SUPERMAN: WB Moves To Dismiss Lawsuit That Could Block The Release Of James Gunn's Movie In Key Territories

SUPERMAN: WB Moves To Dismiss Lawsuit That Could Block The Release Of James Gunn's Movie In Key Territories

As promotion for James Gunn's Superman begins to heat up ahead of the DCU reboot's summer release, the studio recently ran into a (potentially) major setback. Now, we have an update...

By MarkCassidy - Mar 06, 2025 04:03 PM EST
Filed Under: Superman

Back in January, we learned that Warner Bros. and director James Gunn's Superman may have run into a (potentially) major roadblock on its journey to the big screen.

Mark Peary, the nephew of the late Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Discovery/DC Studios/DC Comics, claiming that the studio lacks the rights to release the DCU reboot in a handful of key territories, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia.

The matter has to do with foreign copyrights to the original Superman character and story. Though Siegel and Shuster assigned worldwide rights to DC’s predecessor in 1938, the copyright laws of countries with the British legal tradition contain "provisions automatically terminating such assignments 25 years after an author’s death, vesting in the Shuster Estate the co-author’s undivided copyright interest in such countries."

“Shuster died in 1992 and Siegel in 1996. By operation of law, Shuster’s foreign copyrights automatically reverted to his estate in 2017 in most of these territories (and in 2021 in Canada). Yet Defendants continue to exploit Superman across these jurisdictions without the Shuster Estate’s authorization—including in motion pictures, television series, and merchandise—in direct contravention of these countries’ copyright laws, which require the consent of all joint copyright owners to do so.”

If the suit is successful, it could potentially interfere with the movie's release this July, but Variety is now reporting that Warner Bros.has filed a motion to dismiss.

The studio notes that the courts have repeatedly rejected Peary’s claims, finding that his mother, Jean Peavy, signed away all rights to the Superman character after Shuster’s death in 1992. However, the estate’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, argues that in the overseas territories, copyright assignments automatically terminate 25 years after the author’s death.

It's hard to say how far this thing will go, but we can't imagine it will ultimately have any impact on the movie's release.

Warner Bros. was reportedly required to respond to the suit by March 24, but filed the motion to dismiss nearly three weeks early. The studio asked that if the judge does not dismiss the case, that it should be transferred to the Los Angeles judge who handled it previously.

Superman stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabel Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho.

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 earlier this 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 an updated 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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McMurdo
McMurdo - 3/6/2025, 4:32 PM
Will be settled prior if not dismissed
RolandD
RolandD - 3/6/2025, 7:02 PM
@McMurdo - That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Malatrova15
Malatrova15 - 3/6/2025, 4:35 PM
Boom Guess Kang Is back bro
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 3/6/2025, 4:40 PM
you cant block the sea
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JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 3/6/2025, 4:45 PM
Unless the trailers convince me otherwise I'll be

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JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 3/6/2025, 4:46 PM
@BraveNewClunge - ** 😌😮‍💨
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 3/6/2025, 6:40 PM
@BraveNewClunge -

You’ll be a squid pirate man?
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 3/6/2025, 7:16 PM
@HulkisHoly - id be the best of the squid pirate men! 😌
Pictilli
Pictilli - 3/6/2025, 6:56 PM
This shit has been going on since the 1940s for decades and the big billion dollar company has usually always won against the small creators.

Some of the letters between Siegel & Donnenfeld got pretty vicious, in one instance, Siegel even sent fake anthrax in a letter. Both make valid points, but ultimately, I come down on the side of Siegel: the deal Lebowitz gave him was very deceptive and the total opposite of the high trust handshake agreement structure that Major Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson had with Siegel & Shuster when he ran DC that was ultimately exploited by Lebowitz and Donnenfeld to takeover DC and force Wheeler out. Siegel & Shuster would face similar ethical problems from Donnenfeld & Lebowitz.

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(Note how Donnenfeld's descendent tries to blame Lebowitz & Donnenfeld's chicanery on being mixed up with the "italian" mafia, except they are not italian and it was not the italian mafia they were mixed up with, but another kind, involving Paul Sampliner, Hymie Weiss, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and Charles Birger, and Max & Moe L. Annenberg. Jerry Siegel was not wrong when he said that Superman is now in the control of actual gangsters in his letter!)
Oberlin4Prez
Oberlin4Prez - 3/6/2025, 8:02 PM
It'll be resolved like it always is.
Forthas
Forthas - 3/6/2025, 9:03 PM
I think it will lead to the delay of the film.


Say YES to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) ... say NO to Stupidity, Extremism, and Ignorance (SEI) and Childish Reactionary Tantrums (CRT).
ImmovableForce
ImmovableForce - 3/7/2025, 12:17 AM
@Forthas - DEI as a suggestion, not enforced on everyone? Wow, I like it!
ImmovableForce
ImmovableForce - 3/7/2025, 12:06 AM
I'm against intellectual property. How can one own an idea? Property stolen deprives me of that property. An idea, used by others, I still have full access to. Intellectual property is not natural or right, despite arguments one may try to make about practicality, profit from artistic endeavors, etc. I maintain I have a natural right to use any ideas I have, regardless of where I got them, even for profit. I will add for clarity, I don't have a right to claim I came up with that idea myself if I didn't, but that changes nothing regarding how I may use it. It takes a government to think they have a right to deprive me of my right to use an idea I have based on where I got it. Of course, governments tend to think they have rights that we the people don't. They'll sidestep stating it as such, but they think that way nonetheless. Exhibit A, intellectual property laws, exhibit B, taxes, exhibit C, most all the rest of the laws.
MarvelZombie616
MarvelZombie616 - 3/7/2025, 3:11 AM
The movie won't break $500 million worldwide.

I am tired of bad or mediocre superhero movies. I go to a theater 3 times a week atm and i watch many movies which are much more satisfying than Cap 4.
If Thunderbolts isn't better, i will consider not watching Fantastic Four, as the Thing looks really bad cgi'd in the trailer and neither sounds like Ben Grimm, nor has the Personalien.
Also both Pedro Pascal and Johnny Storm are not like their comic counterparts.
Susan Storm is the only one i don't have a problem with.

This is Marvels 1st family, if they don't get them right, they won't get right anything.

The X-Men are in bad hands.
MarvelZombie616
MarvelZombie616 - 3/7/2025, 3:13 AM
I also have a problem with the look of Superman.
He doesn't look iconic, he looks downright goofy.

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