Superman, releasing in July 2025, is absolutely stacked with characters. However, there’s been some discourse over whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Let’s get into it!
In the movie, we know that Superman/Clark Kent (obviously), Krypto, Lois Lane, Ma Kent, Pa Kent, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, Metamorpho, The Engineer, Lex Luthor, Perry White whoever the large man in all black is, and now, possibly Supergirl are in the movie. That’s thirteen characters in the film which is certainly quite a few, and that doesn’t count other characters we don’t know about yet but who will likely have less screen time.
The question is, is that too many?
It’s important to consider a movie’s runtime. However, we don’t know how long Superman will be. I would be shocked if the film was any less than two hours, and it makes sense for the movie to be closer to two and a half hours or longer. Audiences have grown accustomed to much longer superhero films and many like it. Deadpool & Wolverine even made a joke about it.
Speaking of that movie, it featured (SPOILERS) Deadpool, Wolverine, Mr. Paradox, Vanessa, Peter, X-23, Elektra, Blade, Gambit, Human Torch, Cassandra Nova, Nicepool, and even more if you count the cameos, and that movie was fantastic. How did it handle all those characters? They were simply given less screen time. It did help that every character in that movie aside from Cassandra Nova was an established character that audiences already knew for the most part.
There are plenty of other superhero movies that are widely liked and feature lots of characters. For example: Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Captain America: Civil War are just a few examples. What advantage do those movies have over Superman in regards to the character count? Every single one of them featured mostly established characters. You could argue that ZSJL had new characters, but most people that watched that movie watched the atrocious theatrical version meaning the audiences were familiar with them.
The main argument here is that Superman may be at a disadvantage because none of the characters are established in their universe. It’s a fair argument. There’s certainly a lot of characters to introduce, explain, and establish in one movie. However, even though these characters aren’t yet established in their universe, many of them are already well known.
Superman is one of the most recognizable characters in any medium across the entire world. Everyone knows who Superman is, and pretty much everyone knows his backstory. In fact, it’s so well known, that Gunn is straight up skipping it. Other characters like Ma and Pa Kent, Luthor, and Lois Lane also won’t need much explaining. Lois Lane is already recognizable and Superman’s parents are just that: his parents. They don’t need more explaining. Luthor’s motivations will probably need a bit of explaining as it would be narratively boring to just say “he’s bad because he’s a villain”, but it likely won’t be much.
That leaves Krypto, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, Metamorpho, The Engineer, whoever the all-in-black villain is, and Perry White.
Perry White is easy. He’s Clark’s boss. That’s it. He doesn’t even really need much of an introduction. “Kent, in my office,” is pretty much his whole character. Krypto, despite being one of the more fantastical characters in the movie, also doesn’t need much. He has the exact same origin as Superman. The all-in-black villain depends on who it truly is. There’s a lot of speculation that the character is Ultraman which would be the most disappointing way to introduce the character. More likely than not, it’s a robot built by The Engineer.
The remaining four characters, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific and Metamorpho, will need a little more explaining than the rest. Exactly how much depends on how prominently they are featured in the movie. Gunn has said that the main characters of this movie are definitively Superman and Lois. That likely means that these remaining four characters will not be major players in the film.
However, they will still need some explanation as they are part of the plot in some way. Gunn is no stranger to strange characters. In fact, it’s his specialty. Whether you’re a fan of his usual quirkiness or not, he is undoubtedly skilled at handling large casts.
Lastly, it’s been reported, but not confirmed by anyone at DC, that Supergirl will appear in the film. This rumor should be taken with a grain of salt. Even if she is in the film, it’s doubtful that she’ll make more than a cameo appearance.
Ultimately, having a large number of characters in the film shouldn’t hurt it at all. Gunn knows how to handle lots of characters, and most of the characters in the film don’t need a lot of explaining.
Let me know what you think in the comments!