Director James Gunn has been teasing the new trailer for his SUPERMAN reboot all week, yesterday he took to social media saying it was from one fan to another, “This project is so much more than just another movie to me, its a story about humanity about what it means to be a hero in a world that doesn’t always make it easy to be one”.
In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humour and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.
WATCH THE TRAILER
We were lucky enough to attend a virtual launch this week where director James Gunn answered journalist questions and dropped plenty of super-sized details on what to expect from the film, which is shaping up to be a love letter to longtime fans and a warm welcome to newcomers.
Here’s what we learnt…
It’s a Fresh Take on a Classic Hero
Gunn’s aiming to blend the traditional with the new, creating a Superman that’s both familiar and fresh. He’s drawing inspiration from the Silver Age comics, but don’t expect a simple throwback, this Supes is all about balancing his alien heritage with his very human heart. Gunn said he wanted to give the giant monsters and robots a feeling of the Silver Age comics, while also grounding them in a way that we haven’t seen them before. “I love the Silver Age of Comics in terms of the aesthetics of it” Shared Gunn, “But it isn’t completely that. 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 Superman movies, but other super other superhero films”.
The Trailer Was More Challenging Than The Film Itself.
There were much lower stakes for the director when he launched ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ back in 2014. “Nobody knew who they were” laughs Gunn during our online chat, “There were 12 people in the world that were upset because Yondu didn’t have a fin in the first movie. That was the extent of the outrage over something that wasn’t the way they envisioned it. Superman is one of the most popular characters, famous characters in the world. And everyone has their idea of what he should be like, what his costume should look like, what his morals should be, what his power set is. It was finding something that was as true and as authentic as I could possibly make it, because at the end of the day, if I can make something that’s authentic, then I think it works”.
It Features A Paw-some Surprise!
James Gunn loves an animal sidekick, and while we weren’t expecting one in Superman, Krypto the Superdog pops up in the trailer to steal the show. Krypto was inspired by Gunn’s own dog Ozu, who he adopted shortly after he started writing Superman. Writing on his Twitter, Gunn said “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”.
The Chemistry Is Hotter Than Heat Vision
When it comes to Lois and Clark, Gunn is not messing around. He revealed that he had shortlisted three actors to play Superman, and three actors to play Lois Lane, but it wasn’t until he paired everyone together for a chemistry test that he made his final decision to cast David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan. “David and Rachel were incredible individually, but when we brought them together, there was an electricity in the room that was palpable” shared Gunn, “Part of it is the steaminess, the sexiness of it, but part of it’s just the way they bounce off of each other, in the way that old 40’s movie stars do. You know like, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in “It Happened One Night”. So it’s this really miraculous energy between the two of them. And I felt like we were casting actors, but we were also casting the energy between these two actors”.
Journalism Is The Real Superpower
Hold the presses! Gunn’s putting the ‘Daily Planet’ front and centre in the movie. Lois Lane is no damsel in distress; here, she’s a journalistic powerhouse who can take down villains with her pen as effectively as Superman does with his fists. “I think you’re going to be freaked out by how much journalism takes a part of this movie and how important it is to the story” Gunn told us, while tip-toeing around the plot so as not to reveal spoilers, “I think that Lois Lane is someone who is going to be admired by boys and girls around the world for her pursuit of the truth and her strength in that”.
It Features A Soundtrack To Soar By
’28 Weeks Later’ composer John Murphy pays tribute to the iconic John Williams ‘Superman’ theme, while also incorporating new and unique musical elements of his own. “When I saw the movie as a child, the thing I liked the most was the score” said Gunn, who shared a motion poster online earlier this week, giving fans their first music preview with this new take on Williams’ 1978 Superman theme. “I wanted to pay tribute to that” he continues, “Its a score that we’ve been working on as hard as we’ve been working on the movie, from long before the screenplay was even finished, John and I have been working and sending notes back and forth. I always wanted at least part of the Williams theme in there as part of something”.
The Lex Luthor Fan Club Will Increase After The Movie
Gunn tells us that Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult, is a villain with depth & not just a cackling madman. The director hints at a complex antagonist with motivations that might make you question who the real hero is but overall the film is about the trio of Superman, Lois and Lex and how they interact with each other.
Fake Muscles Vs Real Muscles…
The Superman suit is getting an upgrade, blending elements from various comic eras. It’s colourful, practical, and designed to make our hero approachable rather than intimidating. Because when you can bench press a planet, you don’t need to look scary. Gunn told us that he settled on using the S chest symbol from 1996 comic series “Kingdom Come” early on & had it on the cover of his first script. “I also wanted the costumes to be real, something that people could actually wear” shared the director, “as someone in the film business, having been around a lot of costume suits and seeing just so many fake muscles in suits and airbrush muscles on suits, I didn’t want to go that route. So we did something a little bit different”.
And Finally….
What James Gunn’s favourite ‘Superman’ Comic Is…
When asked what his favourite Superman comic is James Gunn doesn’t even pause for a second to think about it… “All Star Superman” he blurts out faster than a speeding bullet. “It’s the thing that we borrow the most heavily from” he tells us about the 12 issue comic series that ran from 2005 to 2008, “Our plot has nothing to do with ‘All-Star Superman’, but some of the aesthetics were incredibly influential. They also had that sort of science fiction look with the idea of Lex as a mad science sorcerer, they had the giant monsters and threats that gave us the Silver Age look through a gritty lens”.
SUPERMAN flies into Irish cinemas in July 2025