James Gunn has made sure his Superman movie avoids one of the major mistakes that comic book movies sometimes make. Comic fans are used to getting new iterations of their favorite hero’s origin story, even if it’s one that they’re already familiar with. Instead of doing this, Superman director James Gunn has decided to go the unconventional route of dropping fans of the Man of Steel right into the action. Superman will undoubtedly reference Clark Kent growing up in Smallville and his adult life in Metropolis, but it appears audiences won’t have to sit through an entire rehashing of Superman’s origin story.
Videos by ComicBook.com
ComicBook spoke with James Gunn on the Superman set earlier this year along with other journalists. There the filmmaker gave more insight on starting the movie in the middle of Superman’s career, not to mention opening the DC film with an action scene. “Yeah, it was about really putting us in the middle of the action from the beginning,” Gunn said. “And there’s a lot of these things in this movie now that I’ve been making it for over a year that I think of as normal. But now when you bring it up, I go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s pretty unusual.’”
[RELATED: James Gunn’s Superman Poster Teases New Spin on Classic John Williams Theme Music]
Gunn then teased some of the relationships between Superman‘s supporting cast. “We just start in the middle of the action. Superman already exists. Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t know each other personally. So we start right in the middle of the action. It takes place over a short amount of time.”
These new details regarding Superman come the same week the first poster for the DC Studios film was released. The teaser also hints at a new twist on the classic John Williams score that’s become synonymous with Superman. Williams’ original Superman theme appeared in Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie (1978).
Superman is the first movie in DC Studios’ new DC Universe. Directed by James Gunn, Superman stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent / Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. Other DC heroes fans can expect to see include Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lanter Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Authority’s Angela Spica / Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo).
DC Studios’ Superman soars into theaters July 11, 2025.
