An electric guitar riff of the iconic John William’ theme plays as Superman crash lands into the snow. His blue suit, along with the red trunks, stand out against the white surrounding him. But, also standing out, is Superman’s bloodied and beaten face. How did he get here? And who did this to him?
What follows is a great tease for what’s to come when James Gunn’s Superman arrives next year! Revealing a look at how Gunn will blend his unique style of filmmaking with some nostalgic elements of Superman films that have come before. Including looks at Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane, The Daily Planet, Krypto, and much more, the 2+ minute trailer gives audiences just enough to build up even more anticipation leading up to it’s release.
The first teaser trailer for the highly anticipated cinematic beginnings of James Gunn’s iteration of the DCU has landed. Superman will be soaring into cinemas in July 2025, with David Corenswet donning the coveted role of one of the world’s greatest superheroes! And to celebrate the release of this teaser, Nick L’Barrow was one of a select group of journalists who attended a virtual press conference with the new leader of the DCU, and the writer-director of Superman, James Gunn, who broke down the trailer and gave some insight into what audiences can expect from his take on the Man of Steel.
What can audiences expect from this film?
James Gunn: What I really want [from this trailer] is for people to get a sense of what to expect from the film. I wanted to create a teaser trailer that, you know, gave the essence of what this movie is… without giving away too much of the plot!
Superman is about the compassion of the human spirit. We can expect a Superman who is about kindness, love, and compassion, while being a very strong character. I think he is the best of humanity, even though he is an alien from outer space.
I think of the things that’s a little bit different than some of the other Superman movies, it’s about Superman’s external struggle. But it’s also about his internal struggle. It’s about who he is as a person, where he comes from, his parents – both his Kryptonian parents and his human parents. We get to know who this guy is on a real elemental level.
We’re dealing with a Superman that is this symbol of really old-fashioned values and hope, you know? Mom and apple pie! But there’s an idea that he’s been a bit battered over the years. That sort of concept of Superman, and the concept of kindness in general.
On working with David Corenswet, the new Superman…
James Gunn: [David brings] an extreme dedication. I think that he was willing to do anything for this role in terms of preparation. Learning, reading the comics, working out.
It was a very long and arduous audition process in which hundreds and hundreds of people auditioned for the role of Clark Kent. Superman. David won it. And I said to David, “You’ve got to work on two things. You’ve got to work on your shoulders [laughs]. And you’ve got to work on your vulnerability. And those were two things that he spend the next six months on.
There was a time when I was developing the costume with David and Juliana, our costumer designer. And we went back and forth a lot about the red trunks. I even talked to Snyder about it! I tried a billion versions, but the trunks just never got there. I kept just taking them off, putting them back on.
And I asked David how he felt. And he’s like, “I love it. I’m an alien from outer space who can fly and lift buildings. I shoot laser beams out of my eyes that can dissolve things. I want kinds to not be afraid of me. So, what am I going to wear?” And I think that was really where the costume came from. I’ve kept that in mind for the character ever since that moment.
On the score and music…
James Gunn: John Murphy is the guy who composed the score. He’s an incredibly talented guy who I love working with. And as soon as I finished the script, he was one of the first people I gave the script to. And the one thing I said was that I do want to use the classic Williams score, but I wanted him to mutate it and turn it into his own thing that’ll represent this film and this story.
There’s a very powerful thing about it. There’s also a slightly melancholy thing about it. John put together the music for the movie that we then played on set and shot to. Music is always very important to me, but a lot of the time I’ve used pop songs of various types, and this is not the case for Superman. This is basically about the score, and so it has an incredibly important role in the film.
On Superman’s relationship with his super-dog, Krypto…
James Gunn: I think that you see a simple version of his relationship with Krypto in the teaser. As you see the movie, you’ll realise his relationship with Krypto is much more complicated.
Krypto is based on my dog, Ozu, who was the worst dog in the world! He destroyed my entire house. But we rescued him. He was raised in a woman’s small backyard who was raising 60 dogs in Los Angeles. And he had never known humans, so he was just scared of me. He liked my other dog a lot!
On Superman going face-to-face with Lex Luthor…
James Gunn: I thought one of the things that was really important to me was to make a Lex Luthor who was absolutely Superman’s equal, maybe more. You’ve got to be scared of this Lex. He is scary. He is a bad, bad guy. But he has reasons for his thinking. It’s a lot of ideological things about what Superman represents versus what Lex represents as the world’s most intelligent man. What makes him incredibly dangerous to Superman? And when you’re willing to fight, and there are no rules, you always have an upper hand over the person who’s willing to fight and has a lot of rules, which is Superman.
On Lois Lane…
James Gunn: Loise is a journalist of the highest order. She believes in the truth at almost any price, and that makes her a real force to be reckoned with. One of the things I love is the romance between Lois and Superman in the original [Richard] Donner film.
I really wanted to see why Superman loves Lois so much. From the beginning, we did chemistry reads, and you know, David and Rachel [Brosnahan] got these roles not because they were just individually great as those characters, but together as a couple. They bounced off each other in an incredibly dynamic way.
Thank you so much to Warner Bros. Pictures for allowing us to attend this virtual press conference. Superman is in Australian cinemas July 2025.
