Superman may be the first ever DCU movie, but that doesn't mean the bright, optimistic (arguably a little corny) and relatively family-friendly world inhabited by David Corenswet's Man of Steel is going to inform this franchise going forward.
While all of the planned DCU movies and TV shows will be part of the same shared universe, director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has now made it clear that he wants every project to feel completely different from a tonal standpoint.
“I mean it’s this movie,” Gunn told IGN when asked about his film's All-Star Superman’s influence. “It’s really important to me that every project has its own stamp on it. This movie is very different from the R rated movie we're making, a body horror movie with Clayface. It’s very different from the Sgt. Rock movie we’re developing. It’s very different from Supergirl, which is a space fantasy — Craig Gillespie just walked by here a second ago, who directed that. So every one of these movies is completely different.”
“What I love about DC Comics and the graphic novels is that they allowed the individual artists and writers to create their own projects, and they each had their own voice," Gunn added. "The Long Halloween, All-Star Superman, Dark Knight, Watchmen, those things have very little tonally in common with each other, except for they’re a part of the set of communal characters that are in the DC Comics universe. And now, we’re doing that same thing in the DCU.”
A sound strategy if you want to offer fans as much variety as possible, but it might become an issue once it's time for these characters to begin sharing the screen!
Gunn also touched on just how horror-inspired the Clayface movie is going to be, and it's very! "[it's] pure f***ing horror, like, totally real. Their version of that movie, it is so real and true and psychological and body horror and gross.”
To be fair, a lot of Marvel Studios projects do vary in tone to at least some degree, but not to the extent that it becomes jarring when we see Doctor Strange, for example, team-up with Earth's Mightiest Heroes in the Avengers movies.
What do you make of Gunn's plan for the DCU? Drop us a comment down below.
Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.
The cast also Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as "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."