Aside from the Big Blue Boy Scout himself, one of the most prominent characters in 2025's Superman was Krypto the Super Dog, marking his live-action feature film debut. Krypto was based on James Gunn's dog, Ozu. The Peacemaker creator is known for being heavily involved in the CGI development of his films, sending reference material he films himself to animators so that they can capture his vision for the screen.
Now, Gunn has shared the first test footage he received of his pet as Superman's super companion. In the caption of the video—which shows Krypto playing with Gunn's cat—the director explained: "First test footage I got of Ozu as Krypto, playing with my cat. Yes, this is CG (not the same thing as AI, so stop calling it that!)."
Gunn shared an unmodified version of the video in September, showing Ozu playing with the director's cat without any CGI. The only added visuals were of Krypto, from the HBO Max series of animated shorts, Krypto Saves the Day!, chasing a black cat:
The effects for Krypto were handled by Framestore, a VFX company that also worked on How to Train Your Dragon, Together, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*. In June, Gunn shared test footage by Framestore of Krypto with Superman Robot #4, a.k.a. Gary, voiced by Alan Tudyk:
Animation Supervisor on Superman, Loïc Mireault, explained the process behind bringing Krypto to life for the DCU film: "James [Gunn] provided us close to 1 hour of Ozu footage in a lot of different contexts which was really useful to help us capture the essence of Ozu's behavior and personality. Starting with that as a strong base, we could mimic Ozu's facial gestures and behavior or to match things like his specific asymmetric ears!"
Expanding on Mireault's breakdown, the Framestore team added: "This dedication to a real-world anchor was crucial. While Krypto was crafted to feel muscular and powerful, the team's guiding principle was that he should behave not as a 'smarter' dog, but as a normal dog that just happens to have superpowers. This approach ensures that even with his amazing abilities, the audience connects with an expressive and believable character who is, first and foremost, a dog (and not so often a good boy)."
Krypto will presumably return to the DCU in Supergirl, slated for release on June 26, 2026.
What did you think of the footage of James Gunn's Ozu as Krypto? Are you looking forward to more of the character? Let me know in the comments!