Superman is at a low point when audiences first glimpse him in the trailer for his new movie. Bloody and bruised, he crash lands in a frozen landscape. His breathing is labored, like he’s got fluid in his lungs, or maybe some broken ribs.
Then, there is hope on the horizon — in the form of his trusty friend, Krypto. “Take me home,” Superman says to his canine friend, later in the trailer (below).
It’s one of only two spoken lines in the piece — the other is a young boy, eyes closed and holding a makeshift flag who mutters “Superman, Superman” in desperate hope — but it’s a line that points to a hope writer-director James Gunn wanted to imbue his new film.
Created in 1939, Superman for decades embodied his motto, “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” with the character serving as a symbol for the good things America could represent for the world. That notion has become more complicated in recent years, leading DC to officially drop the motto, in favor of “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow” in 2021.
During a trailer launch event for the press on Monday on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, Gunn was asked how he incorporated the decency Superman can represent for America and the rest of the world into the movie
“I think that’s what ‘Take me home is all about,’” Gunn said. “We do have sort of a battered vision of Superman at the beginning, and I think that is our country. I believe in the goodness of human beings, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like for the other side, no matter what that other side might be,” continued Gunn.
There is much riding on Superman, which arrives July 11 as the first solo movie for the character since 2013’s Man of Steel. It is the cornerstone property for DC Studios co-chiefs Gunn and Peter Safran, who have an entire universe of TV and films planned after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hired them with the mandate to re-invent DC. Thus, the team is already doing everything it can to build excitement, including the early reception with the press that also included stars David Corenswet (Superman), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
Corenswet, who came up on Ryan Murphy shows such as Hollywood and The Politician, acknowledged that he sometimes did not feel like Superman on the set, but watching castmates’ react to him told him all he needed to know.
“It’s like when you get a nice haircut, and you forget about it, but then you walk around and everybody’s like, ‘Whoa, you look great, for once!’” he said to laughs. “I got to see other people see Superman.”
That’s something Brosnahan experienced first-hand. After spending a chunk of the shoot only interacting with Corenswet without the suit, she came across him in the costume for the first time. Turning to the actor on the screening room stage Monday, Brosnahan said: “I just remember … walking through a field and following you with the suit on. I ran up to you and was like, ‘You are fucking Superman! Crazy.”
A hero is only as interesting as their villain, and Hoult said the script from Gunn presented Lex Luthor he believes audiences may relate to.
“Even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, there’s an element where you can understand on some levels where he’s coming from and why perhaps what he’s pushing as his ideology is perhaps better for humanity,” said Hoult.
The trailer also gave glimpses of the other superheroes in that world, including Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (dopey haircut and all), Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl and Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific.
Gunn is known for bringing beloved animals to the screen, such as Rocket Raccoon, who was the central figure in last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
With Krypto, he may have done it again, with a version that subverts the decades-long version seen in the comics and other media as a clean-cut canine with his chest out. This one looks more like a rescue than anything else. Of the trailer’s canine scene-stealer, says Gunn: “He’s not nearly the best dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”
As for the themes of the movie, Gunn said, “it’s a movie about kindness.”
— Borys Kit contributed to this story.