New Superman Footage Fixes a Controversial Trailer Shot (& Now It’s Perfect)

A new TV spot for Superman has fixed a visual effects shot that fans did not care for, and the result is a huge relief. Earlier previews airing on TV featured a closeup of Superman (David Corenswet) in flight, but his features looked strange and his posture looked awkward. The new version is more symmetrical and natural-looking, and it shows the Man of Steel with a confident smile that suits him better. The new preview debuted on Sunday night during the NBA finals, and fans definitely took notice on social media. This means the change wasn’t all that subtle, even if it is welcome.

Below, you can see the shot of Superman flying from old TV spots on the left and the newer version on the right. Commenters generally seem to agree that the new version looks much better, though some are fearful that visual effects are still being tweaked this close to the premiere date. On that issue, there’s no cause for alarm. DC Studios co-head James Gunn himself addressed this shot in an interview with Entertainment Weekly last week.

“It was a TV commercial and it wasn’t a finished visual effects shot,” he explained. “So the part of him flying, it was a photograph of his face and him flying. It was a photograph of a drone flying in front of an actual background. So all the pieces were real, but it was incorporated in kind of a funky way. I didn’t love the shot, so it’s not even the shot that’s in the movie.”

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“Sometimes I’m pretty strict about when I’m going through a trailer and looking at each of the shots, but sometimes the commercials, I forget to look at this closely,” Gunn added. “So that one kind of got by me.”

Superman was filmed between February and July of 2024, with a few scattered days of pick-up shots in the following months. Many of the visual effects artists from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 followed Gunn over to this production, which may give fans some idea of the CGI style we’ll be seeing here. The effects were handled by Framestore, Industrial Light & Magic, and Wētā FX. On June 5th, Gunn announced on social media that Superman was completely finished, so no changes have been made to the movie itself since then.

Superman hits theaters on Friday, July 11th in the U.S. Tickets are on sale now.