Warner Bros. Discovery is about to reboot the DC Cinematic Universe starting with a new Superman movie starring American actor David Corenswet in a the title role, with James Gunn directing. They have a lot riding on this one; if the movie is a hit, it'll lay the foundation for a whole new world of movies. If it flops, that's probably the last we'll see of DC superheroes on the big screen for a while (other than Batman, who always draws crowds).
The buzz about the new Superman has been positive, but some fans of the previous version, played by Henry Cavill under the direction of Zach Snyder, aren't letting go. In a since-deleted viral Reddit post in the r/SnyderCut subreddit, fans laid out plans to fight "the imposter Superman." They recommended posting spoilers everywhere, review-bombing the new movie, and reserving tickets online but not completing the purchase, making seats unavailable for other people to fill. The campaign, such as it is, feels pretty deranged, but such is the attachment some people have to the older, grittier version of Superman.
But Warner Bros. Discovery has been trying to jettison that version for a while, probably since the Justice League movie underperformed in 2017. According to a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, WBD offered James Gunn the opportunity to direct a Superman movie even before he signed on to direct The Suicide Squad; that movie came out in 2021, so the offer was probably made a couple years before. They were already wanting to replace Cavill at that point, "so it was even more messy than it is now," according to Gunn.
That sounds messy indeed, since Cavill did come back for a cameo in 2022's Black Adam, not to mention appearing in Zack Snyder's Justice League, an extended cut of the original film that dropped on HBO Max in 2021. To hear Gunn tell it, WBD already knew it didn't want Cavill back before this point, so there must have been competing views within the organization. They did not have their ducks in a row.
The new DCU
Hopefully, things have changed. The new Superman movie looks pretty good. And it will have to be if WBD wants it to lay the foundation for a whole new cinematic universe.
Of course the movie will feature mainstays of the Superman mythos like Superman, Lois Land (Rachel Brosnahan) and Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). The movie will pick up a few months into the relationship between Lois and Clark; she knows he's Superman, and they've been together long enough that it's starting to get serious. "Lois knows everything about him, so he's in a very vulnerable position," David Corenswet said. "He's madly in love with this woman and desperately wants her to understand him and appreciate him and love him back." Meanwhile, Lux Luthor has lots of tricks up his sleeve, including a mysterious figure named Ultra Man, who may be the tech tycoon's version of the Man of Steel.
There are other elements, including lots of other superheroes. Take the Justice Gang, a trio that includes Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi). These three work at the behest of Maxwell Lord, another tech mogul. Lord appeared in Wonder Woman 1984, where he was played by Pedro Pascal; this new version will be played by James Gunn's brother Sean. "They're good. They just are not saintly," James Gunn said of the Justice Gang.
These characters will show up in other DC projects, part of that universe Gunn and company are trying to build. Nathan Fillion's Green Lantern will turn up in Lanterns, a new TV series. And Fillian, Mercen and Sean Gunn will all feature in the second season of Peacemaker. James Gunn says you won't need to see any one of these shows or movies to understand another one, but they are building a network here. Even all these years later, studios are still chasing the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Superman, now with underwear on the outside
But first, Superman has to be a hit. The style of the movie is very different from the grimdark approach that Snyder took with Justice League and 2013's Man of Steel. The switch in tone is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that Superman now wears his trunks on the outside of his suit, a detail that's long been true of Superman's costume, but which looks a little silly in modern times.
But Gunn is going for it. “One of the biggest questions was, ‘Were we gonna have trunks, or were we gonna not have trunks?’” Gunn told Variety. “I talked to Zack Snyder, who was like, ‘I tried a billion different versions with the trunks, and at the end of the day, I tried it, but I just couldn’t get there.’ And I was feeling exactly the same way. … Theoretically, I liked the idea of trunks because it’s the Superman I grew up with.”
In the end it was Corenswet who made the difference. “We were trying on all these different versions, and we screened tested with trunks and no trunks," Gunn said in a different interview. "And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He’s an alien. He’s got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes. … He’s incredibly powerful and could be considered scary. 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 hope and shows that positivity. And that really clicked in for me.”
So Gunn and company are rolling the dice. Will it pay off? Superman flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.
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