James Gunn’s Superman will open the curtain on the upcoming DCU this summer, but the Man of Steel’s new adventure also looks strikingly similar to the DCEU’s second chapter, Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Gunn’s Superman sees David Corenswet take up the mantle of the new cinematic Man of Tomorrow, with the movie’s first proper trailer presenting a glimpse into the conflict he will find himself in with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. Outside of these details, there is surprisingly little that is known about the story Superman will tell, which naturally leaves the door open to plenty of fan theorizing. What it has also left the door open to is comparisons with Henry Cavill’s preceding Superman, something that is only becoming more widespread by Superman’s trailer and the story it points to, the movie telling.
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To be sure, Superman was always going to face comparisons to Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and the overall DCEU – not only as the succeeding DC cinematic franchise, but also the circumstances of how the DCEU was ended in favor of the DCU’s beginning. Judging from Superman‘s trailer, it seems that will be an even bigger point of discussion for the new movie with how much it increasingly mirrors Batman v Superman.
Superman’s Plot Bears Some Shockingly Close Parallels to Batman v Superman’s Story
In the newest trailer for James Gunn’s Superman, some key reveals about the movie’s story are made. These include David Corenswet’s Man of Steel incurring the wrath of the U.S. government by intervening in a military conflict on foreign soil, dealing with a significant public backlash in light of his actions, while Lex Luthor hatches a plot involving Kryptonian technology to bring down the Last Son of Krypton. Additionally, the movie’s version of Superman also exists in a world in which other metahuman heroes are present, with Kal-El also taking significant physical and emotional abuse, and finding himself facing an existential crisis of a world sharply divided on his heroic actions, with Superman forced to grapple with the consequences, good and bad, that come with even deeds as noble as his. On top of these challenges, Superman also finds himself battling a monstrous beast at one point in the film.
If that sounds surprisingly similar to Batman v Superman, it should, as Henry Cavill’s Superman faces all of the above in his movie. Indeed, the only major elements from Batman v Superman that seem to have no direct parallel in Superman are the absence of the Dark Knight and the general likelihood that Superman will not die in the movie. Nonetheless, if Superman‘s first teaser indicated some similarities between Zack Snyder and James Gunn’s Supermen, the movie’s first trailer comes incredibly close to positioning it as an unofficial remake of Batman v Superman, minus Batman. With the caveat that there’s surely more to Superman‘s overall storyline than what the marketing has thus far shown, Superman (2025) being so directly comparable to Batman v Superman could have an unintended side effect of making the latter’s shadow an even greater presence of all things DC than it already is.
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Why Superman’s Similarities to Batman v Superman Could Compound WB & DC Studio’s Snyderverse Problem
It’s no secret that the DCU is kicking off with a burden most superhero franchises would rather not shoulder, that being its immediate predecessor (in this case, the DCEU) being unceremoniously cut off with a not-insignificant portion of its audience less-than-thrilled by that outcome. To be sure, the DCEU was subject to what can be called, in hindsight, a great deal of terrible mismanagement, nearly all of it stemming from Warner Bros. panicked reaction to the polarized response to Batman v Superman. That infamously led to Warner Bros. hurriedly reshooting and morphing Suicide Squad and Justice League to distance both films from the dark and gritty tone of Zack Snyder’s DCEU plans, only to see their efforts blow up in their faces with neither movie winning over detractors, and Justice League outright bombing in theaters.
The subsequent tale of the DCEU was a serious of back and forths between Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally being released after the grassroots #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, Warner Bros. downplaying its release and saying no to release the Ayer cut of Suicide Squad and the explosion of #RestoreTheSnyderVerse calls (1.5 million in a day on Twitter on March 25, 2021), Warner Bros. having no alterative plan to Snyder’s leaving the DCEU without any visible road map, and eventually culminating in Henry Cavill’s Superman comeback in Black Adam being cancelled with James Gunn’s Superman taking its place (along with Gunn’s own DCEU projects like Peacemaker Season 2 being the only things seemingly spared a similar fate).
If Gunn’s Superman ends up falling into the classification of “Batman v Superman with Guardians of the Galaxy humor”, the looming spirit of the Snyderverse could become an even bigger issue for the burgeoning DCU than it already is. To begin with, Gunn isn’t severing ties with the DCEU altogether, with the aforementioned Peacemaker Season 2 carrying over plot points and characters along with offering some kind of explanation of the DCEU-DCU continuity connection/transition (presumably, the scene in Peacemaker Season 2’s trailer of two Peacemakers meeting a room with multiple doorways has something to do with this). Additionally, Gunn and Snyder themselves have already made a teasing acknowledgment that the Snyderverse will never die, via Gunn’s friendly social media photo with Snyder at DC Studios, which (Gunn’s denials to the contrary notwithstanding) any rational person reading the situation easily recognizes as something Gunn and Snyder both fully knew would spark widespread theorizing of the Snyderverse’s possible resurrection. In short, both Superman and the DCU are arriving not only with the Snyderverse hovering right over them, but with the captain of the ship actively reminding the audience of its presence.
Adding in Superman‘s story parallels with Batman v Superman, the movie itself will inevitably enter the conversation around Gunn’s film as a far more direct point of comparison than it was already going to be (a glance at social media discussion of the Superman trailer very quickly shows that the movie’s Batman v Superman parallels have hardly gone unnoticed). If the general story and template of Batman v Superman is enough to launch a new DC Universe, the question of “What was the point of even rebooting?” is likely to become a part of Superman‘s discussion, especially if the biggest difference is a lighter tone and more humor. Above all, Superman having such similarities with Batman v Superman could not only drag the latter front and center into the DCU’s debut, but also bring plenty of #RestoreTheSnyderVerse chatter with it. Now, with all of that said, the nine years between Batman v Superman‘s release to the impending release of James Gunn’s Superman have demonstrated the staying power of the former, even if Gunn’s Superman film is nothing like Batman v Superman.
Batman v Superman Has Stood the Test of Time (& Superman Is Probably Going to Add to Its Longevity)
“Divisive” is a word often used to describe Batman v Superman, and while no doubt spot on, the movie’s detractors have often severely underestimated just how much impact Snyder’s polarizing movie has had in the long run. Going back to the behind-the-scenes troubles of Justice League, the fact that Batman v Superman has accrued just as many fans as it has haters no doubt provided a great deal of fuel to the #ReleaseTheSnyderCut campaign, the movement driven in part by Snyder’s version of Justice League being in sync with Man of Steel and Batman v Superman compared to the mish-mash of the theatrical cut. More generally, love it or hate it, Batman v Superman is talked about, discussed, and debated on a daily basis to an extent that most superhero movies would die to inspire. Nine years since its release, Batman v Superman feels every bit as relevant and immediate as a brand new blockbuster with the amount of energy that is still poured into it by fans and detractors alike. Catwoman? Superman Returns? Jonah Hex? Green Lantern? All DC movies of that past alternately bombed, were received with indifference or outright rejection, and not one has struck the kind of nerve that Batman v Superman has, or has built up a fanbase dying to see the conclusion of their intended stories. In short, Batman v Superman, much like the Snyderverse, is radically different from any other abandoned superhero franchise.
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Additionally, the generally positive reception of Zack Snyder’s Justice League upon its 2021 release also kicked off a gradual but noticeable reappraisal of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman by their critics, with many coming to appreciate both more after seeing their planned (albeit belatedly released) pay-off in the Snyder Cut. Wherever one stands on Batman v Superman, what cannot be denied is that the movie has maintained a strong relevance in the public consciousness. The irony is that, in WB’s repeated efforts to move away from the Snyderverse both tonally and continuity-wise, they’ve instead only made it more omnipresent in the DC lexicon.
In turn, Gunn’s Superman movie could inadvertently add to Batman v Superman‘s longevity with an unexpectedly similar story that also tacitly endorses a lot of the themes of the movie and the questions it asks about Superman’s place in the world. Even with Warner Bros. trying and failing repeatedly to make the Snyderverse a thing of the past, James Gunn’s Superman might end up making it even more relevant than before with the kindred spirit it seemingly has in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (especially if the movie itself isn’t as good as Man of Steel).
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is available to stream on HBO Max, and James Gunn’s Superman will be released in theaters on July 11th.
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