leaning into a contemporary superhero style while not being as busy as
most modern movie posters. As such, the new poster certainly represents the
timeless concept that has been teased by James Gunn himself for the
upcoming Superman movie, as seen with past promo images that debuted the
new suit or Kal-El sitting with his dog Krypto.
I'm So Excited To See How Superman's Movie Teases Become Reality In The
Upcoming DCU Story
I'm Hoping Superman Feels Timelessly Hopeful
Unfortunately, the Superman movie itself is still 7 months away. However, I'm
incredibly excited to see the upcoming teaser this week as marketing for the
new DCU movie truly kicks off. The new motion poster and score have certainly
helped reinforce the idea that this new version of the Man of Steel will be bold
and new, while also tapping into the legacy of Superman and the timeless
components of his character, such as hope and justice.
By honoring the past and looking forward to the future at the same time, James
Gunn's Superman has the exciting opportunity to combine audiences who love
the traditional movies with audiences who love the new updated takes on the
Man of Tomorrow. If this new poster and score serve as any indication, 2025's
Superman will likely be able to engage with multiple generations of Superman
fans, both old and new. With any luck, the imminent new teaser trailer will
continue to build the hype and get people really excited ahead of Superman's
release in the summer.
Superman releases in theaters July 11th, 2025.
SUPERMAN Motion Poster Sees The Man Of Steel Take Flight And Features A
VERY Familiar Theme Song
It's time to look up because Warner Bros. and DC Studios have released the
first poster for Superman, and it's accompanied by a new take on a classic
piece of music. You will believe that a man can fly...
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 16, 2024 Filed Under: Superman
Speculation about when we'll see the first Superman trailer has been running
wild on social media for months now.
However, this week at last looks set to be all about the Man of Tomorrow as the
first poster for the movie has just been released by DC Studios.
Shared as both a motion poster and traditional one-sheet, it shows David
Corenswet's Superman taking flight surrounded by similar colours to those used
on posters for 1978's Superman: The Movie.
Likely confirming that classic blockbuster will be a key source of inspiration for
filmmaker James Gunn is the fact that we hear a reimagined version of John
Williams' classic theme for this contemporary take on the iconic superhero.
It's unclear whether this is John Muphy's main theme for Superman in the
reboot but it's hard to imagine anyone having an issue with that being used
when it's become so synonymous with the character.
It was previously used in the Smallville finale and Superman Returns, with the
latter serving as a follow-up to Richard Donner's beloved classics.
Check out the first Superman poster below and stay tuned for more on the
trailer as we have it.
Superman tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian
heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas.
He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human
kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
Set for release July 11, 2025, Superman is the official kick-off of the new DC
Universe, run by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Gunn, who also made Marvel’s
three Guardians of the Galaxy movies, wrote and directed Superman. It stars
David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane,
Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and many more. Check out the new poster below
(set to an ethereal rendition of John Williams’ classic Superman theme), below:
DC also confirmed through a brief tease that the first trailer for the film will arrive
this Thursday, December 19.
Anytime a Superman movie hits theaters, it’s a big deal. After all, Superman
was the first superhero and remains arguably the most famous. We’ve seen him
portrayed in all different mediums, of course, but his forays on the big screen
are always the most significant. And, since this version most also set the tone—
and story—for DC’s shot at a shared universe in the mold of Marvel, the
expectations couldn’t be higher.
Check io9 later this week for the first Superman trailer, and we may have some
other surprises as well.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars,
and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and
everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
James GunnSuperman
December 16, 2024
The first teaser trailer for the upcoming “Superman” movie will be shown to a
select number of people at a special press screening taking place at Warner
Bros. Studio in Burbank, California today.
As reported last week, DC Studios will hold a press event today, with the trailer
said to be released publicly on Thursday, December 19. This lines up with the
previous rumor that the trailer would be positioned in front of Disney’s “Mufasa:
Lion King” movie, which lands in theaters December 20.
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
By Zack Sharf
James Gunn‘s “Superman” is not having reshoots but is going to film a few
“pickup shots,” the writer-director recently confirmed on his Threads account.
Gunn is well known for avoiding reshoots as much as possible on his movies,
which is a rare feat given he’s directed major superhero tentpoles like Marvel’s
“Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy and DC’s “The Suicide Squad.” Reshoots are
often standard parts of production on comic book tentpoles.
“Sort of. Not a few days [of additional shooting]. We’re doing a day and a half of
pickup shots,” Gunn wrote on his Threads profile. “No scenes. No reshoots.
Just a handful of individual shots to enhance the film.”
Those films were 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” for Marvel and 2021’s
“The Suicide Squad” for DC. It’s mighty impressive that he didn’t need a bulk of
reshoots to get either film completed. One follower asked how he manages to
reduce the need for reshoots, to which Gunn responded with six tips.
“1) Over-prepare,” Gunn answered. “2) Don’t start shooting until I have a
finished script my whole team is happy with 3) Hire actors and department
heads I know can do their jobs 4) Surround myself with people who will
challenge me and not just yes-sir everything 5) Ask myself daily – are there any
small imperfections in the script or what we’re shooting that might end up
feeling like huge imperfections when we cut the film together? 6) 1 and 2 again!”
Elaborating on his third tip, Gunn wrote that there’s “usually a lengthy audition
process” on his films to find the right actor. He also does “background checks,
talking to people they’ve worked with before.”
“Superman” is being led by David Corenswet in the title role and Rachel
Brosnahan as Lois Lane. The cast also includes Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor,
plus Skyler Gisondo (Jimmy Olsen), Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho), Edi
Gathegi (Mister Terrific), Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner), Isabela Merced
(Hawkgirl) and more.
Gunn’s “Superman” is set to open in theaters July 11, 2025 from Warner Bros.
News
By JoshWilding –
Dec 08, 2024
The Marvel Studios fanfare is nothing short of iconic and there's been a lot of
excitement and intrigue surrounding what DC Studios will come up with for the
DCU.
We got our first glimpse of it before Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,
though there was speculation at the time that the relatively simple intro would
perhaps change from project to project depending on the character (for
example, we might see a classic comic book piece of imagery featuring John
Stewart before Lanterns).
A fan on social media website Bluesky recently asked Gunn, "I was surprised to
see the Superman DC ID at the start. Will all DC stuff use the Superman ID, or
will the character featured change based on [the] project?" To that, he
responded, "He's our MGM lion. It will usually be him."
Of course, that all hinges on next year's Superman movie which is written and
directed by Gunn.
"I don't think we've ever seen the big science fiction Silver Age Superman
aspects that we have in our movie," Gunn recently said of his approach to that.
"We've never seen...you'll see when the movie comes out, but we've never
seen this specific part of Superman's life."
"I don't think we've ever seen the Lex that [Nicolas Hoult] is. Nic is imposing,"
he continued. "You go, 'Oh, f***, poor Superman.' That's the thing we never see,
not in film. Sometimes in the comics you go, 'Oh, Superman is f***ed because
Lex is so smart and so good at what he's doing' but in the movies, you're going,
'Lex is about to get f***ed.'"
"We've got a big old Superman and a pretty tall Lex too. You see now where
Lex is, he's not the person you want to have against you," the filmmaker
concluded.
Watch the DC Studios intro below and let us know your thoughts on it in the
comments section.
Superman tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian
heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is
the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human
kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
THR’s “Heat Vision” email newsletter reports on Gunn’s recent screening of the
new film, stating that the unfinished movie was shown to the director’s trust
“close-knit crew of people”.
“We can tell you that the movie will be doing a few days of additional shooting in
Los Angeles in the near term.”
UPDATE: James Gunn responded to this report on his Threads social media
account saying that the report was “sort of” true. “Not a few days. We’re doing a
day and a half of pickup shots. No scenes. No reshoots. Just a handful of
individual shots to enhance the film.”
Films often conduct additional shooting, also known as reshoots or pickups, for
several important reasons.
Screen tests provide crucial insights into how audiences react to the film. If test
screenings reveal that certain scenes aren’t working, don’t engage viewers, or
create confusion, filmmakers may reshoot specific sequences to improve
narrative clarity or emotional impact.
During the editing process, directors and editors might also realize that certain
plot points need more explanation, or that transitions between scenes could be
smoother. Reshoots allow them to add or modify scenes to strengthen the
storytelling.
Sometimes, initial footage might have technical issues like lighting problems,
sound quality concerns, or continuity errors that weren’t apparent during
principal photography. Reshoots can help correct these technical shortcomings.
With modern filmmaking, additional shooting can help integrate complex visual
effects more seamlessly or add scenes that require extensive post-production
work.
Reshoots are a normal and often strategic part of the filmmaking process,
allowing creators to refine their work based on early feedback and critical
analysis. They’re not necessarily a sign of a problematic production, but rather a
tool for quality improvement.
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
AD
This past week has been an especially busy one when it comes to figuring out
what to believe and what is made up. Here’s a round-up of some of the latest
news and rumors surrounding James Gunn’s 2025 “Superman” movie.
The naysayers were out in force, with “Writer. Columnist. Filmmaker” Dan
Marcus reporting that the studio executives were not happy with the trailer
James Gunn presented, telling him to redo it and get it right. Gunn debunked
this one, saying the buck stops with him and Peter Safran, the co-CEOs of DC
Studios.
“When he says ‘studio’ that’s solely me, as the only studio involved in cutting or
anything to do with the trailer is DC Studios i.e. me & Peter (& I’m the creatively
demanding one). This is the exact same rigorous process I’ve gone through
cutting every Guardians trailer, pushing the marketing folks as hard as I can,
cutting & recutting until I think we have something worthy of the film itself. All
that said, my notes are a lot more specific than ‘make it better.'”
On the other side of the spectrum there have been reports calling the new
movie the “biggest Superman movie of all time”.
Where these rumors come from is anyone’s guest. People (especially clickbait
sites) just love getting eyeballs to their posts.
Either way, there’s no shortage of interest in the film, with pundits even
speculating on whether certain music or popular songs will be included in the
movie. Not sure why these ones in particular are of interest to fans, but James
Gunn says you won’t be hearing “Don’t Stop Me Now”, “Holding Out for a Hero”
or “Starman” in the new movie.
Really? Is this how desparate we are for any tidbit of information about the
“Superman” movie?
Either way, it won’t be too long before we see something from James Gunn.
Definitely before Christmas, with a second test screening having taken place
last night.
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
On his Bluesky social media account, Gunn shared a photo of he and his wife
on a plane, flying back from LA with the caption, “Back to Peacemaker (ATL)
from Superman (LA).”
When asked if he was in Los Angele working on pickup shots for Superman or
for post-production reasons, Gunn responded by saying, “Post. Screening.”
Who he was screening the movie for or with is unknown, although it’s likely
other DC Studios/Warner Bros. executives were in attendance, along with some
members of the cast/crew.
With post-production still taking place, the version of the film Gunn screened in
LA this past weekend was likely a rough cut still requiring finishing touches
before the film’s release in July 2025.
Superman has released ten live-action theatrical movies, not counting cameos
or animated film appearances. After so many films, one would think there isn't
much more left to do with the character that has not been done. After all,
Quentin Tarantino said he wouldn't watch Denis Villenueve's Dune movies
because he has already seen the David Lynch version, and why would he see
the same story twice? There have been only two attempts at Dune; what does it
say about doing ANOTHER Superman movie?
Yet director and DC Studios co-president James Gunn has nearly 86 years of
publication to draw from; there is a lot of untapped potential in the last son of
Krypton. Here are ten reasons to be excited about Superman, a movie that
could be unlike any DC film before and do what Black Adam couldn't by
changing the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe forever.
10
The First "True" Superman Movie in 12 Years
By the time Superman opens in theaters, it will have been 12 years since the
release of Man of Steel. While Superman certainly hasn't been absent from the
big screen since then, having appeared in Batman V. Superman: Dawn of
Justice, Justice League, and a cameo in Black Adam, this is the first time that
the character has been given the true spotlight without having to share it with
another character.
For context, the time difference between the release of Man of Steel and
Superman is greater than the seven-year gap between Superman Returns and
Man of Steel, but not as long as the 19-year gap between Superman IV: The
Quest for Peace and Superman Returns.
Spotlight on Superman
In the 12-year span since Superman last got the spotlight as the star of his own
feature film, there have been three Venom movies, three Ant-Man films, the
entire DCEU concluded, and Superman's own director James Gunn began and
concluded The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Due to his status as a pop
culture icon who has endured for generations, the arrival of a new Superman-
led movie is always a big deal and this case is no exception. After years of DC
treating Superman as second to Batman, the superhero that built DC Comics as
a brand is finally getting the spotlight shined on him again.
9
Prime Summer Release Date
Warner Bros. has given Superman a high-profile summer release date. Set to
be released on July 11, 2025, Warner Bros. is confident that Superman will be
able to hold its own against Jurassic World: Rebirth and The Fantastic Four:
First Steps that same month. While they did not give it the Fourth of July
weekend slot due to Jurassic World: Rebirth having claimed it, Warner Bros. is
positioning it in their big July release slot that they have previously saved for
The Dark Knight, Barbie, and four Harry Potter films.
The 2010s were a rough time for Superman and his fans. At the start of the
decade, Batman was DC's top hero, and the grim dark aesthetic of The Dark
Knight and the Arkham video game series bled its way into every corner of the
DC Universe, specifically Superman. Writers struggled to find a way to make
Superman relevant to modern audiences, so they often imagined the character
as a darker figure.
The "evil" Superman troupe exploded in popularity during the 2010s thanks to
the Injustice video game series and Zack Snyder's take on Superman in Man of
Steel, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and his plans for the Justice
League sequels. It appeared the only way to make Superman "cool" was to
imagine him as evil. James Gunn's Superman not only needs to relaunch
Superman as a film franchise but also re-establish the character's status as a
hopeful figure for both a new generation and those who have prior knowledge of
the character.
7
Exciting Cast
Superman has assembled one of the most exciting casts for an upcoming
blockbuster. David Corenswet was already a fan-favorite pick before he landed
the role of Clark Kent/Superman, but now, with 2024's Twisters under his belt,
he seems like he is primed to become the next big Hollywood star. Rachel
Brosnahan has earned critical acclaim for her role in The Marvelous Ms. Maisel
and seems perfect for bringing to life the snappy, fast-talking reporter version of
Lois Lane that has never truly been depicted on screen before. Nicholas Hoult
as Lex Luthor is a great actor in an iconic role, one fans are excited to see.
This is a formula Marvel Studios followed, like casting Anthony Hopkins and
Natalie Portman when they invested in then-unknown Chris Hemsworth and
Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki, respectively. The cast of Superman is filled
with great character actors like Anthony Carrigan and Wendell Pierce, fan
favorites like Nathan Fillion as Mikaela Hoover, and rising talent like Isabella
Merced and Skyler Gisondo.
They might not be household names, but they are well-respected actors.
Combine that with potentially big breakout stars like María Gabriela de Faría
and Sara Sampaio, Gunn has clearly focused on casting the right people,
knowing the star power comes from the characters.
6
James Gunn's Track Record
With James Gunn at the helm of Superman, it feels almost like a guarantee the
movie will be good. Gunn's work on Guardians of the Galaxy took D-list heroes
and made them household names. He managed to make movies that were
irreverent but filled with heart and emotional depth. Then his work on The
Suicide Squad and Peacemaker for DC ramped up the violence and gore but
brought nuance out of lesser-known characters. It is no wonder Warner Bros.
asked Gunn to be the new co-president of DC Studios.
With Superman, he is tackling the hero often considered to be the most morally
upright. Superman is still a complex character, but in a different way from the
heroes Gunn typically writes. There is a thrilling prospect that Superman is so
different from Gunn's previous work in the superhero genre because while his
track record shows the movie will likely be excellent, the question on everyone's
mind is how he will adjust to Superman. It is both clear-cut and uncertain, which
is exciting.
5
We Don't Know Much, and That's Exciting
Superman is only nine months away, yet, interestingly, fans don't know what the
movie is about. Part of this is because no teaser trailer was released during
Comic-Con a year before the film came out, but also, even based on the set
images, it is difficult to guess what the plot will be.
When Superman Returns went into development, fans knew that it was a
sequel to Superman: The Movie and Superman II, while Man of Steel was
clearly going to retell the origin story with General Zod as the villain.
Superman's plot remains a mystery. Is Lex Luthor the main villain? If so, what
was that giant sphere that attacked Metropolis in that first-look photo? Why are
there other Justice League members involved? All of these questions remain
unanswered, and that is exciting.
Don't Spoil It
A common criticism of modern Hollywood is how audiences know too much
about a movie going in. Jurassic World: Rebirth's plot synopsis is already
available, and that opens a week before Superman. For most superhero
movies, audiences have a general idea of what to expect due to it being an
origin story or who the villain is. That's not the case here.
4
The Kick-Off of the DCU
While James Gunn's DCU will get a soft launch with Creature Commandos,
Superman will be the true start of his new shared universe plan. With news that
Peacemaker Season 2 will debut one month after Superman opens in theaters,
2025 will see the birth of a new cinematic universe. This puts a lot of
expectations on Superman, but this is fitting for the character as he has often
been a trendsetter. Superman: The Movie was the first big-budget superhero
movie back in 1978, kicking off the genre the same way that Superman's debut
in the comics ushered in the age of the superhero. Meanwhile, Man of Steel
kicked off the DCEU back in 2013, which sadly never lived up to its potential.
DCU Begins
While some moviegoers might tire of the concept of an interconnected universe,
one can't help but be curious about a new starting point. Superman is unique as
it will need to stand apart from the DCEU that came before it and also the
Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is still the gold standard on which all other
cinematic universes are judged.
For nearly two decades, DC has been trailing behind Marvel Studios at the
movies, but Superman's arrival could offer a shift in the dynamic. While
audiences might start to become weighed down by years of continuity and
stories within the MCU, Superman and the DCU will offer a new starting point
for new and old fans to jump in.
3
A Superman Movie That Embraces the DC Universe
One thing that separates Superman from every other film before it is how tied
the DC Universe is from the beginning. The Christopher Reeve films and
Brandon Routh's Superman Returns focused solely on the characters from
Superman comics. While Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice expanded the
scope, the film put much more emphasis on Batman, and apart from Batman,
Alfred, and Wonder Woman, the core cast was still Superman's supporting
characters.
2
A Superman Movie That Is Not Afraid of Silver Age Inspiration
Despite multiple live-action films featuring Superman, the movies have only
scratched the surface of the character's rich lore. Due to much of Superman's
most iconic lore being some of the more fantastical, often silly comic book
elements debuting during the Silver Age of Comics seen in the early 1950s until
the late 1960s, the movies have largely ignored them to keep Superman
grounded. Even much of Superman's supporting cast at the Daily Planet has
been overlooked. 2025's
Superman looks to feature comic book staples like Cat Grant, Ron Troupe, and
Steve Lombard, as well as iconic elements like Krypto and seemingly Supergirl.
Superman Will Be Fantastical
One only needs to look at the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, The Suicide
Squad, and Peacemaker, to see that James Gunn certainly is not afraid to
embrace the bright, colorful aesthetics of the comic books and some elements
other filmmakers would consider silly. He fully embraces characters like Starro
the Conqueror or Rocket Raccoon and makes general audiences accept them
the way comic book fans have for years.
Gunn is making a Superman movie that isn't ashamed of the comics and, in
fact, has cited All-Star Superman as a major inspiration for the film. All-Star
Superman is often regarded as one of the greatest Superman comics of all
time, and part of that is how it embraces the character's rich Silver Age history
to tell a truly timeless and definitive tale about the Man of Steel. Superman has
such a unique corner of the DC Universe that has often been ignored on film or
parred down on television, and that might be why audiences have had a hard
time connecting with him.
1
The World Needs Superman Now More Than Ever
It is no secret that the world is a rough place right now, and more often than not,
the world needs Superman. When Superman burst onto the pages of DC
Comics in April 1938, America was in the midst of the Great Depression.
Superman's earliest adventures did not have him fighting supervillains. Instead,
he was a crusader for the common person who fought crooked landlords, men
who were abusing their wives, and employers who exploited their workers. He
was the original social justice warrior, fighting for a better tomorrow.
In the years since, he has become a symbol of hope and moral certainty for
generations, a paragon of good who will always do the right thing. The key to
making Superman relevant again might be to bring the character back to his
roots as a champion of all people.
With global conflicts and the rising cost of living combined with the fear millions
of Americans have in the upcoming President's plans that could roll back
numerous services and rights for LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color, there
is a hopeless feeling in the air. Superman is a fictional character; these
problems aren't just going to go away because of a movie. Yet Superman's
release in 2025 likely will tap into the cultural zeitgeist the same way Wonder
Woman did in 2017 or Black Panther in 2018. Superman might not be real, but
the hope and good he inspires can be real and something the world needs more
of.
November 2, 2024
While Nicholas Hoult is bringing a new version of Lex Luthor that we’ve never
seen before, one signature trait the Tolkien actor will adopt for his LexCorp
CEO role is a bald head. Back in February, the Primetime Emmy nominee
debuted his smooth head in Superman: Legacy’s cast photo and fans loved
what they saw. Hoult disclosed to SiriusXM the sweet way he shaved his head
and it’s too cute for words:
It's growing back gradually. Yeah, but I did shave my head, which I find quite
liberating whenever I've done it for roles. I kind of enjoyed that this time. I let my
older son get the clippers out and do it for me.
I’d like to believe the actor's son had a lot of fun shaving his dad’s hair! Too bad
he wasn’t around when his father was part of the cast of Mad Max: Fury Road
donning a shaved head as Nux. I can understand why Hoult would find it
“liberating” considering you don’t have to worry about fixing your hair when you
wake up in the morning. Plus, I’m sure that look helped the X-Men actor get
more into character.
I mean, as a fan of DC comics in general and Superman, I was, I mean, like you
say, such an iconic character and villain, and I think what's really special is, I
mean, James Gunn's just got such a singular, incredible storytelling pattern and
way that he brings films to life in such a unique manner that I was so excited
about his take on it, and then reading the script, I felt the same. I was like, ‘Oh,
this version of Lex is really fun and different,’ and yeah. I just hope people like it.
I don't want to say too much too early, but working with them and David's such
an incredible, wonderful Superman, he really embodies everything that you had
hoped for that character, so I'm excited for people to see the film.
Based on what Nicholas Hoult is talking about, I wonder if that means we’re
going to get a Lex Luthor that’s more quirky and eccentric than anything we’ve
ever seen in the Metropolis resident. I can see the Golden Globe nominee
nailing a part like that. After all, his past roles have included playing complex,
snaky characters like Skins, The Great, The Favorite, The Menu and more.
With James Gunn’s comedic flair always being a good addition to the superhero
genre, I can see Hoult’s version of Lex Luthor being a maniacal, animated
character that would be very entertaining to watch. You can see Hoult's
interview with SiriusXM in full below:
I'm excited to see Nicholas Hoult portray a “fun and different” Lex Luthor than
they’re used to seeing. And, while watching the actor's portrayal, I'll also be
keeping in mind the sweet way he bonded with his son while shaving his head.
Get ready to see Hoult’s bald Lex Luthor go up against David Corenswet’s Clark
Kent/Superman, as the upcoming DC movie hits theaters on July 11th, 2025.
Superman star Nicholas Hoult has teased his role as Lex Luthor in James
Gunn's DCU as rumours continue to swirl about when we'll see the first trailer
for the reboot. Find more details after the jump...
News
By JoshWilding –
Oct 28, 2024
We have a long list of reasons to be excited about Superman, and the fact
Nicholas Hoult is the DCU's Lex Luthor - easily one of DC Studios' most exciting
casting additions - has to be somewhere near the top of that.
The expectation is that this version of the villain will be a full-blown mad
scientist; seeing as Lex has been put centre stage on film and television
countless times, it will be down to filmmaker James Gunn and Hoult to put a
new spin on the Man of Steel's greatest foe.
Talking to Deadline earlier today, the actor said, "I'm a fan of Superman and
Lex Luthor as a character, so hopefully we've done something special with it
that people enjoy."
Hoult also praised Gunn when he added, "I just loved working with James
Gunn. I think he/s an incredible director and has such a great sense of that
world, that story, those characters. I just put my trust in him."
You can watch the full interview with him in the player below.
In other news, trailer and runtime scooper @Cryptic4KQual has shared their
belief that the first Superman trailer is "for sure" coming in December. That lines
up with previous reports that the plan is for it to drop during the CCXP in Brazil.
Gunn, meanwhile, shared the following when pushed for an update by a fan on
social media:
Superman tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian
heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is
the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human
kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
Much has been said about whether it's Ultraman or Ulysses, but the former has
now been confirmed courtesy of an official listing of upcoming "DC Direct"
merchandise.
We still believe "Ultraman" will be a Lex Luthor creation and likely a Superman
clone gone wrong (in fact, we'd put money on this being Gunn's take on
Bizarro). Lending weight to the theory Lex is a mad scientist is the fact his figure
will have a "Baby Kaiju."
There's also a full-sized Kaiju we'd imagine battles the title hero at some point.
A few months ago, a description of an early trailer mentioned Supes squaring
off with a monster of some sort.
As for who or what "Baby Joe" is, your guess is as good as ours!
"I have been working out. There’s that bit in 'All-Star Superman' where he talks
about his muscles being real and hard work and all that," Nicholas Hoult
previously said of his approach to playing Lex. "I kind of took that as a little bit of
a fuel for the fire."
"[James Gunn's] ability to keep things fun and alive and try things in the
moment," he added, "[is] something I really enjoy."
Check out the full list of upcoming Superman merchandise in the X post below.
Superman tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian
heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is
the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human
kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
.
News
By JoshWilding –
Oct 20, 2024
James Gunn was on hand for a Creature Commandos panel at New York
Comic Con yesterday evening (you can watch a new trailer for the show here)
and shared several exciting DCU updates.
The filmmaker started by promising that Superman star David Coresnwet "is
going to blow people the f*** away." Gunn added, "He's the best physical action
star I've probably ever worked with. Rachel Brosnahan, people are going to die
for her as well."
As for when we'll get a sneak peek in the coming months, the DC Studios co-
CEO noted, "There's no trailer yet...it won't be too long, but it won't be too
soon."
We'd bet on it coming at CCXP in Brazil this December. Gunn is a big fan of the
event and has already confirmed he's going to be in attendance.
Gunn also shared news on Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, teasing: "We start
shooting in England in January. I just saw the screen test with Milly Alcock. It's
based on Tom King's Woman of Tomorrow."
"Ana [Nogueria] came and pitched the story, and it was just one of the best
pitches I’ve ever heard," he continued. "She immediately wrote a first draft that
was great, and it just got better and better." Gunn added that he recently
watched Alcock's screen tests with actresses trying out for Ruthye.
As for Lanterns, Gunn revealed that he nearly cast Aaron Pierre as Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 3's Adam Warlock and said he and Kyle Chandler are "so
good together as Hal and John that you will be hooked on the two of them the
moment they hit the screen."
The director and studio executive also addressed the DCU's status quo but we'll
leave it down to you to decide whether his comments clear things up or make
this whole "reboot" notion even more confusing.
Gunn added, "We learn that other things that have happened in the past in
other media have still happened. There are references to things that happened
in the past. And those references then become canon in the DCU because we
mention them."
Had the filmmaker not decided to continue certain stories he started or bring
back the actors he worked with in the DCEU, chances are DC Studios' DCU
would have made a little more sense and been a fresher start for these
characters on screen.
At this point, it's too soon to say how thing things pan out over the next couple
of years. Still, Gunn is clearly excited about the way things are shaping up with
the DCU.
By
Ross Tanenbaum
David Corenswet puts on his suit in Superman and Guy Gardner holds a bat in
Green Lantern comicsCustom image by Ross Tanenbaum
Superman is already one of my most anticipated films of 2025, but James
Gunn's latest announcement excites me even more. DC is coming off a bad
stretch of box office flops, including The Flash and Joker: Folie à Deux. Despite
all of that, anticipation for Superman is high. The film will launch the DCU, which
will hopefully have better results than the DCEU timeline and its awkward
conclusion, and is directed by Gunn, who has an excellent track record with
comic book movies, including The Suicide Squad and the Guardians of the
Galaxy franchise.
The upcoming Superman movie has plenty of pressure on it, but all the
announcements and early set photos prove it should be great. Superman has a
great cast, including David Corenswet as Superman and Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, and an exciting roster of DC characters, like Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner,
and Mister Terrific. While no footage or story details have been shared, Gunn's
latest announcement provides even more reason why this film will launch the
DCU on a high note.
Krypto The Superdog's Superman Debut Sets A Promising Precedent For The
DCU
Gunn has a talent for bringing together a group of oddball characters and
making audiences fall in love with them. Casual audiences did not know who
the Guardians of the Galaxy were before the 2014 film, and now they are some
of the most popular MCU characters. His comic book films also have cute
characters that make audiences laugh and cry, despite how goofy they might be
on some levels. Figures like Groot, King Shark, and Cosmo the Spacedog could
be too silly in the hands of a lesser director.
However, Gunn knows the exact traits of these characters to highlight and how
to give them surprising character arcs despite their limited dialogue. It's hard to
make anyone dislike a dog, and I know Krypto will improve 2025's Superman by
giving Kal-El an adorable friend who can also fight crime. Superman has so
much potential, and I'm excited to see how Gunn kicks off the DCU.
‘By Denise Petski
Senior Managing Editor
In a touching post on social media, Gunn described how his own rescue pup
inspired him to include the character in the upcoming film set for release on July
11, 2025.
“Krypto was inspired by our dog Ozu, who we adopted shortly after I started
writing Superman,” Gunn wrote in a post on X. “Ozu, who came from a hoarding
situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs & never knew human beings, was
problematic to say the least. He immediately came in & destroyed our home,
our shoes, our furniture — he even ate my laptop. It took a long time before he
would even let us touch him.”
Gunn then remembers thinking, “Gosh, how difficult would life be if Ozu had
superpowers?
“And thus Krypto came into the script & changed the shape of the story as Ozu
was changing my life,” he continues. “What better time to debut the not-so-
good-good-boy Krypto than #AdoptAShelterDog month. Btw, Ozu today, is,
fairly often, a very good boy.”
The first look at the character in a motion image (see below and photo above)
shows David Corenswet’s Superman sitting on the moon alongside Krypto
looking out at Earth.
Krypto the Superdog first appeared in 1955 in Adventure Comics #210 and
appeared in numerous animated series and films, but never before in a live-
action film. The self-titled Krypto the Superdog animated series starring the
canine superhero premiered on Cartoon Network in 2005 and aired on The
CW’s Saturday morning block Kids’ WB from September 23, 2006, until
September 15, 2007.
In the series, Krypto was Superman’s pet puppy on Krypton before being sent
into space before the planet was destroyed. Upon landing on Earth he is a fully
grown dog who has similar abilities to those of Superman. Krypto is adopted by
9-year-old Kevin Whitney, whose family thinks Krypto is an ordinary Labrador
retriever. But the canine dons the secret identity “Superdog” when he performs
heroic deeds and fights evil. Other than Kevin, the only person who knows
Krypto’s secret is bratty cousin Bailey, who lies so often that nobody believes
his talk about the dog’s powers.
October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, sponsored by American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
October 15, 2024
Director James Gunn has given us a first look at Krypto the Superdog in the
upcoming 2025 “Superman” movie.
On his social media accounts Gunn posted the following photo saying, “Krypto
arrives on screens in Superman this summer.”
“Krypto was inspired by our dog Ozu, who we adopted shortly after I started
writing Superman. Ozu, who came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with
60 other dogs & never knew human beings, was problematic to say the least.
He immediately came in & destroyed our home, our shoes, our furniture – he
even ate my laptop. It took a long time before he would even let us touch him. I
remember thinking, “Gosh, how difficult would life be if Ozu had superpowers?”
– and thus Krypto came into the script & changed the shape of the story as Ozu
was changing my life. What better time to debut the not-so-good-good-boy
Krypto than #AdoptAShelterDog month. BTW, Ozu today, is, fairly often, a very
good boy.”
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
Directed by James Gunn, “Superman” is scheduled to be released July 11,
2025.
Andrés Buenahora
September 28, 2024
120
David Corenswet, who was announced as the new Superman in June 2023,
underwent a major physical change in preparation for the role.
“I wasn’t 238 (pounds) when we started shooting. I was 238 at my max,” the
actor said on episode 27 of the “Manly Things (Sort Of)” podcast. “I didn’t fit into
any of my pants.”
The “Hollywood” actor also discussed the difficulty of maintaining his peak
weight throughout the production process. He shared that the transformation he
underwent initially “didn’t feel great” because his body had not yet adjusted to
all of the extra weight he had gained.
“That was at the peak of my bulk,” Corenswet said on the podcast. “And then I
slowly lost weight before we started shooting. I started shooting at about 228,
230…I know I wanted this to be my excuse to see what it felt like to gain
essentially as much weight as I could.”
In May, Paolo Mascitti, the personal trainer for the “Superman” cast, shared a
photo of the film’s titular star in an Instagram post.
“David Corenswet worked his ass off; I can’t wait to share more of the training
we did to prepare to play this iconic character; stay tuned for more,” Mascitti
wrote. The post featured two still images: a first look at Corenswet in the official
Superman suit and a shot of the actor flexing his muscles in the gym.
By Anthony D'Alessandro
Editorial Director/Box Office Editor
DC/Maarten de Boer/Getty Images
EXCLUSIVE: James Gunn‘s Superman may be wrapped, but we’re hearing that
Alan Tudyk is also part of the mass ensemble pic in an undisclosed role.
Tudyk already is playing the voice of nuclear plant meltdown-born villain Doctor
Phosphorus in Gunn’s upcoming Max animated series, Creature Commandos,
which technically kicks off the first part of the DC Boss’ Phase One, “Gods and
Monsters.” Tudyk also voices Clayface in the Max animated series Harley
Quinn.
The movie also stars Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Skyler Gisondo (Jimmy
Olsen), Sara Sampaio (Eve Teschmacher), Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific),
Terence Rosemore (Otis), Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho), Isabela Merced
(Hawkgirl), Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner), María Gabriela de Faría (The
Engineer), Wendell Pierce (Daily Planet editor Perry White), Beck Bennett, and
Frank Grillo (Rick Flag Sr).
Tudyk recently reprised his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story role of K2SO in the
second season of Disney+’s Andor. He’s also voicing Hei Hei in Disney
Animation’s Thanksgiving theatrical release Moana 2, out November 27. The
Firefly vet is repped by Gersh Agency, Artists First and UTA for voice-over.
Amongst some of the items photographed are a Cast & Crew jacket, a Dough’s
Holes Donuts cap, a “Genesis” lanyard (the code name which the movie was
produced under), a Big Belly Burger can holder, a plastic Fortress Crystal
replica, and a mug depicting character designs for the main cast members.
Filming wrapped in late July 2024, with the film currently in post-production,
which includes special effects, composing and editing.
The cast of the film, simply titled “Superman”, features David Corenswet as
Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex
Luthor, Terence Rosemore as Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell
Pierce as Perry White, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as
Guy Gardner/Green Lantern, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as
Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as
The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant,
Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe, Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt
Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
Director Zack Snyder has revealed that his plan for the Man of Steel would have
thrown Superman into the darkness before pulling him back to the light and his
humanity shining through.
That is exactly what Gunn is aiming for with his Superman reboot. Director Zack
Snyder has revealed that his plan for the Man of Steel would have thrown
Superman into the darkness before pulling him back to the light and his
humanity shining through. However, due to many behind-the-scenes issues,
that plan was cut short, with Cavill's Superman never living up to his potential.
That is why I think the best possible way of rebooting the character is by starting
already with the classic optimistic version of Superman, the Boy Scout, who will
help anyone the best he can.
Henry Cavill's Superman being honored by civilians next to David Corenswet's
first look as Superman
I Love What I’ve Seen Of Corenswet In Superman’s Set Photos And Videos
The DCU Superman Reboot Is Making Corenswet's Wish Come True
After a long period with no updates, when Superman started filming out in public
in Ohio, fans were able to get the first look at Corenswet's Superman and other
DCU heroes in action. I was not very happy with the initial Superman suit
reveal, but after seeing it in action in multiple set photos and videos, the bright
and vibrant colors, as well as the red trunks, make for the ideal suit for this new
version of the hero. I'm happy to say that I loved everything I've seen of
Corenswet's acting in the role so far through set videos.
One of the best parts of Reeve's portrayal is how he makes Clark Kent and
Superman feel like different people. I'm a big fan of how Corenswet is
seemingly able to do the same, with the DCU's Clark Kent looking
unrecognizable and acting incredibly clumsy, while his Superman gives off a
confident aura. I also love how Gunn is making Metropolis' citizens a key part of
the film. Set videos show Superman being greeted and loved by the people,
with the citizens even helping him get out of a hole, which is the heartwarming
relationship Superman should have with them.
David Corenswet in Look Both Ways next to his Superman symbol and the
actor putting on the Superman suit
Filming is underway on Superman, and among set photos of David Corenswet
suited up as the Man of Steel and more, DC Easter Eggs have been spotted.
I Believe Corenswet’s Past Roles Showcase His Skills For Clark Kent &
Superman
The Star Has The Acting Skills Needed For The Role
Another aspect that makes me believe that Corenswet could be the best live-
action version of Superman yet is the actor's past. I've watched quite a few of
Corenswet's other works before being cast as Superman, and back in 2019,
when first watching The Politician, Corenswet instantly became my pick to play
Superman after Cavill. When it was revealed that the actor was one of those
fighting for the role, and later cast as the DCU's Superman, I was ecstatic. The
reason for that is, I know from Corenswet's past roles that he can excel at
playing Superman and Clark Kent.
Netflix's The Politician saw Corenswet play River Barkley. The character fought
his own demons and tragically died from suicide. That story showed that the
actor can deliver heartbreaking emotion if the DCU asks for it. The Politician's
biggest connection to the Superman role comes from how River manages to
inspire others. The character was the most beloved and popular student at his
high school and a gifted public speaker. Corenswet has a scene in the show
where he talks to an auditorium full of people about how every single one of
them matters, and it just screams Superman.
Some of David Corenswet's other notable roles include the TV shows We Own
This City , with Jon Bernthal, and Lady in the Lake , with Natalie Portman.
Another Netflix series, Hollywood, was the first time I got to watch Corenswet in
a lead role. The actor did not disappoint, delivering a charming performance
that made it impossible not to root for his character, a young actor trying to
make it big in the industry. As Jack Castello, Corenswet showed shades of what
his Clark Kent could look like, with the actor presenting the same goofy and
lovable persona that Clark is known for. Based on his past roles and set videos
from 2025's Superman, it seems like Corenswet will pull off his DC role in great
form.
James Gunn Has Only Directed Great Superhero Movies And Series
The Superman Reboot Is In Good Hands
Finally, with James Gunn at the helm, Corenswet's Superman performance will
likely be part of an amazing film, which heightens his chances of becoming the
best live-action Superman. Brandon Routh's version of the character is one of
my favorites, as is Cavill's, but I never felt the two got to be part of movies that
were just as great as their lead actors. Thankfully, I'm convinced that Corenswet
will have a different fate, as Gunn has proven his excellent track record with
comic book adaptations at both Marvel Studios and DC.
At Marvel, with his unique blend of humor, action, emotion, and music, Gunn
turned the Guardians of the Galaxy from an obscure team into a household
superhero squad. The cosmic team has one of the MCU's best trilogies, and
their holiday special was heartwarming. At DC, Gunn went into R-rated/TV-MA
territory and delivered two hilarious, emotional, and bloody projects in the form
of The Suicide Squad and its spinoff series, Peacemaker. Gunn's fan-favorite
and critically acclaimed superhero projects bode well for next year's Superman
reboot, and I think David Corenswet could come off it as the best live-action
Superman.
One was released on X and the other on Instagram; the actor is wearing the
same costume we saw in set photos, suggesting that will be his main look
throughout the duration of this movie.
The actor certainly looks the part and is best known for roles in Licorice Pizza,
Booksmart, Vacation, The Righteous Gemstones, and Santa Clarita Diet.
It's been a while since we've seen Clark Kent's friendship with Jimmy explored
on screen (in the DCEU, the photographer was shot in the head before ever
encountering the Man of Steel). With Gunn - a huge comic book fan - in charge
of the DCU, that finally looks set to change.
"Happy Anniversary to Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen, who debuted on this day
in 1941 (although he did appear earlier as an 'office boy' in Action Comics 6),"
Gunn says in the posts below. "Created by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and Bob
Maxwell. I can’t wait for you to see [Skyler Gisondo's] portrayal in Superman on
July 11, 2025."
Take a closer look at Gisondo's Jimmy Olsen in the social media posts below.
Superman tells the story of Superman's journey to reconcile his Kryptonian
heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas. He is
the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human
kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
“If you do some research you’ll see my films have always taken a different
approach and I’ve always given my VFX artist-collaborators time to do their jobs
properly, and the respect they deserve. And the quality of the VFX in those films
is uniformly great because of it (and because my friends at Weta and
Framestore and ILM and more are amazingly talented).”
“This is why we wrapped on Superman a year before release and why they’ve
been hard at work on many shots for months before that. This is why we start
heartily editing during the shoot. It’s why I prepare so vigorously and why we
only shoot finished screenplays. And Supergirl, which I’m not directing, is being
handled the same way. I can’t praise the VFX artists that help us create magic
enough.”
When asked if deadlines can sometimes have a negative impact on the special
effects in his films, Gunn responded by saying, “No. Because I’ve always had a
script essentially finished months before shooting, always completely
storyboarded, and I’ve always insisted we be wrapped in time to do quality
visual effects. I wouldn’t make a big film like that without the proper amount of
post time.”
As described in his posts, visual effects on “Superman” will be shared between
Weta, Framestore and Industrial Light & Magic.
Previously known as “Superman: Legacy”, the cast of the film, now simply titled
“Superman”, features David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent, Rachel
Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Terence Rosemore as
Otis, Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Sara
Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner/Green Lantern,
Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as
Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer, Beck Bennett as Steve
Lombard, Mikaela Hoover as Cat Grant, Christopher McDonald as Ron Troupe,
Neva Howell as Martha Kent, and Pruitt Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent.
Based on what we've seen in set photos, the character will be a member of
Maxwell Lord's Justice League International alongside Guy Gardner/Green
Lantern and Mister Terrific. Talking to Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad
Confused podcast, Merced shared her excitement for the first DC Studios
movie.
"I'm so excited for everyone to see [Nathan Fillion]. I think he's fantastic," she
started. "The whole movie is very loyal to the comic books but with a James
Gunn twist. I really think it's funny, it's clever, it's heartwarming...at least, that
was my experience on set. Obviously, things can change in the editing room
but, God, I loved James."
"He's so prepared. I could exhale on set and didn't need to worry about exhaling
after because James is one of those people who knows exactly what he wants,
will stop at nothing to get it, has a shot list, communicates with his team and
they're all prepared when they get there because they've worked with him for
twenty plus years," Merced continued. "When somebody is in charge and on it,
you have room to get excited, have faith in it, and relax into the role. That was
the loveliest part of that experience."
The actress then went on to talk in detail about her audition; Gunn, who had
already cast Fillion as Guy, realised Merced was right for the part very quickly
but the process was still a stressful one for The Last of Us season 2 star.
Merced was also asked about Superman's large ensemble and how Hawgirl fits
into that. It's a concern many fans have expressed about the movie, particularly
as the Man of Steel now has a lot of characters to share the spotlight with.
While we'll have to wait and see how Gunn balances that side of things, the
actress was happy with how Hawkgirl was served in the scenes she shot.
"Yes, I think at least we know our place in this new universe that James is
creating. I think I learned more about my character each day," Merced explains.
"One of the days that was most eye-opening was seeing her bedroom. The
room was super revealing as to who she was."
"I didn't even know how it was going to look. You have the comics to reference
and maybe in the script it says, 'INT: Hawkgirl's Room.' That's it. Then you see
it and it's super informative. James is trying to stay really loyal to the comics but
add his own twist."
Finally, Merced shared high praise for the DCU's new Superman. "I think David
[Corenswet] himself, in my opinion, is a very Superman-like person and has the
patience of a Buddhist. He is super, super kind and talks to everyone. Babies
and kids love him. I think he will be a wonderful Superman."
You can check out the full interview below. Superman opens in theaters on July
11, 2025.
Superman director James Gunn has explained why the upcoming DCU movie is
unlikely to need reshoots, breaking down his creative process and what he does
to avoid the need to rework a movie during post.
News
By JoshWilding
Aug 12, 2024
In a lengthy new post on Threads, filmmaker James Gunn has revealed that he
doesn't anticipate helming any reshoots for his upcoming Superman reboot.
That may sound like a bold proclamation (what if test audiences don't like it?!)
but Gunn's track record speaks for itself, something that's evident from him
pointing out what happened while shooting his last two movies.
According to Gunn, "I've done a total of one day of reshoots on my past two
films combined." As a reminder, those were Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and
The Suicide Squad, two incredibly successful blockbusters which have 82% and
90% on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.
These insights from the DC Studios co-CEO are fascinating as they unpack his
creative process. We also see how his methodical approach to the movies he
writes and directs means extensive reshoots, which typically rework movies
during post-production, aren't required.
It also sounds like Gunn surrounds himself with the right people, ensuring that
the production of Superman, for example, is a team effort.
David Corenswet is playing the Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan has been
tapped to star as Lois Lane.
The cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific,
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Gabriela
de Faría as The Engineer.
We expected cameras to stop rolling at some point this week, and James Gunn
has now taken to social media to announced that principal photography on the
first ever DCU movie is complete.
The filmmaker also shared a photo, but not the new still fans were hoping for.
The behind-the-scenes shot was taken during the first week of filming in
Svalbard, Norway, and features David Corenswet (Superman), Nicholas Hoult
(Lex Luthor) and several other cast and crew members wrapped up against the
elements.
"And that’s a wrap," Gunn wrote with his post. "God bless our cast and crew
whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have brought this project to life. I
set out to make a movie about a good man in a world that isn’t always so much.
And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve encountered on a daily basis on
the set has inspired me and thrust me forward when I felt too spent to move on
my own.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The
destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the
laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set -
and for that I am forever grateful."
Superman also stars Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl,
Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony
Carrigan as Metamorpho.
We're still not sure exactly how these other superheroes will factor into the story, but
Gunn has previously revealed that Superman's dual-life as both Clark Kent and the
Man of Steel will be explored in the film, suggesting that these characters will be his
"super friends." Whether they'll be part of an actual team or not remains to be seen.