James Gunn on Superman as the ultimate U.S. immigrant, and a hero for the whole world

James Gunn’s Superman hits different.

All the key Superman characters are there, and they’ll be fresh but familiar to anyone who’s seen the movies or read the comics — Superman/Clark Kent and his rural Kansas parents (and ghost Krypton parents), Lois Lane and her Daily Planet co-workers, and Lex Luthor — but the sheer number of additional good guys and bad guys, Luthor’s levelled up mad science, the “Clois” romance and the fact that you’re immediately thrown into the action in a fully established world make for a more exciting experience at the movies than we’ve had with Superman or almost any superhero franchise in years (with the exception of Spider-Man and the Spiderverse). It’s also an adaptation that feels relevant in 2025, one doesn’t shy away from reflecting the political hellscape of the moment.

“Gods and Monsters” is the first chapter for the new DC Studios, co-run by Gunn and producer Peter Safran. Its soft launch happened last December with Gunn’s animated series Creature Commandos, which features a lot of elements typical of his approach to superheroes and anti-heroes. From the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy to The Suicide Squad to its spin-off Peacemaker series, the show focuses on a team of messy but mostly well-intentioned meta people that are either cocky egomaniacs, bizarro nerds or long-suffering women who must work with all of them. And then there are the scrappy animals or sassy hybrid creatures who are always at the forefront of the story. All of this is present in Superman, too, particularly the latter in the form of Krypto, who provides a fair amount of humour and plot-driving in the film just by being a bad dog. Krypto was rendered in very convincing CGI, but he’s a replica of Gunn’s own dog Ozu — a rescue pet with resulting personality issues. Part of the genesis of this film was the thought, “What if Ozu had superpowers?”

But this isn’t a satirical, post-modern or jokey Guardians-style take on Superman. Adapting the world of the original superhero (especially after Zack Snyder’s DCEU and the MCU have died and largely fallen out of favour, respectively) required a certain level of attention to authenticity and an ability to meet a wide range of comics and movie fans where they are. Finding the person to portray such an iconic pop culture figure was next-level pressure for Gunn. Though he’d completed his Superman script in early 2023, he was by no means committed to going forward if casting didn’t pan out.

“When I started casting, I said to Peter Safran, ‘If we can’t find a great Superman — not good, but great — we can’t make this movie.’ There’s a way we think of Superman, in a physical way, so he has to match that. But he also has to really have the dramatic chops, the comedic chops and the athletics and all the different things that he exhibits in the movie. And I wasn’t necessarily sure that this person existed in the world. We were really nervous, and David Corenswet was the second audition I saw on tape! (laughs) So right away, I was like, ‘Okay, well we got this guy and everything else is gravy.’”

As for the pairing of Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult (who plays Lex Luthor), Gunn was reassured from the early days on set that he’d succeeded at casting the perfect enemies.

“I know the exact moment that that happened with Lex and Superman. We did a costume test with all the cast coming in in their costumes. It was so fun because they were all just playing around, but there was a moment when Nick and David came in. David was in a Superman costume and Nick was in his full-fledged Thin White Duke purple outfit and they sat there, face to face, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ There have been great Supermen and maybe one good Lex Luthor, but I don’t know if there’s ever been such a good Lex and Superman together.”

Corenswet went through a series of auditions, screen tests and meetings to make sure he was right for the role, according to Gunn, who sought out a reference from Pearl director Ty West “to make sure that he wasn’t a giant jerk, which he was not.” Corenswet played the small but crucial role of the projectionist in West’s 2022 horror film, and last year’s Twisters reboot is Corenswet’s only other proper big-screen role prior to Superman. He’s better known for more substantial parts in two Ryan Murphy Netflix series, The Politician (wherein his character is told that he looks like Superman, setting off a real-life fan-casting campaign as early as 2019) and Hollywood.

“I love him as a person and I also love him in the movie,” Gunn says, noting that Corenswet’s nerdier tendencies — a Star Wars obsession, listening almost exclusively to vintage jazz, being ignorant of current trends — are a great fit for this role.

“He’s very much like Superman. He’s Boy-Scouty. He’s just a very odd person, and I think that works really well for him playing an alien from outer space.”

The more contemporary conception of Superman as a Kryptonian immigrant who might pose a problem for the U.S. government — an element of more recent comics, the new film and the “Snyderverse” — is in stark contrast to the Superman of the “truth, justice and the American way” period, which represented the hero as an arm of the U.S. government. That catch-phrase dates back to World War II-era radio serials and early TV shows — back when the U.S. was fighting Nazis instead of putting fascists in power. According to Gunn, who had just returned to L.A. after massive fan events to promote the film in Manila and Rio when we spoke, DC Studios’ consultation found that Superman is now embraced as “the world’s hero.”

“That’s how he’s looked at in Asia, that’s how he’s looked at in Canada, that’s how he’s looked at all around the world. He’s not Captain America. He is Superman and he protects the entire world, and that was refreshing to discover, actually, ’cause I didn’t want to put out something that was just about the United States.”

One notable difference between this iteration of Superman and previous versions of the “Man of Steel” is that he is not invincible. The film begins as the teaser trailer did, with Superman crashing to the ground, bloody and wheezing. When that first look at the film was released in December, Gunn noted that that was the state his country was in at the time — and things have only gotten worse in the interim, for the U.S. and globally.

“It’s not only in politics, but there’s a general malaise right now, and a lot of the excitement for this film is, sadly, because people aren’t feeling great about the state of the world. They want to see something positive. I didn’t really foresee that being the case, although of course, there was a lot of negative stuff happening while we were making the movie, too. People don’t trust a lot of the people in power, and people don’t feel that some of these leaders have their best interests in mind. People want Superman to exist. He doesn’t, sadly, but at least we can see him in a movie.”

Without getting into any spoilers (a lot of effort has been put into not revealing the film’s actual plot), Superman deals directly with disillusionment in leaders and authority figures, and in corruption and nefarious motives among tech barons and world leaders. Though the President of the United States is never seen, an edit during the first proper Superman trailer fuelled speculation that evil genius Lex Luthor is the president in the film — which wouldn’t be much of a stretch from reality, at least on the evil side of the equation (the genius side is extremely wide of the mark), or in terms of authenticity to the source material, because there is a Superman comic where Luthor becomes president. Don’t rule it out — Gunn’s partner Peter Safran recently stated that Luthor will be “a very important character” in the DCU.

Before letting Gunn get to more interviews at the L.A. Superman junket, I had to ask him about his experiences in Montreal.

“I love Montreal, I love it so much! The second film festival I ever went to was with Tromeo and Juliet in 1996 at the Fantasia Film Festival with Mitch and the gang in Montreal, and oh my gosh it was so fun.

“I have tried poutine, and I’ve tried poutine in different cities because I understand that you guys have a rivalry going on over who makes the best poutine, and I can say this solely for the Montreal audience, that Montreal’s poutine is the best. Although I have a lot of friends in Vancouver — ’cause I’ve shot a lot of films there — and they’re going to revile me for that statement.” ■

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Superman opens in Montreal theatres on Friday, July 11.

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