On Monday, James Gunn talked to select members of the press while showing off the epic first teaser trailer for DC Studios' Superman. As the filmmaker told Deadline, it was his goal from the start to show a different side of the Man of Tomorrow with this reboot.
Superman Returns rehashed the look and tone of movies released decades earlier and Man of Steel was an undeniably moody take on Kal-El. However, in Superman, we'll get to the root of who Clark Kent is.
"I think we’re seeing that from the beginning we’re seeing a little bit of a different side of Superman than what we’ve seen."
"This movie at the end of the day is not about power," Gunn explained. "This movie is about a loose term of the word a human being and who he is as a person and virtually struggling in his day-to-day life, and we see a different aspect of him in the beginning."
Asked about the decision to surround Superman with characters like Green Lantern and Hawkgirl, he said, "It was a way of saying we’re embracing all of the Superman mythology. These superhero movies have taken characters and said ‘Okay, yeah, it’s Batman, but it’s not any of the other stuff. It’s Superman, but it’s not any of the other stuff."
"He lives in a world of superheroes. This is an alternative history world where superheroes exist but it’s also incredibly grounded. It’s about real people having real lives, there just happens to be metahumans there. Superman has friends who are other superheroes," the writer and director noted.
"He’s got a flying dog, he’s got a giant fortress. He has a lot of the things we love from the Superman comics and mythology that we haven’t been able to see as much of in a film and definitely haven’t been able to in a grounded way."
That flying dog is, of course, Krypto. However, he may not be the version of the superpowered pooch we know and love from the comics. "His relationship with Krypto is complicated," Gunn teased. "He’s not nearly the best dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer."
"You'll see in the movie that Krypto probably comes off as a better dog in the trailer than he is in the movie," Gunn later told IGN. "Pretty terrible dog! You love him because he's a dog and how can you not? And he's got the cute, innocent eyes, but he's a terrible dog."
In a separate conversation with Variety, Gunn elaborated on the "long process of development" to figure out Superman's costume after recently revealing why he decided to include the hero's red trunks (you can read more about that here).
"I didn’t want to have it looked like a wet t-shirt," he admitted. "I didn’t want to have it have a bunch of fake muscles in it, and I didn’t want airbrushed abs on it."
Superman, DC Studios' first feature film to hit the big screen, is set to soar into theaters worldwide this summer from Warner Bros. Pictures. 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.
Superman arrives in theaters on July 11, 2025.