“Home. Take me home.”
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.
Yes, That’s an Electric Guitar Playing John Williams’ Classic ‘Superman’ Theme, but the Movie Will Have Original Music Too
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.
“That was one of my favorite soundtracks of all time,” he said.
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 early drafts of the screenplay nearly two years ago. Gunn then played some of Murphy’s early passes at a score on the set while they were shooting the film. “It’s finding that balance between the novel and the traditional.”
The Movie Will Embrace the Innate Goodness of Superman
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.
“We do have a battered Superman in the beginning,” he said, referring to the opening of the teaser (and, he implied, the opening of the film itself) with Superman careening into the ice. “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.”
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 so it was about a person’s kindness.”
The Actors Developed Their Own Approaches to Their Iconic Characters
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.”
Superman’s Suit Was Designed to Look Very Different from Past Superhero Costumes — But It Still Brought a Smile to Everyone’s Faces
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 looked 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.
