Despite calling Earth home, Superman is an alien. He hails from the planet Krypton, and despite not remembering his time there, his heritage shapes so much of who he is. So, when the time comes to face a threat in the stars, he never hesitates, even if his opponent has the Anti-Life Equation or is a fellow Kryptonian hellbent on revenge. However, Superman’s missions can take him even further than a few planets away, with him frequently visiting alternate Earths and points outside of space and time. The Man of Steel even has access to a dimension that he uses as a prison in the comics, and James Gunn may be borrowing it for his latest movie.
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The second trailer for Superman shows a lot in just a couple of minutes. There are quick shots of Guy Gardner in action, Clark Kent with his parents, and Lex Luthor just being the worst. The most interesting clip, though, features Lois Lane and Mister Terrific exiting a portal into a place that feels eerily familiar.
Superman Might Not Waste Any Time Bringing the Phantom Zone to the DCU
The world that Lois and Mister Terrific visit in Superman appears to be pretty desolate, and based on the expressions on their faces, it’s not somewhere they’re happy to be. That description fits the Phantom Zone pretty well, as it’s a wasteland that houses the worst of the worst from the galaxy. In the comics, Superman’s father, Jor-El, stumbles upon the “pocket universe” and hands the knowledge off to his son. Things don’t change much in live-action, with Jor-El imprisoning General Zod and his allies in the Phantom Zone in Richard Donner’s Superman before the Kryptonian high council does it all over again in Man of Steel.
General Zod is unlikely to play a major role in Gunn’s movie after a multiple-film run in the DC Extended Universe, but he’s not the only reason the Phantom Zone would appear. There’s a chance that Lex Luthor beats Jor-El to the punch in the DCU and throws the Man of Steel into the dimension, forcing Lois and Mister Terrific to retrieve Earth’s greatest hero. Maybe Superman sends his friends there to grab someone even stronger than whoever he’s up against. In any case, Gunn’s take on the Phantom Zone is sure to be memorable.
Without hard confirmation from Gunn, though, there’s a small chance that Lois and Mister Terrific’s destination isn’t the Kryptonian prison. That opens up a world of possibilities, as DC Comics has no shortage of strange locations.
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Superman Could Be Sending Lois Lane and Mister Terrific to an Alternate Reality
Even if the Phantom Zone appears in Superman, it won’t be the first DC pocket dimension Gunn has introduced. In the first season of Peacemaker, the titular anti-hero’s father, White Dragon, has a door in his home that leads to a room full of other doors that lead to different pocket dimensions. While the show doesn’t spend much time explaining anything because there are more pressing matters with the Butterfly invasion, Season 2 will circle back. The trailer for the next outing shows Peacemaker going through one of the doors and coming face-to-face with another version of himself. It’s unclear how those events will play out, but based on the alternate Peacemaker’s attitude, he’s not looking to make friends.
Lois and Mister Terrific may find themselves staring down an alternate reality that has seen better days, which would reveal a lot about Lex Luthor. Nicholas Hoult’s version of the character clearly has a vendetta against Superman and will do anything to knock him down a peg. There’s no reason to doubt that, if he comes across pocket dimensions, he will use them to his advantage by unleashing all kinds of hell on the world. After all, a massive kaiju finds itself in Metropolis at some point in the movie, and it’s hard to believe that Luthor or anyone else could grow that in a lab.
Superman hits theaters on July 11th.
Do you think the Phantom Zone will appear in Superman? What other DC dimensions could Lois Lane and Mister Terrific be visiting? Let us know in the comments below!
