‘Superman’: Five Takeaways From The Trailer
The new era of the DC Universe is here. This morning saw the release of the trailer for Superman, the first live-action film since James Gunn and Peter Safran took over as co-CEOs and co-chairmen of DC Studios. As we’ve mentioned, the animated show, Creature Commandos, which just started airing on Max earlier this month, represented a somewhat raunchy “soft launch” of the new era of DC. The show was written and created by Gunn, but he worked on the show before he and Safran were named the co-CEOs/co-chairmen of DC.
Superman — which at one point was supposed to be titled “Superman: Legacy” — was written and directed by Gunn, who recast the role of Superman/Clark Kent/Kal-El with David Corenswet, effectively “deleting” the previous Superman films and their storylines. Gunn has said that this film doesn’t retell his origin, and that some knowledge of Superman and his mythos is assumed.
Yesterday, DC released a teaser to promote the trailer, but today, we got a full so-called “teaser trailer,” which clocked in at two minutes and nineteen seconds. Here are our thoughts on the first real look at the new Superman and the new DC Universe.
- Superman isn’t totally invulnerable. One of the problems with superheroes as powerful as Superman is that it’s tough to come up with compelling threats. (Indeed, in the Marvel Universe, the Russo Brothers didn’t include Thor or Hulk in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War: they are simply too powerful and they would have thrown off the drama; the film was more of a human conflict.) But the first scene we see here is Superman being knocked for a loop; he crash lands in the snow, likely in the Arctic. He’s bruised and bleeding and his breath is labored.
- The film pays tribute to 1978’s Superman: We hear an electric guitar playing John Williams’ main theme to Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman film, which starred Christopher Reeve. We know that Will Reeve, Christopher’s son, who is an ABC News correspondent in real life, will make a cameo in the film.
- Krypto is a good boy! There’s very little dialogue in the trailer, but we see the beaten Superman whistle, and Krypto (aka Superdog!) come to his side. Superman says, “Krypto: home. Take me home!” We later see Krypto dragging him through the snow by his cape. He appears to be a superpowered dog, but either he can’t fly, or hasn’t learned that he can fly yet.
- First glimpse at some of the other DC Heroes: Although Gunn has said this is a self-contained story, he is using Superman to introduce some other DC characters: we see Guy Gardner, a very abrasive member of the Green Lantern Corps (played by Nathan Fillon), Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi’s Michael Holt/Mister Terrific, and possibly Anthony Carrigan’s Rex Mason/Metamorpho, a shapeshifter. We also see Nicholas Holt’s Lex Luthor, and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane.
- Superman is a divisive figure: We see a young boy, in what appears to be a war zone, holding up a makeshift flag with Superman’s “S” logo, as he whispers, “Superman, Superman.” But we also see a scene where Superman is walking through a crowd that appears angry and doesn’t like him.
Superman hits theaters on July 11. Watch the trailer below.
