Though equipped with a genius intellect, Herculean strength and the ability to fly, Superman’s defining quality is, of course, his invulnerability.
And yet, in the opening moments of the first official trailer for director James Gunn’s highly anticipated reboot of the “Superman” — which arrives July 11, 2025 — the Man of Steel is shown incapacitated, bleeding from his mouth, and stranded in the snow amid a desolate mountain range.
“I think that was important to be able to see that he’s up against something which can hurt him,” Gunn, 58, told the Star in a group Zoom interview.
Fortunately, our hero, played for the first time David Corenswet — a little-known but sturdily handsome American actor who looks like he was created by a “Clark Kent” AI prompt — is rescued by his Krypto, Superman’s pet dog, who comes rumbling through the icy tundra to save the day.
“Krypto probably comes off as a better dog in the trailer than he is in the movie,” Gunn joked about the role of the scrappy white (and clearly CGI-rendered) canine, which he said is based on his own dog Ozu. “You love him because, you know, he’s a dog and how can you not? And he’s got the cute, innocent eyes,” Gunn added with a laugh, “but he’s a terrible dog.”
The newly released two-minute trailer — not to be confused with the film’s first official “teaser,” a 30-second clip released to drum up excitement on Wednesday — offers a two-minute action-packed glimpse into a movie that Gunn said combines the traditional Silver Age esthetics with modern storytelling.
“I wanted it to be something that was the essence of Superman, that was the Superman that I grew up with, that I loved, but also something new at the same time,” said Gunn, a filmmaker best known as the writer and director behind the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise and 2021’s “The Suicide Squad.”
Produced by Warner Brothers and DC Studios — a production company that Gunn and producer Peter Safran have run since 2022 — the film will be the first “Superman” set within the DC Universe. It will be the first major release featuring Superman since Zak Snyder’s 2017 film “Justice League,” and the first movie to focus on Superman as the main character since Snyder’s 2013 film “Man of Steel.” Henry Cavill played the main character in both films.
Within the world of superhero movies, the stakes are extra-high for Gunn’s new franchise. Though fans have long debated whether films set in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) or the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) are better, the latter has long dominated at the box office: Marvel has claimed nine of the 10 highest grossing movies overall.
In addition to relative newcomer Corsenwet (“Twisters,” “The Politician”), the film also stars Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) as Lois Lane and an exquisitely bald Nicholas Hoult (“X-Men,” “Mad Max”) as Superman’s arch-enemy Lex Luthor (“a mad science sorcerer,” as Gunn described him).
“David and Rachel were incredible individually, but when we brought them together, there was an electricity in the room that was palpable,” Gunn said about the casting of his two leads.
“Part of it’s the steaminess, the sexiness of it, but part of it’s just the way they bounce off of each other, the way that ‘40s movie stars do … it’s like this really miraculous energy between the two of them.”
As for the actual plot of the film, details are scarce. On Monday, DC shared the first “synopsis” of the film, though it’s mostly just a word salad that describes the protagonist as a hero “driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.” There may be some more details revealed in the trailer, but I was only able to watch it once ahead of the embargo, so I can mostly just recall a blur of sometimes garish CGI action shots and random characters who could be good or evil (Mister Terrific, played by Edi Gathegi (“For All Mankind”), also makes an appearance).
Gunn told reporters that the film does have a surprisingly strong focus on the world of journalism: Clark and Lois both work as reporters for the Daily Planet newspaper in the fictional Metropolis.
“I think you’re gonna be freaked out by how much journalism takes a part of this movie,” he said. “Lois is as good at journalism as Superman is at protecting the world, and so this is an important part of the film. And I think that Lois Lane is someone who is going to be admired by boys and girls around the world for her pursuit of the truth and her strength in that.”
Could Superman be viewed as a symbol of hope?
“At the end of the day, most of us are trying to do our best, and most of us are making the best choices we can for ourselves and trying to do things compassionately. And I know that’s hard to believe in this time when everything is so black and white on the internet in terms of what’s good, and what’s bad … But I would hope that Superman does unify us a little bit because he is just about those core values that I think everyone believes in, or not everyone, but almost everyone believes in.”
