Before the romantic flying sequence in 1978’s Superman: The Movie, intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) gets the scoop on Superman (Christopher Reeve). The “caped wonder” (as he’s originally dubbed by the Metropolis newspaper until a breathless Lois coins the name “Superman“) answers Miss Lane’s questions: his relationship status, height and weight, where he’s from, and why he’s here. “To fight for truth and justice and the American way,” Reeve’s Man of Steel says earnestly.
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After their “meet cute” (meet save?) in which Superman rescues Lois from a helicopter dangling over the edge of The Daily Planet, Lois remains blissfully unaware that her co-worker — the bumbling, spectacled Clark Kent — is secretly the Man of Steel. (He’d later reveal his identity to her before a memory-erasing kiss in 1980’s Superman II.)
Trailers for James Gunn’s Superman movie revealed a twist on the “Clois” dynamic as seen in the Richard Donner-directed classic. When Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) sits down to interview Superman (David Corenswet), he dons the superhero persona sans costume: Lois is aware that Clark Kent is Superman, and Lois and Clark are already an item.
“This isn’t like the interview in the Donner movie where Lois doesn’t know that he’s Clark,” Corenswet told Entertainment Weekly of a scene in which Clark gives Lois an interview as Superman about his actions in a conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur. “Lois knows everything about him, so he’s in a very vulnerable position. He’s madly in love with this woman and desperately wants her to understand him and appreciate him and love him back.”
Lois, who can be seen hitting the ground — and the skies, piloting Mister Terrific’s (Edi Gathegi) T-Sphere ship with Daily Planet chief Perry White (Wendell Pierce) and boyish photographer Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) in tow — is “ambitious and hungry.”
“I think, in that moment, she sees an opportunity for a front-page story,” Brosnahan adds of the interview scene. “I really appreciated that James makes space for you to see her in action at the height of her journalistic prowess.”
The Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star shares Gunn’s reverence for the 1978 film, reflected in everything from the John Williams-inspired theme to a Superman lovingly described as “a little old-fashioned.”
“My dad was a huge Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Superman fan, and I feel like he showed me that movie when I was about 12,” Brosnahan said. “So that was the definitive Superman for me, even though it was long before my time.”
Superman auditioned actors like Tom Brittney (Greyhound) and Nicholas Hoult (who would eventually be cast as Lex Luthor) for the title role, and Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) and Emma Mackey (Barbie) for Lois Lane.
“We mixed and matched these different actors and actresses to find out not only who was the best Clark and who was the best Lois, but who was the best ‘Clois,’ who was the best together,” Gunn said. “I do think that David was the best Clark, Rachel was the best Lois, but they also had the most chemistry together.”
By the time we come into the action, Superman is already established as one of several resident superheroes of Metropolis. And Lois and Clark — who met while covering a story about the supervillain Metallo — have been dating for “about three months,” Brosnahan revealed. “Which is the point in a relationship where you’re like, Was this a really great fling or is this more serious, possibly forever? It’s one of the things that I love about their love story. While they have totally opposite worldviews, they complete each other, and they kind of need each other.”
DC Studios’ Superman — starring David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as Angela Spica/the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr. — soars into theaters July 11.
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Image courtesy of Lucasfilm. -
image courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
