Lois Lane grills the Big Blue Boy Scout in our latest look at James Gunn’s reboot
I’m already in the bag for Superman, and to an embarrassing degree. James Gunn is a weirdo with a big, soft heart and his sensibilities speak to me. I’m on his wavelength, I think. If I were an idiot I’d wonder if it’s because we share a birthday, but really it’s because he’s a reformed fuck-up and hey, game recognise game.
But if you’re not yet champing at the bit for the 2025 edition of Superman, which marks the real start of Warner’s new DC Universe franchise after a couple of opening salvos on streaming, perhaps this new trailer will move the needle for you.
Man, when John Murphy’s take on John Williams’ “Superman March” kicks in, I’m just a puddle. It’s absolutely Pavlovian.
Directed and written by, of course, James Gunn, who gave us the superb Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy for the MCU and a bunch of deeply weird and wonderful stuff before then, Superman sweeps the board of most of the elements of the DC Extended Universe, which we can now regard fairly generously as an interesting failure.
That means we get a whole new cast slipping into the roles of Supes and his supporting characters. David Corenswet, who was pretty great in Pearl, is our new Clark Kent/Superman; Rachel Brosnahan is Lois Lane, a staggeringly good casting choice (go watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel if you haven’t already); and honorary Australian Nicholas Hoult is Lex Luthor (he’s done a Mad Max movie and a Ned Kelly movie, and frankly we’ve taken worse for less).
Filling out the ensemble, we have Wendell “Bunk from The Wire” Pierce as Daily Planet EiC Perry White; Skyler Gisondo as Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen, and again, no notes; Beck Bennett and Christopher McDonald as reporters Steve Lombard and Ron Troupe; plus Mikaela Hoover as columnist Cat Grant. Those are all reasonably deep cuts, being characters hailing from various era’s of Clark Kent’s journalism career. He’d probably have a Substack these days.
Similarly deep cuts are Superman‘s version of the Justice League, which sees Barry‘s Anthony Carrigan as Rex Mason, aka Metamorpho, a guy who can transmute parts of his body into different elements; Isabela Merced as the self-explanatory Hawkgirl; and Edi Gathegi as super smart tech guy Michael Holt/Mister Terrific. Gunn regular Nathan Fillion is also on board as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, who is both a hero and an asshole – seriously, that’s his whole thing.
As for plot, as ever the powers that be are keeping that on the down low, but the careful viewer might pick up on indications that the US government isn’t happy with how Superman’s heroic activities are affecting their geopolitical goals. There’s a giant monster, and we have to assume that at some point he fights Lex Luthor. I mean, some boxes just have to get ticked.
Superman is in in Australian cinemas from July 10, 2025.
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