In Defense of Superman: Legacy's Title Change

The DC Universe is headed into new territory, with James Gunn and Peter Safran shepherding a new wave of movies and TV shows that will "reset" the canon in some major ways. The first film that will be part of DC Studios' slate is a solo Superman movie written and directed by Gunn, which just got some major updates on Thursday as it officially began production. Through a social media post, Gunn shared the first official look at the emblem on the costume that will be worn by David Corenswet's Clark Kent / Superman — and in the process, he revealed that the film has shortened its title from Superman: Legacy to Superman.

"When I finished the first draft of the script, I called the film Superman: Legacy," Gunn's post reads in part. "By the time I locked the final draft, it was clear the title was SUPERMAN."

The news of the Superman title change has already courted quite a lot of conversation online, with a wide array of opinions about the branding for the new reboot. While we'll have to wait another year and a half to see the final product of Superman, the evolution of its title could be a small, but symbolic, part of DC's fresh start.

Granted, for generations of viewers, the title Superman easily calls to mind another movie, Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie, which forever changed the landscape of blockbusters upon its debut in 1978. In the eyes of some, this could be seen as a lofty and near-unattainable comparison between the two films — or a promise that 2025's Superman is aspiring to deliver something of the same quality. It has already been abundantly clear that Gunn's Superman is evoking a bit of the spirit of Donner's first film, down to a supporting cast of characters like Eve Teschmacher and Otis. The poetry of having Gunn's Superman be the first cinematic entry in a bold new era of DC movies, just like Donner's changed the game decades prior, doesn't hurt either.

At very least, simplifying the title to just Superman helps make it clear to general audiences (many of whom who, let's be honest, were probably just going to colloquially shorten Superman: Legacy to Superman anyway) that this is the definitive live-action portrayal going forward. By the time Superman is released in June of 2025, The CW's Superman & Lois series will have presumably finished its fourth and final season, and Elseworlds projects like the second season of Adult Swim's My Adventures With Superman will probably be a way's away. This will help, in a roundabout way, to streamline the idea that this Superman movie is important and worth audiences' time, but does not require any prior franchise knowledge to enjoy it.

On that topic, the change from Superman: Legacy to Superman comes as the superhero movie landscape — particularly the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the previous DC Extended Universe — has been criticized for being too interconnected or too complicated for a lot of audiences to follow. The titles of some recent entries have unintentionally reflected that muddled nature as well, utilizing subtitles that, at the end of the day, aren't exactly the selling points of their respective movies. Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Thor: Love and Thunder are easily examples of this, or the DCEU's Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A whole separate conversation can be had about titles that, tragically, undersell their movies to general audiences, like The Marvels and Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn).

While Superman: Legacy certainly wasn't as much of a mouthful, the shortening of the title does help, especially when the Superman "name" hasn't been used in a solo movie context in nearly two decades, with the DCEU electing to instead use Man of Steel. Shortening titles is also not a trend that DC Studios is exclusively sticking to, with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and the Batman-focused The Brave and the Bold utilizing the opposite approach, while also setting themselves apart from other recent media starring their main characters. In the meantime, Superman is getting to stand out — while paying a bit of tribute to the past in the process.

Superman is scheduled to debut in theaters on July 11, 2025.