James Gunn Is 'giving Up Everything In My Life And Soul' To Make Superman

It’s not easy being tasked with rebooting an entire cinematic universe and reinventing the world’s first and arguably greatest superhero. There are times when it’s safe to say the pressure is weighing on James Gunn, writer and director of 2025’s Superman. He’s tired. Overworked. Miserable, even.

Gunn admits as much in a roundtable interview with reporters invited to the Cleveland, OH set of Superman in June 2025. When asked how he’s handling the balancing act that is directing Superman with spearheading the Creature Commandos animated series and serving as co-CEO of DC Studios, Gunn makes it clear the job isn’t all roses and sunshine.

“Just giving up everything in my life and soul, literally,” Gunn says without betraying a smile. “I'm miserable, frankly. Really, I'm miserable, but hopefully it's for the greater good."

It’s a typically candid admission from a director who’s never been afraid to speak his mind in interviews and online. It’s also one that’s at least somewhat made with tongue planted in cheek - a way of blowing off steam after a hard few weeks on the sweltering hot set. But though Gunn may have been feeling the pressure of the job that day, it’s obvious that he’s deeply passionate about his Superman reboot. There’s a reason he’s giving up body and soul to tell a story about Superman’s lonely quest to promote kindness in an unkind world.

The real takeaway from that roundtable is that Gunn is working to tell a Superman story unlike any fans have seen before on the big screen, one that gives new depth to the dynamic between Clark Kent and Superman. What makes Gunn’s Superman so unique? Here are 10 things we learned about the new movie straight from the director himself.

On Casting Corenswet

Unsurprisingly, one of the greatest challenges with making Superman was finding the right actor to play the Man of Steel. Gunn tells reporters that he followed a similar strategy as he did when casting a then relatively little-known Chris Pratt as Star-Lord in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The goal is to find the absolute best actor for the role, not necessarily the biggest name.

“I've always believed that the casting is the most important and that as long as the actor is the best possible actor for that role, that's more important than it is for a name,” Gunn says. “Especially in today's market, which is you see movie stars are not the same as they used to be in terms of you can't, like what it was 15 years ago, open up a Melissa McCarthy movie. Instantly, you're going to make this much money. Open up an Adam Sandler movie, instantly you're going to make this much money. It's not like that anymore. So I just wanted to go for who was the best Superman.”

Gunn continues, “A lot of people auditioned, and the weird thing is I was so crazily nervous about getting Superman ready, on [the] very first day of the tapes coming in, I had seen [David] Corenswet in Pearl. So … I said, ‘Get him on the tape.’ And then the very first day came in David's tape and Rachel's tape, and I saw both of those and I went, ‘Oh my God, we're going to be okay.’ Because both of these people are amazing. There were other really good actors for both of those roles, but at the end of the day, it was both of them as individuals. Then we did something that I didn't do with Guardians, which is I cast the two leads together and they all came in and we had this 15-minute-long scene that they have to act together and talk and discuss and just communicate. And I mixed and matched all the different couples and it was simple magic when the two of them came up. I got to say, it's one of my greatest moments in filmmaking.”

“It's not just Clark. It's not just Superman. It's Clark/Superman."

Gunn notes that part of the challenge in casting the right lead is that he wasn’t simply looking for a good Superman or a good Clark Kent. He needed an actor who could find that subtle ground between the two and bring it to life.

“It's not just Clark. It's not just Superman. It's Clark/Superman. And the only people that know Clark/Superman are his mom and his dad and a few others who know who he is, and those are very different things,” Gunn says. “People said all sorts of different things. They said, ‘Clark's the real one.’ They said, ‘Superman's the real one and Clark's the secret identity.’ But I don't - and it says it in my script on the second page - I don't believe either of those things. I don't think anybody knows Superman unless they know both of him. And when they know both of him, they know the real guy. And that means not too many people.”

Superman and Lex Luthor Don’t Know Each Other Yet

Gunn has been adamant from the beginning that he has no interest in rehashing Superman’s origin story. He’s as sick of superhero origins as the fans are. Superman is pointedly set several years into Clark Kent’s career as a costumed hero. Corenswet’s Superman is an established hero at this point, though he’s still cultivating the relationships that will come to define him.

One of those relationships is his rivalry with Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. Surprisingly, though this film is set several years after Superman’s initial debut, Clark has yet to really clash with Metropolis’ favorite tech billionaire. The two men are aware of each other’s existence, but only now does Lex begin making moves against the Man of Steel.

“It was about really putting us in the middle of the action from the beginning,” Gunn says. “And there's a lot of these things in this movie now that I've been making it for over a year that I think of as normal. But now when you bring it up, I go, ‘Oh yeah, that's pretty unusual.’ We just start in the middle of the action. Superman's already existing. Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman's guts from the beginning, although they don't know each other personally. So we start right in the middle of the action. It takes place over a short amount of time.”

It’s Less Comedic Than The Suicide Squad and Guardians of the Galaxy

Fans have certainly come to expect a certain type of superhero movie from Gunn in the wake of three Guardians of the Galaxy movies and 2021’s The Suicide Squad. Tonally, those movies are extremely comedic, with plenty of quippy dialogue and a lot of interpersonal banter. Superman isn’t quite that. Gunn makes it clear that while this new film definitely has its humorous moments, the tone is more earnest and fanciful than fans might be expecting.

“It's humorous, but it certainly is not as comic or as much a comedy as either Suicide Squad or Guardians,” Gunn says. “There's plenty of humor in it. People like Rachel [Brosnahan] are so funny and David [Corenswet] is very [funny as well], so there's humor in it, but it's trying to create something that is grounded, but also it's an incredibly fanciful world, it's fantasy, it's taking from other things like Game of Thrones, where it's this universe where superheroes actually exist. What are they like? There's a magic there that's undeniable.”

The Soundtrack Is Less Song-Driven

Similarly, the Guardians movies are notable for their soundtracks, which inject plenty of iconic classic rock tunes into a cosmic sci-fi setting. Superman isn’t following the same approach. While the film will feature a handful of songs (hand-picked by Gunn, naturally), the emphasis is far more on composer John Murphy’s score. That score will invoke the iconic work of John Williams at times, but it also blazes its own trail with the franchise.

“There’s nods to Williams and then also John Murphy's created this incredibly beautiful score,” Gunn says. “But the one thing is it is a score, it's not a soundtrack, so it's not about the songs. There's a few songs in it. And, of course, I chose those songs beforehand, but it isn't like any of my previous movies really in terms of the score is what drives it. It's a much, much more of a score film.”

Superman’s Costume: Trunks or No Trunks?

There’s been a tendency over the past couple of decades to modernize Superman’s appearance by eliminating his costume’s red trunks. That was the approach taken by 2013’s Man of Steel and subsequent DCEU films. But just as the trunks have made a comeback in the comics recently, Gunn is going retro by giving us a Superman who proudly wears his underwear on the outside.

That said, Gunn admits that he himself was divided on the trunks/no trunks debate. Initially, he leaned against including them, until Corenswet made a convincing argument for their inclusion.

“At the end of the day, it wasn't that heated; it was heated for a while,” Gunn said. “I was on the no trunks team for a long time. For a long time. And Zack [Snyder] said that when he was doing it, he tried a billion different trunk versions as we did. And I kept going back to no trunks, no trunks, no trunks. And I'm like, well, let's just grind it out. Let's just keep trying trunks and see what happens. And David said something to me that really affected me. We were trying on all these different versions, and we screened-tested with trunks and no trunks. And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him.”

"He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that."

Gunn continues, “He's an alien. He's got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, can blow the truck over. He's this incredibly powerful, could be considered scary individual and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that. And that really clicked in for me. And I think trying to pretend that Superman's costume doesn't have some frivolity to it at its base, trying to make it look serious is silly because he is a superhero. He's the first one, brightly colored and that's who he is. And so that's where we landed and eventually we all came to a place where almost all of us agreed on the trunks.”

Mister Terrific Is the Most Important Supporting Hero

Superman may be about reintroducing audiences to the Man of Steel, but Superman is hardly the only costumed hero appearing in the film. There’s an entire ensemble cast at play here, including members of the Justice League like Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl, and Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific. Gunn notes that there wasn’t any particular rhyme or reason to which DC characters he included beyond his personal attachments to the characters, though he did reveal that Mister Terrific has the most prominent role in the film.

“I think it was just who I wanted to really [use], honestly,” Gunn says. “I love Mister Terrific. These characters all get their moment in the sun. They all have their moments. They're not just cameos, these are the characters. They're supporting cast, but Mister Terrific is the main character of those characters. He actually has a big part of the plot. And so that was fun. And, of course, getting to work with Nathan is always something, and putting him in a stupid look, and then Isabela is great. I've been a fan of hers for a long time. But it was about balance.”

The Influence of All-Star Superman and Other DC Media

Gunn is adamant that, as much as the film is influenced by previous cinematic incarnations of Superman, it’s also very different from the likes of Richard Donner’s Superman and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. In fact, if any one piece of DC media influenced Gunn’s Superman, it’s Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s seminal graphic novel All-Star Superman.

“I think that all previous DC media influenced me,” Gunn says. “I think that obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there's also a lot of things that this isn't, like I'm just making a Donner-type movie. It's very different from that. Zack [Snyder] did some excellent stuff. So there's a lot of ways that influenced me. There's a lot of ways in which the DC animated universe [influenced me], and then there's a lot of stuff from the comic books - above and beyond anything else, All-Star Superman - that influenced me more than anything. To take that sort of Silver Age feel, that sort of science-fiction approach to it with gadgets, Lex [Luthor] is really a sort of sorcerer in a way. He's a scientist, but he's so good at science and I think of him as like a sorcerer.”

Gunn continues, “So everything [influenced me], and then it's just something that's completely us. The relationship between David and Rachel’s [characters] on screen is something I don't think we've seen in – I hate to say stuff like this – but I don't think it's something we've ever seen [in] any superhero movie ever.”

Why the Lois/Clark Dynamic Is Different

When asked to elaborate on why exactly the Lois/Clark dynamic is so different in this movie, Gunn hinted that we’ll see new sides to their relationship as the film explores what it’s like for a crusading reporter to strike up a friendship with a powerful alien from another world.

“It's a complicated relationship and we really get into it and there's long scenes that are about their relationship and the way they relate and what it would be like for a person, who's this incredibly intelligent, strong-headed, stubborn, skeptical journalist, to have a relationship with someone who can lift a skyscraper.”

Does that mean Lois knows Superman’s secret identity? Gunn was cagey on that question, though he did confirm that, unlike Superman and Lex, the two have an existing relationship coming into the movie.

“Well, we'll see,” Gunn teases. “She knows who Superman is.”

Superman Doesn’t Seek to Set Up Other Projects

There’s a lot riding on Superman as the first, foundational pillar of a new cinematic universe. Gunn and fellow DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran have an entire roadmap plotted out, one dubbed “Gods and Monsters.” But though the new DCU will get a lot bigger from here, Gunn is adamant that he’s not using Superman as a platform to tease future movies. Every scene in the film is there to serve the film, and there won’t be many moments that overtly lay seeds for other DCU projects.

“Zero. Zero. I mean, maybe two little things, two moments, but basically if something's there just to set up something else, f*** it. I even say that,” Gunn says. “And for all I know, those things can be cut by the time we get to the editing room because something has to exist for this movie. And if that works in tandem with setting up characters that exist in other media, then that's great. If this sets up stuff in Peacemaker, which it does, then that's great. But that is never, ever, ever, with me, going to be something [that] I'm going to sacrifice even a moment or a beat in a story for, especially a movie. With TV, you've got a little bit more leniency to be able to do that. But in a movie, every beat has to be in there for the movie itself.”

Gunn explains that he wants the movie to be able to stand on its own feet without moviegoers needing to worry about having seen anything else prior or wondering what comes next. He teased that future DCU movies may start to include more teases for the wider DCU, but ultimately, the goal remains the same.

“Everything needs to stand by itself. I don't want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else."

“Everything needs to stand by itself,” Gunn says. “I don't want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else. Now listen, once we get down the line, that may change a little bit. In Guardians, what did you have to see in Guardians 3 to really understand it? You'd be better off seeing the first two Guardians, but even Infinity War, [the characters] explained it in an elevator, the whole plot. It's like trying to keep things as simple as possible so you don't have to have homework, especially TV shows that some people aren't into.”

Gunn continues, “Now, are seeds being planted? Yes, there's seeds being planted, but that is never going to be the predominant thing in any scene for me. It's always about getting to the next scene. What's in the moment? How are we making this movie the best we can be? And it's going to stay like that as much as I can possibly make it like that.”

Why the Title Changed

Early on, Gunn’s Superman carried the title “Superman: Legacy,” before it was shortened to simply “Superman.” Gunn reveals that while the film certainly still explores the legacy theme, he decided early in production that the simpler approach was the right one.

“We do this thing called the pre-mortem before we start shooting,” Gunn says. “You ever hear of this? It's great. We go into a room with me and all the department heads and we say, let's say this movie is a colossal f***-up. We find out two years from now when this movie comes out, it goes terribly wrong. What are we doing right now that we're not talking about [that’s] making this movie wrong? It gives a chance for all of the parties involved to speak their mind, whether it's about the script, whether it's about the casting, whether it's about how departments aren't communicating with each other. Everybody is allowed, from transportation to whatever, they're all allowed to say what they think. And I found it extremely helpful.”

Gunn continues, “And one of the things was I thought maybe the title was had a looking-back feeling about it. And this isn't about looking back, this is about looking forward, so, although when you see the movie, you'll understand where Legacy comes from because it is, again, it's about Clark and his relationship to his Kryptonian parents and his relationship to his human parents and whose legacy is he really? And so it's about that.”

Superman hits theaters on July 11, 2025.

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For more on the future of the DCU, check out the first theatrical poster for Superman and brush up on every DC movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.