Superman’s David Corenswet Auditioned For a Big MCU Role

Superman is flying back to the big screen next year with actor David Corenswet taking on the mantle of the iconic DC hero. James Gunn, now in charge of the entire DC Studios operation, is helming Superman himself, kicking off the rebooted franchise with one of the company’s most well-known characters. Gunn and Corenswet are busy filming the highly anticipated , but their paths nearly crossed a few years ago, on Gunn’s final Marvel Studios movie.

Corenswet apparently auditioned for the role of Adam Warlock in Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which ultimately went to Will Poulter. He must not have gotten far in the process, though, because Gunn doesn’t remember him auditioning.

A fan asked Gunn about the Adam Warlock on Threads, in addition to asking how similar Superman’s flying effects in the film will be to Warlock’s in Guardians 3.

“I asked him about it and he said he did so I believe him, but I don’t remember it,” Gunn said. He went on to address the second part of the question and what kind of effects they will be using for the flight of Superman in the new film. “And no what we’re doing now for flying is much more complex than what was done for AW.”

Things obviously worked out for the best for Corenswet. He has no obligation to a franchise like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and will now lead the way as one of the faces of Gunn’s new DC Universe.

The New DC

This Superman film is just the start of a new connected universe for DC Studios, one what will encompass film and television, live-action and animation.

“A lot of people think it’s going to be Marvel 2.0, and definitely I learned a lot of stuff at Marvel. I think that we have a lot of differences,” Gunn explained. “We are telling a big, huge, central story that is like Marvel, except for, I think that we’re a lot more planned out than Marvel from the beginning because we’ve gotten a group of writers together to work that story out completely. But we’re also creating a universe that is like Star Wars, where there’s different times, different places, different things, or Game of Thrones, where characters are a little bit more morally complex.” 

Superman arrives in theaters on July 11, 2025.