Superman's first DCU video game will actually be a theme park ride

Defenders Unite won't be coming to Xbox, PlayStation, or iOS, but if you're in LA, you can play it

Superman has never been more powerful — but will video games forever be his Kryptonite? Warner Bros. and DC hope the answer lies in scale rather than traditional consoles.

On April 18, also known as Superman Day in dorky circles, WB will launch Superman Experience: Defenders Unite, a new “walkthrough experience and live gameplay attraction” built on the WB lot in Burbank, California. According to a news release, Defenders Unite “offers guests the ability to unlock and hone their superpowers, work as a team, and enjoy the illusion of flying alongside Superman through next-generation motion capture technology, active 3D glasses, and high-definition audio.” Guests will also have their “scores logged” while training and fighting to make sure there’s a winner who can make fun of the losers at the end of the experience.

Yup, that’s a game — right in line with the rise of gamified rides. Disneyland’s Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters walked so big-budget park games like Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run could run. On paper, Defenders Unite sounds similar to California Adventure’s Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, a bazillion dollar dark-ride version of a Nex Playground game, with more walking than riding. Considering Warner Bros.’ only theme park footprint is in Abu Dhabi, it makes sense for some of the studio’s illustrious lot space to become a kind of pop-up park space for a hot fad in ride tech. And there’s plenty to capitalize on.

Shepherded by new DC Studios head honcho James Gunn, the Man of Steel successfully leaped the tall building of audience superhero fatigue in a single bound with 2025’s Superman, with a worldwide gross that immediately earned it a sequel in 2027’s Man of Tomorrow. David Corenswet’s Clark Kent will also appear, albeit briefly, in this summer’s spinoff Supergirl, part of the larger extended "DCU." And Superman still reigns supreme in the comics, in cartoons, and in toy aisles. Even a merger with Skydance Paramount doesn’t seem like much of a threat to Gunn’s momentum.

The real question is whether WB has produced something worth writing home about or cobbled a quick experience together to compete with whatever is going on at the Netflix House. Doing right by Superman in the games space — even if it’s not a typical AAA console experience — is a risk worth taking, but a risk. As Polygon detailed in a sweeping 2024 report, no one can crack the all-powerful flying Kryptonian and no one seems helpful that anyone will. Plenty of us still have the sour taste of Superman 64 in our mouths.

There’s certainly fan hunger for what Superman Experience: Defenders Unite might offer until Warner Bros. (and Skydance Paramount?) get WB Games back on track. Unreal Engine fan videos imagining a third-person Superman game have melted plenty of brains over the last decade. “If this was done by one person I can’t imagine what a whole studio can do,” one YouTube commenter uttered with jaw on floor in response to one fan footage reel.

WB developed Superman Experience: Defenders Unite with New Peak Interactive, the team behind the Harry Potter Magic Caster Wand. It’s also not the only interactive game on display at the full Superman lot experience: Visitors will also have a chance to try a Doghouse of Solitude minigame that involves playing catch with Krypto, and a “two-player puzzle game where guests can activate the Phantom Zone Projector.” But the main event is Defenders Unite, which takes inspiration from the Gunn film, but pits his version of Superman against the big bad Darkseid (who has yet to be established in the DCU). That’s catnip. Is it good? Well, it’s a Superman video game — we’ll see.

The Superman Experience opens on April 18, with tickets now available.