James Gunn recently said he hasn’t cast anyone in his Superman movie yet, and clarified he’s still working on the script. And while we’re all patiently waiting for Gunn and Peter Safran to drop new information on their DCU slate, we decided to go back and collect the hints they’ve dropped so far about the one project we know for sure is in the works: James Gunn’s Superman movie.
In this video, CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor, Sean O’Connell, and Head of Video, Hannah Saulic, discuss what Gunn has explicitly stated about the project, theorize about some hints we think he may have already given us, and look back through his existing filmography to see what it can tell us about the way he might approach a Superman story.
In this video, CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor, Sean O’Connell, and Head of Video, Hannah Saulic, discuss what Gunn has explicitly stated about the project, theorize about some hints we think he may have already given us, and look back through his existing filmography to see what it can tell us about the way he might approach a Superman story.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (whooshing)
00:02 - Not you.
00:03 (upbeat music)
00:06 - Hey everyone, it's Sean and Hannah
00:12 and we are here to do another DC video
00:14 where we are this time going to dive into
00:17 some of the things that James Gunn has talked about
00:19 regarding Superman.
00:20 We're still all sitting around,
00:22 waiting for the expanded plan
00:25 of what James Gunn and Peter Safran wanna do
00:26 with the DC films moving forward.
00:28 But one of the things that he has talked about
00:30 is Superman and his plans for him.
00:32 And we do have a couple of details
00:34 that are specific to his movie in general.
00:36 So while we're waiting for that ultimate plan
00:38 to come around, we thought this would be a good week
00:40 for us to sort of go over the details that we know
00:42 about any pending Superman film
00:44 and some of James Gunn's secrets
00:47 that he has shared on social media
00:48 because things that he posts tend to mean something
00:51 somewhere down the line.
00:52 - He loves a tease, loves a tease.
00:55 - He does.
00:56 - He does.
00:57 - Why don't you start off by just sort of
00:59 giving us a rundown of what we know up until this point.
01:02 - Sure.
01:03 (upbeat music)
01:05 Okay, so a week ago,
01:07 I'm gonna kind of like start most recent and go backwards.
01:10 Actually, no, I'm not.
01:11 I lied to you.
01:12 That's not the list.
01:13 That's not my list order.
01:14 - God damn it, Nonawee.
01:15 (laughing)
01:17 - But he did say last week, I'll start with this
01:19 and then go through everything else,
01:20 that basically no one has been cast as Superman yet
01:24 'cause there were a few rumors that Jacob Elordi
01:26 from "Euphoria" was gonna be this new young Superman
01:28 and he was like, "No, I'm still writing the script.
01:31 I don't cast people until the script is done
01:33 or close to being done and it's not."
01:35 - And then I think also,
01:37 the day before we were recording this video,
01:39 Chris Pratt said he might follow James Gunn over to DC
01:42 and some people started to speculate
01:44 that Chris Pratt could be his Superman.
01:46 Did you not see this?
01:47 You're learning this in real time?
01:49 - I knew about like him saying that about Chris Pratt,
01:51 but I didn't know people thought,
01:52 Chris Pratt is not Superman.
01:54 What?
01:55 - Don't, well, you never know, Hannah.
01:58 Stranger things have happened and-
02:00 - Have they?
02:00 - You might get-
02:01 (laughing)
02:03 - I don't know about that.
02:04 - No, I agree, it would be a really bad idea
02:05 to put Chris Pratt in the role of Superman.
02:08 I don't think that he would be-
02:09 - He's like the same age as Henry Cavill, basically,
02:11 so that wouldn't make sense, internet.
02:13 - Sorry, old chump!
02:14 - Get it together.
02:16 - Where do you get this nonsense?
02:19 - Google.
02:20 - I love a theory, but not that one.
02:22 - You know more than Google?
02:23 Well, congratulations.
02:24 Okay, so I'm just gonna go through really, really quick.
02:26 James Gunn said that, number one,
02:28 Superman is a huge priority,
02:29 if not the biggest priority for DC.
02:32 We know that James Gunn's Superman will be younger.
02:34 He said in the initial stages,
02:36 our story will be focusing on an earlier part
02:38 of Superman's life,
02:39 so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill.
02:41 He has also said that it is not an origin story,
02:44 and he's said that multiple times
02:46 because apparently the first time he said it on Twitter,
02:48 people still didn't believe him.
02:49 We know that James Gunn is writing the script
02:51 and it's not done yet.
02:52 We don't have any word on a director yet,
02:54 or the cast, obviously.
02:56 And then we also know that the Superman in his movie
02:59 will have already met some of the important characters.
03:02 He replied to somebody on Twitter
03:03 and said he's not meeting the major characters
03:05 for the first time either.
03:06 He's merely younger, which is Adam Holmes,
03:08 one of the editors on CinemaBlend,
03:10 pointed out sounds a lot like what Matt Reeves
03:13 did with the Batman,
03:14 where Robert Pattinson's Batman already had a relationship
03:17 with people like Jim Gordon and Joker.
03:19 James Gunn obviously did not clarify
03:22 what he meant by important, or sorry, major characters,
03:26 but obviously, educated guess,
03:28 we can probably assume that means people like Lois Lane,
03:30 maybe Perry White.
03:31 - Right.
03:32 - So that's all that James Gunn has explicitly said
03:36 about his Superman movie,
03:38 but I went back through CinemaBlend
03:40 like years and years of articles
03:41 because he has talked a lot about Superman.
03:44 Just, I don't know if you remember,
03:45 but after he got fired from Disney
03:48 and went to go work for Warner Brothers,
03:49 they basically said like, "Hey, do whatever you want."
03:52 (roaring)
03:54 And while he ultimately picked the Suicide Squad,
03:57 Superman was on the table,
03:59 and he did make an interesting comment
04:02 when somebody asked if the Superman
04:05 that Bloodsport references in the Suicide Squad
04:08 is Henry Cavill's.
04:10 Keep in mind, this was in 2021, but he said,
04:13 "Yes, the Suicide Squad is a part of the DCEU,
04:15 "but I don't know which Superman it was
04:17 "because I don't cast the next Superman.
04:19 "So it could be Henry Cavill, it could be somebody else.
04:22 "It's whoever people decide on other than me."
04:24 LOL.
04:25 Then, okay.
04:29 So when Eric did interviews for the Suicide Squad,
04:32 again, 2021, he asked-
04:35 - One thing that's amazing about James Gunn as a filmmaker
04:37 is just he just goes into such deep detail
04:40 when it comes to his storytelling and characters.
04:42 And I'm curious if just in your conversations with him,
04:44 were there any details that you discussed
04:46 that weren't on the page,
04:48 but that you kind of used as just backstory
04:50 for your character?
04:52 - Yeah, for sure.
04:53 You know, look, there's a whole history
04:56 as to why Superman, is Superman,
05:00 why Bloodsport is in jail,
05:03 and that's related to, you know, trying to kill Superman.
05:07 And unraveling that, there was lots of stuff
05:10 that I found out about.
05:11 Mm-hmm.
05:12 - So I don't know.
05:13 I mean, like, there could very well be some stuff
05:15 that James Gunn did in that research
05:17 that could have inspired his current Superman movie.
05:20 - Oh, that's just a taste.
05:21 - And then jumping around to a different topic,
05:23 I don't know if you remember the crypto super dog
05:28 news that was going around.
05:30 So he basically said on Happy Sad Confused,
05:35 "I considered doing a crypto movie,
05:36 which I thought would be really fun,
05:38 but that shows you where my head's at.
05:39 I wasn't interested in doing a traditional Superman thing,
05:42 a super powered dog from Krypton running around a city,
05:45 destroying it while Superman tries to track him down
05:47 and get him.
05:48 That seemed interesting to me."
05:50 We know how much James Gunn loves animals.
05:53 (angelic music)
05:54 I could totally see crypto being a part
05:56 of his Superman movie.
05:58 I think that would be-
05:58 - Being a part of, yes,
06:00 but I don't need a crypto movie.
06:02 - Okay, well, I do, but I agree.
06:04 I don't think-
06:05 - So disrespectful.
06:06 - He has said he's not doing that,
06:08 but I think that it is a smart theory
06:10 to say that crypto will be part of this somehow.
06:14 - Supes is probably missing me.
06:15 - And then finally, he did say in the past
06:18 that Superman 2 is apparently his favorite DC film.
06:22 So I guess knowing all of that, I just word vomited.
06:26 - Any of this mean anything to you?
06:27 - Do you have any theories or any like commentary
06:30 on what you think he's hinting at with all that?
06:35 - I do.
06:35 If only because if you go back to Superman 2,
06:39 it has a lot of, especially if he mentions crypto,
06:42 like there's a extended Superman family that you could have
06:46 that would be part of a world of Superman films,
06:49 which includes Supergirl and crypto
06:53 if you wanted to lean into that.
06:54 And something that's a significant part of Superman 2,
06:57 which is like the Fortress of Solitude.
06:58 It's like embracing all of the things
07:01 that come with Superman as a comic book character
07:04 that we didn't get to see
07:05 through the Henry Cavill interpretation
07:08 because they lean so heavily
07:09 into making him an alien on our earth, right?
07:12 But there is a version of Superman
07:14 where he is embraced by humanity right off the bat
07:18 and he becomes this blue boy scout character
07:20 and he's able to establish a headquarters here on earth
07:23 and make earth his home almost instantly.
07:25 And if Gunn is into that side of it,
07:27 like if he's into embracing the offbeat crypto,
07:31 having a super dog and something like that,
07:33 then that's cool.
07:34 'Cause again, it's something very different
07:35 than what we've seen before.
07:37 You could inject some humor into it
07:39 without it having to be over the top like Suicide Squad
07:42 in the way that Gunn really leaned hard into it.
07:45 And I think it would be fun to have a scene
07:47 that was included in the movie
07:49 that showed him interacting with Idris Elba
07:51 because I think this pure beam of light,
07:55 going against Idris Elba's character
07:56 that we met in Suicide Squad
07:58 would be a great sort of contradiction.
07:59 Not to make it the entirety of that movie,
08:02 but to maybe open with that scene,
08:05 sort of show that like,
08:06 hey, as part of this continuity,
08:08 we're opening with a scene where an already established
08:10 Superman is taking care of Bloodsport
08:12 and putting him away in Suicide Squad.
08:15 And then we can be like, oh, okay.
08:16 So that's how that character got to where he is gonna be.
08:19 And then the Superman story goes on
08:20 to where it goes from that point.
08:22 I think all of this is fascinating.
08:25 I think when James Gunn was saying that stuff earlier on,
08:27 he probably didn't assume that he would become
08:30 the one making the decision down the line.
08:31 - That or he totally knew
08:33 and he was just making himself laugh
08:34 in all these interviews.
08:35 - Which is not beyond him. - 'Cause there are a lot
08:37 of quotes where he's like, that's not my problem.
08:39 Or like, I'm not in charge.
08:41 And I'm like, how?
08:43 - But see, when he came over,
08:46 I think he was really content
08:49 when he signed up to do the Suicide Squad.
08:51 I think he was really content to say to them,
08:55 meaning Warner Brothers at the time,
08:57 I have an idea for a great movie, you know?
08:59 And I wanna tell this story.
09:01 And I don't want it to be connected to everything else,
09:03 but these are the characters I wanna use
09:04 and I don't have to worry about continuity, right?
09:07 Now, maybe working with them
09:09 and especially maybe working with Peter Safran
09:11 as his producer, lured him over to,
09:14 oh, I do wanna tell more stories in this world,
09:16 but I don't think he went into Suicide Squad
09:17 with the intention of, I'm gonna become DC's new guy.
09:21 - Right.
09:22 - So.
09:22 - No, I don't think so either. - But that's where he is.
09:24 - But don't you think that like, - That's where he is now.
09:25 - probably throughout the course of just like,
09:28 making Suicide Squad, like pre-production to post-production,
09:31 like, he had to have had like some conversations
09:35 with some people.
09:36 Like, I wonder like, if it was known,
09:38 like, oh, like he would be open to this,
09:41 like the more that he kind of got involved, but.
09:45 - I'm sure, but then what is also, I'm blanking on it,
09:48 but there's an incredibly crude joke
09:50 about Superman in Peacemaker.
09:52 - Superman's an alien, he's got a poop fetish.
09:54 - What? - Get the fuck outta here.
09:55 - Oh yeah.
09:57 - Which then, you know, comes around to,
09:59 this is a guy writing a story
10:00 that doesn't care about the consequences, you know,
10:02 like he's not gonna have to answer to that later on, maybe.
10:05 But if we're in a situation where Gunn is going to,
10:07 when he unveils his massive plan,
10:09 if his massive plan includes multiverses,
10:11 then his Superman can take place in some other universe
10:13 that we just haven't been able to see yet.
10:15 And I kind of think that's the direction that we're leaning.
10:18 I think when James Gunn kicks off,
10:19 I think, I don't think he's gonna decimate
10:21 the existing universe.
10:22 I think that the capabilities of them reappearing,
10:26 those characters reappearing are still gonna be there.
10:29 But I think he's gonna start in a fresh universe
10:31 and then we're gonna get to a situation where,
10:34 and this is where you had mentioned in the notes,
10:36 we're gonna get a Kingdom Come story.
10:38 - Yeah, so let's go into some of like,
10:43 he's tweeted out comic images.
10:45 So in the first one, he was just like announcing
10:48 like first day at work, which was the secret.
10:51 Hey, I'm telling you. - Very cute.
10:52 - Very plainly, I am writing a Superman movie.
10:54 That's the priority of the universe, first and foremost.
10:58 - So two is Kingdom Come.
11:00 - So this tweet with the Kingdom Come image
11:02 just says making plans.
11:05 And it was on November 30th.
11:07 And that is when close to the time where we knew
11:10 that he was away with Peter Safran finalizing
11:15 the eight to 10 year plan
11:16 before they had a meeting with David Zaslav.
11:18 - Mr. Zas, I've had an amazing idea.
11:22 - So I mean, he could be very well telling us
11:25 this is what we're building toward
11:27 in the way that like for those,
11:29 I don't know that anyone's watching this
11:31 who like isn't familiar with comic books,
11:33 but like in the same way that like
11:34 the Marvel Cinematic Universe had like the Infinity Saga,
11:37 like this could be like the Kingdom Come saga.
11:41 - Now this is crazy. - What?
11:42 - But imagine this, in the Kingdom Come story,
11:47 the Justice League, the core Justice League members
11:49 have essentially moved on from being superheroes.
11:52 You know, they've retired
11:53 and there's another generation of superheroes
11:56 who essentially lose their moral compass
12:00 and start doing things, you know,
12:01 that are almost as evil as the villains
12:04 who they're supposed to be going up against, right?
12:06 And it forces the original characters
12:08 to come out of retirement
12:10 and fight this next generation of new characters.
12:14 So imagine that we build to a movie
12:17 where Henry Cavill comes back.
12:21 - And Gal come back as the Trinity
12:26 to fight a new generation of heroes
12:28 that James Gunn has introduced.
12:30 - That would keep in track
12:31 with what both James and Henry said
12:34 when they announced his departure
12:36 is that they're keeping possibilities open
12:38 to work together in the future.
12:40 It also tracks with Gal's statement
12:43 of excited to share her next chapter,
12:46 that I'm liking that a lot.
12:49 - And he talked to Ben about directing.
12:51 What if he says to Ben,
12:52 "Hey, you're gonna direct the Kingdom Come movie
12:54 with your three characters,
12:56 with those three characters coming back."
12:59 I'm not saying it's gonna happen,
13:01 but if that's part of an announcement,
13:05 that is one way for James Gunn
13:06 to essentially say to the fan base,
13:08 "I told you to trust in me."
13:10 But then we should also temper expectations
13:12 by saying that the counterparts over at Marvel
13:15 do like to name movies certain things
13:21 and don't necessarily add up
13:23 to the complete translation.
13:24 Like "Infinity War" kind of did tell one of these stories
13:29 that was the "Infinity Gauntlet" type story
13:32 that included Thanos trying to gather all the stones.
13:34 But now that they've announced "Peng Dynasty"
13:37 and "Secret Wars," like "Secret Wars" in particular,
13:40 is an extremely expansive story
13:42 that you would need multiple movies to set up, essentially.
13:45 And it could just be like a concept.
13:47 So I even think that Gunn and Peter Safran
13:49 can come out and say,
13:50 "We're building toward a 'Kingdom Come' movie, essentially.
13:54 And there's a bunch of things we're gonna have to fill in
13:56 to get to that point, but that's where we're heading."
13:58 It might not be a total true adaptation of "Kingdom Come,"
14:02 but it gives you the opportunity
14:03 to at least do something really cool with it.
14:04 - Well, I don't think it should be,
14:05 'cause we already have that.
14:07 Go read the comics.
14:08 I am not one of those people that is like,
14:10 "It's not close to the book," just in general.
14:13 But I know I'm in the minority, so I will shut up.
14:16 - No, but that's okay.
14:18 I am with you in that I think everything
14:20 that James has shared up until this point means something.
14:23 I don't think that he,
14:24 because he's extremely social media savvy,
14:26 and he knows that anything he's putting up there
14:28 is going to be analyzed.
14:30 - So you don't think he was just like,
14:32 "Oh, this image looks like somebody
14:33 who's thinking around a table about a bunch of stuff.
14:36 Let me just post that."
14:37 - No, no, I certainly don't.
14:40 And I don't think anybody should think that.
14:42 Whereas I think you can have a little bit more fun
14:45 going to some of the themes that are found
14:47 in a movie that he helped put out, which is "Brightburn."
14:52 (upbeat music)
14:55 When people saw "Brightburn,"
14:57 they viewed it as the darker Superman origin story, right?
15:01 Like it was all the elements of the Superman story,
15:03 the boy landing in Kansas, essentially,
15:05 and having these powers,
15:07 and how does he adopt a family, take care of them,
15:09 but he chooses to do things wrong
15:11 instead of doing the right thing.
15:12 Now, James didn't direct "Brightburn,"
15:14 but his executive producer, Ron,
15:15 and I think helped workshop the story.
15:17 It just goes to show how the early days of Superman
15:22 and how a decision that you make at that young age,
15:25 and Zack Snyder tried to touch on this as well, too,
15:28 that you have a decision to make at an early age,
15:30 you have all this power,
15:31 and if you do decide to do the wrong thing with it,
15:33 how detrimental it could necessarily be.
15:36 - You just have to decide what kind of man
15:37 you wanna grow up to be, Clark,
15:38 because whoever that man is, good character or bad,
15:42 he's gonna change the world.
15:47 - So the version of Superman that we just had,
15:49 Henry Cavill, people criticized for not being the,
15:52 as you put it, the Boy Scout version of Superman,
15:55 like Chris Ferrie's version,
15:56 but James Gunn, in almost everything he's done thus far,
16:01 it doesn't strike me as his Superman
16:05 is gonna be more Boy Scout than not,
16:08 and I guess that's an interesting thing to think about
16:11 is how different from the themes that Zack Snyder explored,
16:15 'cause to me, those seem like themes
16:17 that James Gunn perhaps might be interested in,
16:20 maybe not executing in the same way,
16:22 but exploring at least,
16:24 and so I guess my question is just,
16:26 how do you see that balance sort of working out,
16:29 just given everything that we know about James Gunn
16:31 as a screenwriter and a filmmaker?
16:33 - Have you given any thought to that?
16:34 - I have, actually.
16:35 - It's almost like we're gonna have to find a middle ground
16:39 between how does James Gunn's Superman
16:42 embrace being Superman,
16:44 because for the bulk of "Man of Steel,"
16:46 Henry Cavill tried to not be Superman, right?
16:49 Like, tried to distance himself as much as he could from it
16:51 because he didn't want it to,
16:53 his father, essentially, his adoptive father told him,
16:55 like, "If you show yourself too soon,
16:56 they're gonna make you an outcast."
16:58 Like, that was a threat.
16:59 Whereas with Christopher Reeve,
17:00 in the first movie, at the very least,
17:02 very quickly stepped into the suit
17:04 and became the protector of the universe,
17:06 but if James Gunn likes Superman too as much as he does,
17:09 it shows a little bit more of that gray area
17:11 of, yes, I have these powers,
17:12 I don't necessarily want them,
17:15 or I understand the weight that comes with them.
17:17 - Like, I feel like we still want-
17:19 - But I think there's a way to do it.
17:20 - I don't think people are gonna be happy if, like,
17:22 'cause I'm not talking about Snyder fans,
17:24 'cause, like, I get that we all liked that version.
17:27 I'm talking about people who are mad about that version.
17:29 I don't think they're gonna be too thrilled
17:31 about another Superman movie
17:33 where they don't feel like they get to see Superman.
17:35 Like, that was one of my grievances with "Wonder Woman 84,"
17:38 is I was like, "We've had one 'Wonder Woman' movie,
17:40 and the second one," 'cause I don't think
17:43 Zack Snyder's Justice League had come out at that point.
17:45 No, it hadn't.
17:45 It was like, now I'm just seeing her, like, get beat up,
17:48 and she's not, like, she doesn't get to beat,
17:49 like, I wanna see her be Wonder Woman.
17:51 The old time.
17:52 I could almost see that same argument
17:53 for, like, people haven't seen Superman
17:56 be Superman in so long.
17:58 - Yeah.
17:59 - That, like, do you know what I mean?
18:01 - I know what you mean,
18:02 and maybe I'm pulling the wrong thing
18:04 from "Superman II" anyway,
18:05 because the other interpretation of "Superman II"
18:07 is that it has far more action
18:09 than Superman, the original Superman.
18:11 Like, Superman, the movie, moves pretty slow.
18:13 - Yeah.
18:14 - But in "II," it's Zod and his two compatriots,
18:17 and there's more fighting, even at a 1982-level fighting.
18:21 But maybe that's one of the things that Gunn is saying.
18:24 It's like, I wanna see a Superman in action.
18:26 I wanna see a Superman fighting, you know,
18:28 a threat through the course of the thing.
18:30 And I know "Man of Steel" did that.
18:31 I know "Man of Steel" had Henry Caple
18:32 fighting against Zod at the end,
18:34 and it was some of the best Superman fighting
18:35 we've ever seen.
18:36 Like, it really was terrific.
18:38 The Kansas fight, all the way through the Metropolis fight,
18:41 despite all the damage that it created
18:43 and the lives that were probably lost
18:44 in Metropolis on that day,
18:46 it was pretty exciting to see Superman in action
18:49 and maybe Gunn's leaning a little bit more
18:50 in that direction.
18:51 - Yeah, I'll be curious to see.
18:53 I think there might be a lot of overlap.
18:55 Again, not in execution, but just in the themes
18:58 explored between James Gunn's "Superman" movie
19:02 and some of what we've seen with what Zack Snyder did.
19:05 But we will maybe hopefully know next week
19:08 some more details, because James Gunn has said
19:11 that in January, he's going to announce something.
19:15 And last week he said soon.
19:17 And my theory is that they're letting Marvel have this week
19:20 with all the Ant-Man stuff
19:21 and then a lot of what we've seen on "Empire"
19:23 that you can read about on CinemaBlend.
19:25 And so next week, I'm predicting
19:27 that we're gonna get something,
19:30 some morsel of information, hopefully.
19:33 - All the out-of-hook.
19:34 - Don't we have a DC movie coming in March?
19:35 "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" opens in March.
19:37 - Who? - Unbeatable!
19:39 Unbeatable!
19:39 - Yes, "Shazam!"
19:41 - Huh?
19:42 - "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is still a movie.
19:44 It's coming.
19:45 - Oh yeah.
19:46 - But I do wanna, hopefully we'll know the announcement.
19:49 And when the announcement happens,
19:51 know that we are gonna hop on almost immediately
19:54 and record it, so long as it's something significant.
19:56 (upbeat music)
19:59 (upbeat music)