SUPERMAN Director James Gunn Responds To Rumor That Warner Bros. Demanded Cuts

SUPERMAN Director James Gunn Responds To Rumor That Warner Bros. Demanded Cuts

With Superman's runtime officially revealed, director James Gunn has responded to a question about Warner Bros. supposedly demanding at least 20 minutes worth of cuts...

By MarkCassidy - Jun 05, 2025 04:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Superman

Yesterday, an AMC Theater listing revealed that Superman will have a final runtime of 2 hours and 9 minutes. Director James Gunn would later confirm, while clarifying that this would be "inclusive of credits/post credits."

A recent rumor claimed that the movie would actually clock-in at around 2 hours, 20 minutes, which seems to have led to speculation that Warner Bros. asked for the runtime to be trimmed down. As far as we can tell, this stems from a recent report that the studio demanded cuts after negative test-screening reactions.

Last-minute changes for any major studio tentpole are normal, but we had heard that some pretty major alterations were made, with up to 20 minutes trimmed from an earlier version of the movie that was said to "lean heavier on humor." There have also been reports of editor and composer shuffles, and a significant restructure of the plot.

Wherever the runtime rumor sprang from, it's now been put to bed. "Zero truth to that," Gunn said in response to a fan on Threads. "And they couldn’t even if that’s something that they wanted to [do]. It’s a DC Studios film."

In related news, Smallville star Michael Rosenbaum has revealed that he will have a minor voice role on the movie.

"James asked me to do something fun, so I have a couple of lines that I voice," the former Lex Luthor told Screen Rant. "It's funny, in a way... he's the head of DC, so I think he can stick me in a movie or something"

Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner.

Sara Sampaio is on board as Lex's assistant/lover Eve Teschmacher, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell will play "Ma" and "Pa" Kent, and Milly Alcock's Supergirl has been confirmed to make her debut ahead of her own Woman of Tomorrow movie.

"And that’s a wrap," Gunn posted last year when filming concluded. "God bless our cast and crew whose commitment, creativity, and hard work have brought this project to life. I set out to make a movie about a good man in a world that isn’t always so much. And the goodness and kindness and love I’ve encountered on a daily basis on the set has inspired me and thrust me forward when I felt too spent to move on my own.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. It has been an honor. The destination has been Superman, but the journey has been the toil and the laughter and the emotions and ideas and magic we’ve shared together on set - and for that I am forever grateful."

You can check out a synopsis for the movie below.

"In his signature style, James Gunn takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who’s driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind."

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Forthas
Forthas - 6/5/2025, 4:37 PM
"Zero truth to that...And they couldn’t even if that’s something that they wanted to [do]. It’s a DC Studios film."


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Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 6/5/2025, 5:33 PM
@Forthas - why would he lie? They are betting everything with him. If they went out of their way to get him. Honestly, they will give him carte Blanche with Superman. But if it isn’t successful. Then I don’t think he will hold much power after that. But if it is. They’ll leave him alone as long as they get money.
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/5/2025, 5:37 PM
@Mrnorth1921 - 'why would he lie?' because he he has done multiple times already 😅
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/5/2025, 6:45 PM
@Forthas - They asked him if "WARNER BROS" demanded cuts.

"They couldn’t even if that’s something that they wanted to [do]. It’s a DC Studios film."
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WB is a separate studio within WBD. They have no power over DC Studios.

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Whoever asked him this asked the wrong question.
Now if they'd asked "Did WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY demand cuts?"...

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Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 6/5/2025, 8:08 PM
@JurassicClunge - but he hasn’t lied. Where has a he lied?
Forthas
Forthas - 6/5/2025, 8:29 PM
@Mrnorth1921 -
@JurassicClunge -

After Joker Folie Aux Deux...NO DIRECTOR get carte blanche!!!!
Forthas
Forthas - 6/5/2025, 8:31 PM
@ObserverIO - I was thinking the EXACT same thing. He is answering a question that is specific. The leadership at WB studios may not have asked for cuts, but David Zaslav might have.
Forthas
Forthas - 6/5/2025, 8:41 PM
@Mrnorth1921 -
@JurassicClunge -

"but he hasn’t lied. Where has a he lied?"

- Lied to DC fans by stating that he was planning to work with Ben Affleck, only to have Affleck later proclaim he would never work with James Gunn,

- Lied to Gal Gadot by suggesting she would remain on as Wonder Woman

- Spread lies about a writer on Guardians of the Galaxy to deny her writing credits

- Lied about the Superman budget being north of $360 million

- Lied about not wanting to run DC, and not wanting to make a Superman film
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/5/2025, 9:36 PM
@Forthas - admit you have bad tastes when it comes to Superman.

Snyderstan (shudders)
Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 6/5/2025, 11:44 PM
@Forthas - he didn’t lie. He said he wanted to work with them. Never said to what compacity. He took Mamoa and other actors from the dceu. It’s just a matter of time before he can find them new roles.

And Superman’s budget isn’t 360 mill it’s 225 mill.

The stuff in the past. He didn’t lie. He used her idea but reworked the movie. Marvel was making the movie before him.
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/6/2025, 1:36 AM
@Mrnorth1921 -

To add to @Forthas point.
Gunn lied about not wanting to direct superman when MOS2 was offered to him because he prefers more obscure characters. Then later admitted he had been writing this superman story for years and always wanted to make it.

Gunn also claimed no film is greenlit until a script is 100% finished and boasted that clayface had an amazing script yet clay face is getting rewrites 😅

Also less not forget his blatant lies about the flash movie (unless he truly believes its one of the best cbms he's ever seen).😮‍💨
Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 6/6/2025, 3:01 AM
@JurassicClunge - dude. He didn’t want that baggage from dceu. His one condition was to reboot everything and that’s what he did. And people change. He was asked about that in the 2018-2020. But he changed his mind. It wasn’t a lie. He wanted to do his own Superman.

Dude. I don’t think he said that it was being re-written. I think that wasn’t it was supposed insider.

He had just became the head of dc. He had to promote the film for better or worse. He couldn’t badmouth the movie.
DianaGohan
DianaGohan - 6/6/2025, 8:11 AM
@Forthas - A. James Gunn's Superman was fully filmed BEFORE Folie A Deux came out and bombed thus Gunn already had in place that HIS vision of the film would be kept and not altered in anyway regardless of what other unrelated DC films did. Especially since...

B. James Gunn isn't just a writer/director here. He is the CO-CHAIRMAN and co-chief executive officer IE the creative head of the company. So all creative decisions on a project especially HIS OWN can't be altered or changed by executives as that was one of his main stipulations when agreeing to run DC Studios.

Now if Superman 2025 totally bombs that may change since Gunn has said being able to do more project is dependent on how well the movie does but how at least that movie comes out is 100% on him for good or bad and nothing warner brothers or Discovery can do about it contrary to a lot of you guys out there who for no good reason seem to think otherwise.
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/5/2025, 4:40 PM
This movie is going to be a mess
ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 6/5/2025, 4:41 PM
I'm pretty sure this flick will just be a continuation of the curse
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 6/5/2025, 4:43 PM
syder cuts?
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EskimoJ
EskimoJ - 6/5/2025, 4:50 PM
And 👏🏾 that's 👏🏾 that. 👏🏾
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 6/5/2025, 4:52 PM
DC Films was also an “independent” studio from WB and that didn’t stop meddling.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/5/2025, 6:51 PM
@Nightwing1015 - DC Films was a sub-division of WB. This is a separate studio. WB can't tell DC Studios what to do any more than Lucasfilm can tell Marvel Studios what to do.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 6/6/2025, 7:18 PM
@ObserverIO - “DC Studios is an American film and television production company that is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery”

Seems like this new studio is exactly the same then. And a better example would be Disney telling both Lucasfilm and Marvel what to do (which it absolutely can because the parent company ultimately calls the shots).
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/7/2025, 3:46 AM
@Nightwing1015 - That's Warner Bros. Discovery, not Warner Bros.

DC Studios is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. is also a division of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Common mistake. But is it your mistake or the [frick]ing company's for being so confusing lol.
Nightwing1015
Nightwing1015 - 6/7/2025, 12:31 PM
- ObserverIO - ah I’m following you better now. That is confusing. But I guess my point would be that DC studios would be subject to interference from discovery (as they are top of the chain) in the same way they were previously subject to interference from WB
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/5/2025, 5:21 PM
I mean Gunn has said before that WBD has no influence creatively on the films that DC Studios produces since it’s a seperate entity so it makes sense that they wouldn’t mandate anything on him since it’s likely not a part of his & Safran’s deal anyway.

Anyway in regards to Rosenbaum , he’s probably voicing one of the Superman Robots.

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BeNice123
BeNice123 - 6/5/2025, 5:30 PM
Its gonna be great… i hope… hopefully… please dont [frick] this up james.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/5/2025, 6:48 PM
@BeNice123 - I'm pessimistically hopeful.

It's gonna be a trainwreck. Hope it's not.🤞
DenvertheDino
DenvertheDino - 6/5/2025, 6:56 PM
I want to like this film. Corenswet seems like a nice guy, but that costume is total ass and I'm having trouble getting past it. Superman's tantrum with Lois didn't help either, but seeing Krypto beat the crap out of Superman was the icing on this turd. I haven't seen anything that gives me the indication this film will be anything other than garbage.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/5/2025, 9:39 PM
@DenvertheDino - nobody gives a [frick]
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/5/2025, 9:38 PM
The consensus on this site doesn't matter one bit. The world isn't full of butt hurt Marvel fans and Snyder nut gobblers lmao
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/5/2025, 10:18 PM
A rumor ends up being wrong? YA DON'T SAY lmao
Lisa89
Lisa89 - 6/6/2025, 1:00 AM
𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗔 𝗠𝗮𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗹𝘆…
𝗢𝗳𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/6/2025, 3:35 AM
@Mrnorth1921 - it doesn't matter if he didn't want the baggage from the DCEU there's no need to lie about it. Matt reeves got to direct a Batman film outside of the DCEU.

Gunn could have said he wanted to do a fresh take but instead lied about not wanting to do it yet had the idea for the story 😮‍💨

Clay face is going through rewrites if the script was 100% done / perfect and greenlit by Gunn then why the rewrites? He's clearly chatting shit 😅

He also just got caught lying about the superman budget debunking something that is stated in official documents 😅



Mrnorth1921
Mrnorth1921 - 6/6/2025, 5:08 AM
@JurassicClunge - he didn’t lie. He just changed his mind. At the time he probably didn’t want to do it. Then later on did it.

Maybe they want to add Batman or add more lore into it? Mike probably pitched it and James liked it. But wants to add some stuff or maybe the director wants to add stuff to it? I mean Gunn traditionally is own writer and director. So he can do what he wants and knows what he wants. But a director doing it can have input in the script that he’s gonna direct.

He wasn’t lying. Where are you getting this from? 225 million is what it is. You mean advertising? That’s a whole other budget. You have to sell the movie around the globe. There is money in there. But his movie costed 225 mill to make.


JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/6/2025, 7:26 AM
@Mrnorth1921 - saying I changed my mind after the fact doesn't make it not a lie sir!

He said he preferred more obscure characters and then changed his mind once he got to reboot superman himself.

Also in terms of the budget Gunn was intentionally vague

"How in the world do they think they know what our budget is?" To try and throw doubt on the report that never said it was the production budget only it combined both and was trying to debunk something that was accurate 😅
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/6/2025, 7:27 AM
@JurassicClunge - he was trying**
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