DCU’s ‘Superman’ is certainly one of the most exciting movies to land next year. Directed by James Gunn, the movie stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
The movie is bound to reset DCEU’s ill-fated Superman franchise and kickstart the new cinematic universe in an epic fashion. There are only a few days between us and the release of the first teaser trailer for the movie, and thanks to that James Gunn decided to answer several questions related to the movie and its development.
First, based on set leaks, fans could see that a lot of characters will appear in the movie starting with Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner to Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag. Sr. who already debuted in ‘Creature Commandos.’
This is why fans assumed that the movie would stretch itself to think by trying to set up supporting characters instead of focusing on the main character – Gunn assured us that this is absolutely not the case.
The director explained that ‘Superman’ will focus solely on its own story and not set up future DC projects or characters. He believes every moment in a movie must serve the film itself, unlike TV, where there’s more flexibility. Gunn made it clear he won’t sacrifice story beats just to tease other projects, ensuring ‘Superman’ stands on its own.
I mean, maybe two little things, two moments, but basically if something’s there just to set up something else, f–k it.
Everything needs to stand by itself. I don’t want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else. 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
James Gunn explained that the film begins with Superman already established in his world. Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor all have existing relationships—Lois and Clark already know each other, and Lex despises Superman, even though they haven’t met personally. The story jumps right into the action without starting from the beginning.
James Gunn described the film’s tone as more grounded and less comedic compared to ‘The Suicide Squad’ or ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ While there is humor, thanks to actors like Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet, the focus is on creating a fantastical yet believable world where superheroes exist, similar to ‘Game of Thrones’ in its approach to building a unique universe.
It’s humorous, but it certainly is not as comic or as much a comedy as either ‘Suicide Squad’ or ‘Guardians. 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.
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Gunn also addressed why he decided to drop the “Legacy” from the title:
Well, I still think it has that aspect of ‘Legacy’ in it. We do this thing called the pre-mortem before we started shooting. You ever hear of this? It’s great. We go into a room with me and all the department heads, and we say, ‘let’s say this movie is a colossal fuck-up.’ We find out two years from now, when this movie comes out, it goes terribly wrong. What are we doing right now that we’re not talking about, that we’re doing this, making this movie wrong?
It gives a chance for all of the parties involved to speak their mind, whether it’s about the script, whether it’s about the casting, whether it’s about how departments aren’t communicating with each other. Everybody is allowed, from transportation to whatever, they’re all allowed to say what they think. And I found it extremely helpful.
And one of the things was, 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, so, although when you see the movie, you’ll understand where Legacy comes from because it is, again, it’s about Clark and his relationship to the script. How many parents lose their relationship to human parents and whose legacy is he really? And so it’s about that. But I think as a title I felt it, it felt too looking back.