Whether it’s Superman and Lois Lane hovering to the heavens all goo-goo, a bloodied Man of Steel being saved by his dog Krypto in the snow, or the superhero protecting a young child from flying helium tanks, there’s no denying that James Gunn’s new Superman movie is bound to be emotional.
Who doesn’t tear up when a beaten down Superman pulls his cape toward his pup and exclaims, “Krypto, take me home!”
Superman is the first big blast off movie for Gunn’s revamped DC Studios at Warner Bros, the first phase of content entitled “Gods and Monsters.” As Deadline told you first, there was a big casting call to land the movie’s protags, Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, parts won by David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan who with her long hair here is organically channeling the late Margot Kidder.
It’s the fourth time in Warner Bros history that they’ve brought the superhero to the big screen, the previous instances being 1978’s Superman with Christopher Reeve, 2006’s Superman Returns with Brandon Routh and 2013 with Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill.
While there are the touchstones of Superman we’re familiar with such as nerdy Clark Kent and Lane at the Daily Planet, on the farm with Pa Kent, the fortress of solitude snowy locale, there’s a lot of additions in Gunn’s Superman, i.e. Krypto the Dog, and cameos by other DC superhero personalities, i.e. ultra-macho red-blooded dude Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and force field surrounded Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi).
Said Gunn at a presser for the trailer Monday, his Superman is “a movie about kindness. It’s a movie about being good.” Not to mention it delves into the notion that even in today’s world, a superhero can be vulnerable, i.e., a Superman bloodied in the snow, and getting trashed by a crowd — not the traditional images we’re used to for our Men of Steel.
Typically such characters are reserved for sequels, but Gunn is trotting them out in the first installment of Superman. Gunn tells Deadline, “I think it’s very important that we’re creating a universe. In this world, it’s not normal to see a superhero, like it’s not normal to see a fighter jet overhead. It’s a part of what this world is. In the movie, he has his friends at work and his friends at play.”
Summer typically begins the first weekend of May with a Marvel movie, next year being the antihero gang film Thunderbolts. But will summer really begin then? All eyes are up to the sky on July 11 when it comes to Superman soaring at the box office.