Superman: Legacy: Why Adding Other DC Heroes Isn’t a Bad Thing

Superman: Legacy is quickly becoming one of the most highly-anticipated superhero movies of the next few years, especially with the film helping usher in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s plans for a new DC Universe. After Legacy was first announced back in January, pieces of its ensemble cast have begun to be announced, beginning with David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as the film’s Clark Kent / Superman and Lois Lane. While some probably expected Legacy to go on to cast other Superman-adjacent supporting characters, the most recent updates have been something else entirely. At the time of this writing, four other well-known DC heroes have been added to Legacy: Michael Holt / Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Guy Gardner / Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), and Rex Mason / Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan).

The reaction to these new Legacy castings has been interesting — while many have praised the individual pairings of actor and character, some have worried that these heroes might distract from the film’s central Superman story. Gunn, who is writing and directing Legacy, has already repeatedly confirmed that won’t be the case, reiterating that the characters represents “a part of one side of [Clark’s] world just like Lois and Jimmy [Olsen] are a part of another.” With two years until Legacy makes its debut, and several months until cameras even start rolling on the project, there’s surely a lot more time to speculate, but here’s why you shouldn’t be worried about the film having too many DC heroes.

Part of the backlash to these castings might be rooted in the differing schools of thought about Superman’s role in DC history. Some fans prefer stories where he is ostensibly the first costumed superhero, while others prefer stories where he was predated by other heroes like the JSA, but represented a turning point for how superheroes were viewed in the DCU. Over the years, thanks to retcons and reboots and sliding timelines, both narratives have been made canon in the comics, as well as in other adaptations. Outside of Smallville, every live-action solo adaptation of Superman has gone with neither option, portraying a Superman who is siloed off from most of the DC mythos — even Superman & Lois was later retconned to exist in its own bubble separate from The CW’s Arrowverse. The previous DCEU didn’t definitively use either option either, instead choosing to treat Clark’s origin story in the relatively-self-contained Man of Steel as the nexus point for countless other heroes rising up (The Flash, Cyborg) or stepping out of the shadows (Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman).

Contrast that with Gunn and Safran’s approach to the forthcoming DCU, which has been repeatedly been confirmed to be a world already populated with superheroes. Part of that decision is out of necessity, so as to explain the folding in of Blue Beetle and some Peacemaker and The Suicide Squad characters — but part of it also seems to be a way to effectively hit the ground running. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe and even The CW’s Arrowverse of DC shows ostensibly started small with one or two grounded heroes, before growing into something more fantastical, that strategy might not be effective anymore, especially in the ten years of time Gunn and Safran apparently have to tell their story.

It’s also not really necessary to hold audiences’ hands and ease them into the concept of a fully-fleshed-out DCU, as superhero media is more commonplace than ever, and a number of DC characters have consistently remained household names for decades. If anything, using Legacy to show a DCU that is thriving and filled with intriguing, well-cast characters could be refreshing — both compared to the controversial and disparate parts of the DCEU, and to the recent worries of overall “superhero fatigue.” The recent years of the MCU, in particular, have introduced countless new characters and giant swerves of post-credits scenes with absolutely no indication of if and when they will be followed up on, something that the DCU can easily avoid doing.

As Gunn confirmed in a social media post this week, these characters are being worked into Legacy because “they fit the story [he’s] telling. Story always comes first.” And while Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, Guy Gardner, and Metamorpho might seem like unconventional choices for the story of Legacy, that’s a key part of what’s so exciting about it. If 2021’s The Suicide Squad was any indication, Gunn excels pulling unexpected comic characters into a singular story, and creating something exhilarating in their relationships and dynamics. For starters, all four of Legacy‘s already-announced heroes are characters we’ve never seen Superman interact with in a cinematic context, which is an exciting novelty in and of itself.

But beyond the obvious comic connections, it’s easy to imagine the narrative potential with each of them — Hawkgirl and Guy Gardner represent two completely different alien worlds, Metamorpho often embodies the secret sadness of being a do-gooding outsider, and Mister Terrific has a pragmatic and unapologetically-human point of view on the world. It’s also easy to imagine these heroes being included to illustrate how Superman inspires the DCU around him, adding a whole new meaning to the film’s Legacy subtitle. Either way, the cast we have for Legacy is already something one-of-a-kind, and that’s promising.

Superman: Legacy is set to debut exclusively in theaters on July 11, 2025.