James Gunn’s Superman Sequel Avoids the Problem That Doomed Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel

James Gunn is moving forward with another Superman movie, Man of Tomorrow, and it looks set to avoid the mistakes that hurt the DCEU. The newly launched DC Extended Universe has to win back trust after the previous iteration fizzled out, following years of critical and commercial misfires. 2025’s Superman was a good start, having grossed over $600 million at the box office (a very solid, if not spectacular, performance), and proving to be a hit with critics and audiences alike. Now the onus will be to build upon that success, especially on the big screen, where plans are already in place.

Superman is set to be followed by Supergirl and Clayface. Both are slightly riskier propositions, as neither carries the same name recognition as their predecessor (Clayface much less so than Supergirl), but will hopefully be interesting swings that prove there’s a diversity and richness to the stories being told in the DCU, and that audiences will buy into it as well. After those, however, it’s back to the Man of Steel with Man of Tomorrow, the next movie in the Superman saga. And as far as building out the DCU goes, it’s a more logical step than what happened with the previous Superman.

Man Of Tomorrow Seems Like A Direct Sequel (& David Corenswet’s Superman Deserves It)

Man of Tomorrow is not called Superman 2, nor even Superman: Man of Tomorrow. The movie even seems to be positioning Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) as a co-lead character, despite him being the (defeated) villain in the first movie. But despite that, it’s pretty obvious this is a direct Superman sequel, which will very clearly follow on from that movie and continue the development of David Corenswet’s Clark Kent into an even greater hero. It’ll build on his relationship with Lex, and presumably with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) as well.

It’d be fair to expect several other characters to return: Isabela Merced has teased she’ll be back as Hawkgirl, and we’ll almost certainly see more of the Daily Planet staff, as well as Clark’s parents (at least Jonathan and Martha Kent, but perhaps we’ll also learn more about his biological folks, Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van). The title Man of Tomorrow seems to suggest that it’ll have a focus on Superman (and perhaps Lex) learning how to use his powers to create a better world, which naturally and clearly builds on the themes and character arc from the first movie.

That’s good, because Corenswet’s Superman is fantastic, and Gunn has created a brilliantly realized, lived-in world that feels like a comic book come to life. We should be getting to see a lot more of his journey, of Clark and Lois’ relationship, of his development as a hero, and of Superman going up against new threats – even if it means having to reluctantly team up with Lex.

Henry Cavill’s Superman Never Got The Sequel He Deserved

This is an opportunity that Henry Cavill’s Superman never received, and it remains a massive shame. Man of Steel did solid numbers – and, yes, made more money than Superman – but it was not the home run Warner Bros. hoped for at the time. This was, after all, coming just a year after The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises both made $1 billion at the box office. WB leaned hard on Christopher Nolan’s name being attached as producer and wanted this as a big launchpad for a new Superman franchise and more, but it “only” made $670m, and received mixed reviews.

And so, WB hit the accelerator on creating its own superhero shared universe to rival the MCU. The follow-up quickly shifted into being Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, with Wonder Woman thrown into the mix as well. Although it continued on some of the threads of Man of Steel, this certainly couldn’t be considered a true sequel; it’s a clear pivot into a team-up movie, and arguably more of a Batman movie than a Superman one, with Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne the greater viewpoint/perspective character for the audience.

There has been talk over the years about what an actual sequel would’ve looked like before it shifted to BvS: Metallo has been talked about as Man of Steel 2‘s villain, while Snyder has also discussed Brainiac being involved. There were attempts at making a proper sequel later on, with Matthew Vaughn and then Christopher McQuarrie two of the director names involved at different points, but it never came to fruition. This is representative of the big failing of the DCEU, which is that it rushed into its shared universe without laying the proper foundations. Going straight into BvS, and then from there to Justice League, was a major problem for it as a whole, whether you like those movies or not.

The DCU Is Approaching Its Shared Universe Better Than The DCEU

Overall, the DCU seems to have a surer footing than the DCEU ever managed. While some of the initial slate that Gunn outlined has fallen by the wayside – there’s no sign of The Authority movie happening, for instance – the focus is on developing it through individual projects. Characters can, have, and will cross over, because it’s a shared world that wants to appear as though it’s populated by all of these heroes, but the separate movies and shows will keep their core focus on the titular character(s).

There is seemingly no rush towards a major team-up event like a Justice League movie, even if one will surely happen eventually. This should allow every DCU movie and TV show to stand on its own two feet, while still putting the blocks in place to build towards something bigger. That’s more like how the MCU used to do it than the DCEU’s attempts at taking a shortcut to get there, and should stand it in better stead in the long run, for today, Man of Tomorrow, and beyond.

Superman is now available on VoD. Supergirl will be released on June 26th, 2026, Clayface releases September 11th, 2026, and Man of Tomorrow is slated for July 9th, 2027.

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