Warner Brothers dropped a first teaser trailer for a highly anticipated film, Superman, which was presented on Thursday following a press preview on Dec. 17, featured a great deal of symbolism spoken, “Home. Take Me Home” by the titular Man of Steel, which was introduced by writer and director James Gunn.
According to the filmmaker, this movie will kick off the new DC Universe that he and co-chief Peter Safran of DC Studios have been tasked with leading for the past two years. It is evident from the teaser that this Superman – played by a newcomer like David Corenswet (Hollywood, Twisters) – will make its debut in a cinematic universe that contains all the characters from DC Comics. Superman is coming back to DC.
Naturally, the teaser provides a glimpse into the identity of Corenswet as Superman’s bespectacled alter ego, Clark Kent, who reports for The Daily Planet in Metropolis. Several brief images feature Kent’s co-worker and Superman’s beloved, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), at both the Daily Planet and with Superman, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is Superman’s arch rival, glowering as he conceives a nefarious plan. In addition, there are a handful of brief glimpses of Skyler Gisondo as Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, and Pruitt Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent, Clark’s adoptive father.
These characters have been the foundation of almost every live-action and animated Superman adaptation so far. The last son of Krypton’s rambunctious canine, Krypto the Superdog, is introduced for the first time in the modern era of live-action superhero movies, and he rescues a bloodied and exhausted Superman from the arctic ice.
A number of DC superheroes make their cinematic debuts, and there are also brief glimpses of them. Edi Gathegi plays Mister Terrific, who hovers inside an impervious sphere; Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner, the ruthless Green Lantern corps member who marches towards Superman with a purpose that doesn’t seem friendly; Isabela Merced plays the winged Hawkgirl. The purpose of the teaser is to show that Superman resides in a world filled with superheroes.
There’s a big symbolism behind that for the pic’s writer and director James Gunn. “We do have a battered Superman at the beginning, and I think that is our country,” said the filmmaker at a presser for the trailer Monday. One of the overarching themes in the reboot of the DC superhero on the big screen for Gunn is that it’s “a movie about kindness. It was a movie about being good.”
“I believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this country despite their ideological beliefs or politics are doing their best to get by and are trying to be good people despite what it might seem like to the other side or what that other side might be, and I think this movie is about that.”
Superman will release on July 11, 2025.