James Gunn has broken his silence about one of Superman’s most controversial moments, the decision to rewrite Kal-El’s (David Corenswet) origin as a failed conquest mission from Krypton. Speaking to IGN, the writer-director addressed the backlash some fans have expressed online, clarifying that the twist was never meant to violate the character’s core identity. Instead, Gunn says the goal was to update Superman’s mythology in a way that fits the larger DC Universe narrative without compromising who Clark Kent is at his heart. Nevertheless, the move has sparked heavy debate among longtime DC fans, including some bad-faith outrage rooted in dissatisfaction with Gunn’s early comments about how Superman is essentially an immigrant story.
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“I’m a huge Superman fan,” Gunn said. “So, first of all, I had to trust myself that I was going to honor the pieces of Superman that we needed to keep the same. And also allow myself to make changes where changes might work and wouldn’t go against the integrity of who the character is.” He continued, “And so I think that was […] simply dealing with allowing ourselves to change part of the story in a way that was interesting for the DCU, but that wasn’t [something] that went against who Superman was. And has been something that’s been played with in the comics before.”
The in-film twist centers around a damaged hologram of Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), which Clark initially believes is a message of hope, inspiring him to become Earth’s protector. However, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) reveals the message’s full version to the world, including Clark, exposing that Jor-El sent his son to Earth to rule it. Jor-el’s instructions describe humans as “primitive,” and Kal-El is told to breed many descendants to carry Krypton’s bloodline. The twist repositions Superman’s Kryptonian heritage as morally corrupt, reframing his heroism as a personal decision, not a destiny, echoing the movie’s thesis that everyone can choose to do good, despite of their origins.
Superman‘s Origin Twist Has Roots in the Franchise
Though the twist is new for a theatrical Superman film, the idea that Krypton wasn’t a purely noble society has existed in Superman canon for decades. For instance, in John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot, Krypton was reimagined as an emotionally sterile civilization. In that version, Kal-El is gestated in an artificial matrix and launched to Earth by scientists following protocol. More recently, comics like Superman: Birthright and New Krypton have explored morally complex Kryptonian societies, where elements of elitism, xenophobia, or conquest occasionally surface.
Live-action Superman adaptations have also touched on the idea of Krypton as flawed. In Smallville, Jor-El’s AI (voiced by Terence Stamp) often manipulates Clark (Tom Welling) and shows little regard for human morality, pushing him toward domination and power. While the show ultimately positions Jor-El as a more ambiguous figure than a villain, his early-season portrayal is intentionally cold and authoritarian. Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel also showed a Krypton destroyed by its own hubris, with a fractured council ignoring planetary collapse and engaging in genetic manipulation. Gunn’s interpretation goes further than either, but it’s not without precedent. Still, it does represent the movie’s biggest deviation from canon, which has led some fans to voice their frustration.
Superman is now playing in theaters.
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