Late last night, the major news broke that three established DC Comics characters had been added to Superman: Legacy, with Isabela Merced set to play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi on board as Mister Terrific and Nathan Fillion enlisted to play Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
The announcement drew a bit of a mixed response, however, with some fans voicing their opinion that this reboot should only focus on the Man of Steel and Lois Lane, with Lex Luthor and maybe another villain in supporting roles.
Director James Gunn has since weighed in on social media, promising that the story will remain focused on Clark and Lois, and the GOTG Vol. 3 filmmaker has now addressed the notion that he's only adding these characters to lay the groundwork for future DCU projects.
Responding to a fan on Instagram, Gunn claims that he's "never used one movie to set up another," and says that these specific characters were added to Legacy because they "help to tell Superman's story better."
Gunn has proven adept at juggling large ensemble casts and giving all of the characters time to shine, but those were always going to be team-focused projects. If Hawkgirl, Gardner and Mr. Terrific aren't there just to set up spin-offs, maybe they're going to have larger parts to play than we realized?
David Corenswet will play Superman, with Rachel Brosnahan as Lois. Filming is reportedly scheduled to get underway next January.