Does 'Superman: Legacy’ New Casting Confirm DCU Reboot? Not So Fast
The latest round of “Superman: Legacy” casting is raising a lot of questions. James Gunn confirmed Nathan Fillion has been cast as Guy Gardner (a Green Lantern), Isabella Merced will play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi will play Mister Terrific and Anthony Carrigan has been cast as Metamorpho.
Some DC fans are concerned Gunn is crowding his film with too many DC heroes, and the film won’t focus on Superman. Others are wondering if “Superman: Legacy” will in fact be a hard reboot for the DC universe, given that Nathan Fillion previously played T.D.K. in Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad."
In this video, CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell and Hannah Saulic react to the casting and give their opinions on what this means for the DCU moving forward.
Some DC fans are concerned Gunn is crowding his film with too many DC heroes, and the film won’t focus on Superman. Others are wondering if “Superman: Legacy” will in fact be a hard reboot for the DC universe, given that Nathan Fillion previously played T.D.K. in Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad."
In this video, CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell and Hannah Saulic react to the casting and give their opinions on what this means for the DCU moving forward.
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00:00Hey everyone, it's Sean O'Connell, the Managing Editor at CinemaBlend, here with Hanna Salek
00:21to discuss some of the latest happenings.
00:24You trampled all over my intro, Hanna.
00:26Oh my god, I was just saying hi!
00:29Is that rat waving at me?
00:31I ruined everything.
00:33Sorry.
00:34Start over.
00:35Let's not even do this video.
00:36You sure?
00:37Yeah, that's a good idea.
00:38Yo, let me out!
00:39I can't be a part of this.
00:40Did you wear red for Superman?
00:42Yes, I did.
00:43That is a cape-esque red.
00:46I like it.
00:47Yes, I did.
00:48Thank you for noticing.
00:49And if you haven't seen Hanna's amazing Barbie interviews, they're also on our YouTube channel
00:55where she wore pink.
00:56I did wear pink.
00:58Very literal dressing lately.
01:00So let me get this straight.
01:03You do dress like a bat.
01:04Like an actual bat.
01:06We wanted to get on and discuss this because, surprise, surprise, DC fans are mad about
01:11some of the stuff that's going on with Superman Legacy.
01:13Some DC fans.
01:14Some DC fans, that's fair enough.
01:15So Hanna, why don't you kick us off and tell us what has happened in the world of Superman
01:20Legacy, and then we will weigh in with our opinions.
01:23Yes, okay, so we got a whole bunch of new castings, which I think is super exciting.
01:27So we have Nathan Fillion, who was cast as A Green Lantern, Guy Gardner.
01:32We got Isabella Merced cast as Hawkgirl.
01:36We got Eddie Gathegi as Mr. Terrific.
01:39And Anthony Kerrigan as Metamorpho, and I love him.
01:42I don't know if you've watched Barry.
01:44I watched a lot of Barry.
01:46I haven't seen the whole thing, but I do like him.
01:48No HoHank fan, like A-plus character.
01:50I'm obsessed with him.
01:51So I was super excited about that one in particular.
01:53But yeah, people are basically mad about that because there's a concern that because
01:58there are so many characters from DC Comics in a DC Comics movie.
02:07Oh my God.
02:08That the film will not center on Superman slash Clark as much as certain fans think
02:14they should.
02:15James Gunn has responded and made it clear.
02:18He said something like, you know, the choices were made for story.
02:22He also said something like, you know, we're going to flesh out Clark's life as Clark.
02:27So that requires characters like Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Lois Lane, but also as Superman.
02:32Like he is going to be in a world in which superheroes have existed, do exist.
02:37So it's important to also establish that he's in that world with some of these other DC heroes.
02:43So people are still not convinced though.
02:47He has been with us the whole time.
02:50Somebody named Milton has been with us the whole time.
02:53Yes!
02:54But you said you were excited and fascinated by the choice to have so many, I guess, characters
03:00with recognizable names.
03:02Yeah, very much so.
03:04And not at all concerned in a way where I understand that people were like when they
03:12did Batman versus Superman and all of a sudden it was like, it wasn't a traditional Superman
03:17sequel the way that we viewed it at the time.
03:19It was like, oh, all of a sudden you're trying to introduce a new Batman.
03:22You're trying to introduce Wonder Woman and then Cyborg and the Flash and Aquaman.
03:27And it didn't seem like a rush to build a universe.
03:30But what I don't understand, and I've seen certain tweets that are like, you know, where
03:35are all of the traditional Superman supporting characters?
03:39Like why aren't we hearing about the casting of Jonathan Kent?
03:44And I don't want, I specifically don't want a rehash of all the other Superman type of
03:51movies that we've seen up until this point.
03:53So when you tell me that there's a story that's going to need a Hawkgirl or need a Green Lantern,
03:59like this is extremely exciting to me.
04:01I like it.
04:02I think it's incredibly smart that you're starting a new universe.
04:07You know, this 10 film, whatever chapter one is going to be that I think is going to
04:11involve more films and television shows where the universe exists.
04:17It already is in place.
04:18And we can start with a sequence where maybe Superman is battling with Green Lantern, you
04:24know, up in somewhere deep in the universe.
04:27And it's, you see, it's Guy Gardner and we meet Nathan Fillion and we just know now he's
04:32there kind of thing.
04:34The idea that people are wringing their hands over the amount of characters that are suddenly
04:39being introduced in this thing without having any clear indication about how they're used
04:44is preposterous to me.
04:47This is insane.
04:48It reeks to me of, I just want to be upset about something because, you know, just telling
04:55me that there are characters in a screenplay doesn't concern me in the least bit.
05:01Yeah, that's the weirdest part of this.
05:02It's so stupid.
05:03That's like being like, oh, you know, Benji is going to be in Mission Impossible and so
05:07is Luther and people being like, well, it's not about Ethan Hunt anymore then.
05:11It's like, no, there's just characters.
05:12A hundred percent.
05:13Like, do you think if they would have just said, not that they would have, but they said
05:16like, oh, you know, Eddie Gathegi's been cast as, you know, reporter number three in Superman
05:21Legacy or whatever, like no one would care.
05:23But it's almost like because it's like the hero, you know, or like a recognizable name
05:28or something that people are making.
05:30It's very interesting.
05:32Now, I will say to give the other side their equal due, Black Adam tried this and it didn't work.
05:40Yeah.
05:41So I'm not saying that, you know, it's one side or the other is a guaranteed success
05:46because I would have liked more time with the Justice Society characters who we met
05:50in Black Adam.
05:51Yeah.
05:52So it's a hundred percent how you use them.
05:55But if you take Gunn's Suicide Squad as an example, he kind of hit the ground running
06:00with a bunch of characters that we hadn't met before, you know, one or two that we were
06:04familiar with.
06:05Yeah.
06:06And then another whole slate of team who didn't make it past the first five minutes.
06:10So he has been known to do irreverent things.
06:13And I'm not saying that he's going to kill off Hawk Girl, you know, or something stupid
06:16like that.
06:17But I'm just saying that there are scenarios in place where these characters could be a
06:22part of a scene or like who's to say that there isn't a hall of justice, you know, scene
06:27where Superman has to go by there at some point because in the middle of whatever mission
06:32he's trying to figure out and these characters who he's talking about are there already kind
06:37of thing.
06:38Yeah.
06:39One of them goes to help them, but the other ones stick behind.
06:41I mean, they're just there.
06:42They're part of the universe.
06:43And I think that that's fine.
06:44We got to calm down.
06:45Yeah.
06:46You make a very, very good point.
06:47It's like people are almost like inferring that they're going to be like main characters
06:52instead of just like, oh, this person is like in a scene for maybe a few seconds.
06:57And I don't know that I've ever seen a James Gunn movie where I've thought like, oh, that,
07:02you know, script didn't really give enough time to X character.
07:05Like, I've never felt like his movies are overstuffed in a way.
07:09And like, you know what I mean?
07:12And the Guardians movies, well, maybe Guardians volume two, the end of volume two gets to
07:17be a little bit heavy.
07:19I am Groot.
07:21But so here's a name that I haven't heard yet that I'm really glad that I have it.
07:25Lex Luthor.
07:26I don't think we need, I think we're going to get one, but I don't think we need Lex
07:31to be a driving force of this new Superman movie moving forwards.
07:34Try another villain.
07:36Okay.
07:37The new Blue Beetle trailer, there's like a Lex Corp building in the back.
07:41Oh no.
07:42Is there?
07:43Yeah.
07:44And I mean, I know James Gunn has never said anything about Lex.
07:48He's like, even on a podcast, he was like, who said that Lex is even in my movie?
07:52But like, I have a feeling Lex is in his movie.
07:54Interesting.
07:55But yeah, I mean, if he's not the main villain, that's.
07:59Because with all of the casting, it was like, oh, well then I guess Nicholas Holt is, if
08:04he's not getting Superman, he's probably up for Lex.
08:06But James Gunn never really came out and said he was casting Lex.
08:09No.
08:10He has not.
08:11I don't know.
08:12He never even said that he was including him, but.
08:13It just feels like, so, you know, Hackman played Lex for multiple films.
08:18When they brought back Superman Returns, it was Kevin Spacey.
08:22Eisenberg obviously came on board for Batman versus Superman.
08:26And they crammed in the Doomsday, you know, story angle of BVS.
08:31But like, there are enough Superman villains to bring in.
08:36I totally agree with you.
08:37But what if Lex is just like in the newspaper in a shot?
08:40Like, what if he's just again there, but not necessarily the villain?
08:46Because Lex is around.
08:48Of course.
08:50And I mean, in Man of Steel, how they peppered in, you know, LexCorp references and Wayne
08:55Tech references where you were just like, oh, OK, well, they're part of the part of
08:59the universe.
09:00I guess we'll see them at some point later.
09:01The other interesting thing this casting news raises is Nathan Fillion was the detachable
09:07kid in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad and is now appearing in Superman Legacy as Guy
09:13Gardner.
09:14Some people are taking this as a clear indication of like Superman Legacy is a hard reboot on
09:20the DCU.
09:21I don't think that's the case, but it does kind of signal to me that maybe James Gunn
09:26just really does not care about anything that has previously happened.
09:29He's going to take what he wants to take and work with the actors he wants to work
09:33with.
09:34And whether that be, you know, keeping John Cena as Peacemaker and that cast and that
09:38storyline.
09:39Like, I don't think he's so concerned with the rules of what came before versus what
09:44he's doing now.
09:45What do you think?
09:46I think you're right.
09:47I think you're right.
09:48One hundred percent.
09:49I think he's and he's allowed to do this.
09:52Making up the rules a little bit as he goes.
09:54And it stands for what?
09:57Stands for me.
09:59Because hasn't he just recently said, like, Blue Beetle is the first official DCU.
10:04Like, going forward, you know, he will continue to be Blue Beetle in this universe.
10:08Has not said that about Aquaman.
10:10No, no, he hasn't.
10:14And then we do know that Peacemaker season two was already in development and underway.
10:20And he has the Waller show, too, that had been announced.
10:24So I think he can pick and choose.
10:27Now, I don't think TDK was a big enough character that people associate with Nathan Fillion,
10:33you know, that they could be like, well, hold on a second.
10:36That looks just like TDK.
10:37That seemed to be just a running joke.
10:39Although there are Joppa gangers in real life, you know?
10:41Yes, exactly.
10:43People tell me I look like Brad Pitt all the time.
10:45Exactly.
10:46It's exhausting.
10:47Some have said you look like Amy Adams.
10:51I've heard that every once in a while in the comments below.
10:53Those people are high.
10:56Peacemaker.
10:59It's actually very nice.
11:01Looks nothing like me.
11:02So the point being, stop getting upset.
11:06We're two years away from this movie happening.
11:09We just got a Superman and a Lois.
11:11We haven't even spoken about how we feel about the casting of Superman and Lois, have we?
11:15We made a whole video, Sean.
11:17Really?
11:18Yeah.
11:19I should watch our stuff more often.
11:20I'm only laughing on the outside.
11:24If you could see inside, I'd really cry.