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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s the first trailer for James Gunn’s silver screen take on Superman – and in a bit of twist, the director has revealed that while the film does offer a commentary on the current state of American society, it will do so in a way that honors the fact that most people, regardless of ideology or opinion, “are doing their best to get by and be good people”.
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Making landfall on the morning of December 19th, the first trailer for Superman not only presented viewers with their first proper look at the live-action side of the new DCU – most notably in terms of its characters, such as Fillion’s Guy Gardner, David Corenswet’s version of Big Blue, and the film’s inevitable breakout star Krypto – but also did so in a way that admittedly communicated a more ‘hopeful’ tone compared to recent superhero films.
However, two days prior to the public release of the trailer, Warner Bros. and DC Studios held a special press screening of the trailer, after which attendees were treated to a Q&A session with Corenswet, Lois Lane actress Rachel Brosnahan, Lex Luthor actor Nicholas Hoult, and Gunn himself, whereat the director provided some new insights into his creative approach to the film.
Per a recap of the event provided by Variety‘s Adam B. Vary, Gunn opened the session by providing a brief overview of the film’s setting, explaining to the crowd that one of his main goals with the trailer was to show audiences that, in the DCU, Superman “lives in a world with superheroes.”
“Superhero movies have taken these characters and said, ‘Okay, It’s Batman, it’s Superman, but it’s not any of the other stuff,” explained the director. “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.”
To this end, Gunn added that the new DCU “shares as many elements with Game of Thrones as it does with the Marvel Universe”, particularly in how it will feel like a real, genuine world that just happens to have a fantastic edge.
From there, the man behind the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy turned to the trailer’s music choices, particularly in how composer John Murphy (who Gunn previously worked with on both The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) blended John Williams’ classic theme for the hero with a contemporary sound.
“That was one of my favorite soundtracks of all time,” beamed Gunn. “I said, ‘I want to use a version of the Williams theme, but I want to do our own version of it.”
“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,” he also recalled. “It’s finding that balance between the novel and the traditional.”
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But perhaps most interestingly, Gunn continually touched upon the fact that the core theme of his film was, in essence, ‘human goodness’.
“We do have a battered Superman in the beginning,” said the director, pointing to the trailer’s opening shot of Kal-El bloodied and breathing heavily before calling Krypto for assistance. “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, their politics, are doing their best to get by and be good people — despite what it may seem like to the other side, no matter what that other side might be. This movie is about that. It’s about the basic kindness of human beings, and that it can be seen as uncool and under siege [by] some of the darker voices are some of the louder voices.”
Notably, after the event, Gunn further asserted to Vary, “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. 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 continued, seemingly making a vague reference to the previous Snyderverse of DC films. “But it felt good to be doing something that was about a person’s kindness.”
In closing out the session, Gunn ultimately recalled a story regarding Corenswet’s costume fitting that perfectly represented the film’s sentiment of ‘hope’.
Noting how during one particular fitting he had found himself unhappy with how ‘ridiculous’ and colorful the suit he was trying on was, Gunn recalled, “[and then] 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.”
Barring any Kryptonite-related delays, Superman is currently set to land in theaters on July 11th, 2025.
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