Superman: Legacy: What Other DC Heroes Could Appear?

So, we now have a new Superman and Lois Lane, bringing James Gunn one step closer to filming Superman: Legacy. The movie will be the first feature film outing for a new DC Universe that will dispense with the frustrations of the last decade and try to give fans a fresh start and a new group of heroes to root for. Producers James Gunn and Peter Safran have 10 TV and movie projects already in development, along with more in mind that have not yet been announced. With rumors that Superman will be entering a world where superheroes already exist, some fans have wondered…which ones?

In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder revealed that Batman had been quietly at work in the background for years before Superman arrived, but the implication was that Superman was the first public hero with super powers. This time around, it’s entirely possible that Superman will be coming into a world where Peacemaker (and thus the Suicide Squad?) already exists — maybe even one where the Justice Society previously existed, giving us a whole generation of earlier heroes.

On top of that, we know that The Authority has a movie coming out fairly soon, suggesting that there’s already a team of powered individuals acting on the margins of the law.  All in all, it sounds a bit like there’s going to be a lot of activity going on in the DC Universe when it launches with Superman: Legacy.

It’s likely the film will not include a huge number of characters — that’s a lot to throw at people while rebooting a franchise and establishing the new rules for Superman — but it also feels pretty likely that we will see at least one or two other costumed avengers who aren’t Clark.

Here’s our rundown of some of the most likely candidates to make an appearance in the film:

Batman

It’s hard to imagine there won’t be a temptation to define this relationship early, especially since Gunn specifically said during his Inside of You appearance that he “isn’t writing Wonder Woman,” suggesting she won’t be in the film.

The Superman/Batman relationship is one of the most interesting ones in all of DC, and the dichotomy of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel is something a lot of storytellers gravitate toward. On a more practical level, it would also give Gunn and Safran and opportunity to introduce their Bruce Wayne ahead of the release of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

What counts against it? Just the other day, Gunn told fans that they were very far from ready to cast Batman. 

Supergirl

Since there’s going to be a Supergirl movie, we know she exists in the DC Universe. That’s certainly a fairly compelling argument for seeing her in Superman’s first movie. The Flash made some headlines by putting Superman and Supergirl onscreen together for the first time in a big-budget movie, but ultimately did very little with it. Gunn, a big fan of that movie, could easily see the value in giving them a scene together to contextualize how they interact with each other, and with humanity.

Steel

John Henry Irons is one of the best and most beloved new characters created at DC in the last 40 years, and it would be easy to find a way to bring him in as a technological expert, whether or not we got to see him in his Steel armor. 

Certainly, it’s something Superman & Lois has done pretty well, and in general, characters introduced in the ’90s Superman books remain popular with fans. 

Booster Gold

Booster Gold is a character who has often interacted with Superman, especially because he has a base of operations in Metropolis. In the early days, when Booster was doing everything for the money and fame, comparing his moral code and approach to Superman’s was pretty easy. 

That held true later, when he became “the greatest hero you’ve never heard of,” and was seen as well-intentioned but overconfident.

“One of the things I always try and point out about Booster: his heart is in the right place,” the character’s creator, Dan Jurgens, told me for my 2021 book The Gold Exchange. “At the end of the day, the comparison I always use is that if a plane is going to crash over Metropolis, Superman will fly up, catch it, avoid hitting any towers, fly it out to the airport, set it down, and everybody will be just fine.

“Booster will fly up, call the media on the way to make sure they’re filming it, so he gets some credit for it. He’ll get there, not be able to quite handle it. He’ll kind of tilt the plane as it’s coming down, clip a couple of office buildings with the wings, and eventually get it settled down right in the center of downtown, which is going to cause a massive traffic jam. He will have saved lives, but be much more awkward in how we did it. So, his heart was always in the right place, but not everybody is Superman.”

Mister Terrific

This one is kind of a cheat, because he has been long rumored. Still, it makes sense. He’s a brilliant man, which could come in handy if your villain (or one of them) is Lex Luthor. He’s also part of The Terrifics, a team of heroes that seemed to be developed with an eye toward giving DC their own version of the Fantastic Four to use for the big screen.

Apollo

The idea that Superman is coming into existence right around the same time as The Authority is weird. Maybe lean into that?

Apollo is basically the EXTREME version of Superman. Obviously, he and Midnighter were created as analogues to Superman and Batman, but in the new universe it seems likely the two pairs will be hitting the screen concurrently. That seems like something worth commenting on.

Green Arrow

Again, if you’ve got Lex in the story, you might want some people who can fight on his level. So scientific geniuses like John Henry Irons and Mr. Terrific? Check. But a couple more billionaires can’t hurt.

If Green Arrow (or just Oliver Queen) shows up, it will be mostly because between Smallville and Arrow, he’s become a key figure in DC in the minds of the audience.

Lobo

One of the first images James Gunn shared after taking over DC was a shot of Lobo. He’s a fan-favorite character, and given his power scale, Superman is one of the only people who can consistently give him a run for his money. The character was the antagonist in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, a recent animated movie; and of course, he and Adam Strange worked together (and against each other) on Krypton, one of the best Superman-related adaptations.