Warner Bros. Pictures
James Gunn's hotly anticipated "Superman" (watch the first trailer) is still well over six months away from hitting theaters. That means we're currently at the stage where, as with any major summer movie tentpole this far out from arriving, studios tend to tease rather than give much of anything substantial away. Right now, you just want to get the film on moviegoers' radars with some eye-catching imagery, maybe a villain reveal, and then save the much more revealing official trailer for March or April.
Gunn's "Superman" ain't playin' that, though. I don't know if it's because Warner Bros. and DC Studios have been mostly taking it on the chin since Christopher Nolan concluded his Batman trilogy, or the fact that the last two standalone Superman movies — "Superman Returns" and, to a lesser degree, "Man of Steel" — have been commercial disappointments, but the two companies are in hard-sell mode eight months out. The new "Superman" trailer is awash in big character reveals and action. Lois Lane! Lex Luthor! Krytpo! Guy Gardner? Damn right, Guy Gardner! The whole movie can't be this stuffed with wow moments, but it is reassuring that so much of it is brightly colored and, y'know, fun! Matt Reeves' "The Batman" was solid and "The Penguin" was surprisingly great, but we dearly need a reprieve from the darkness. "Superman" seems to be promising just that.
It's also promising introductions to secondary villains who likely will figure into future DC Universe movies like "The Brave and the Bold" and "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow." Some of these intros are buried in the trailer, but eagle-eyed members of the DC Comics fandom have picked over the trailer frame-by-frame and highlighted them for the rest of us to ponder. And one of these villains is an old chum of the Scarlet Speedster himself.
James Gunn's DC Universe will bring the Gorilla Grodd goods
Warner Bros. Animation
It's just a solitary, blink-and-miss-it image printed on a newspaper, but it looks like Gunn's DC Universe will feature some manner of involvement from the great and powerful Gorilla Grodd. See for yourself below (courtesy of Comicodigy on Twitter/X):
Gorilla Grodd also appeared on a newspaper in the #Superman trailer pic.twitter.com/KgRqeRYAC4
— Comicodigy (@comicodigy) December 19, 2024
Who is Gorilla Grodd? Why he's just a hyper-intelligent ape capable of mind control who's hellbent on world domination. He's been stomping around DC comic books, animated series, and television shows since 1959, and while he's mostly caused trouble for The Flash (a character whose role in Gunn's DCU remains to be determined), he's also made trouble for Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Ambush Bug, among others.
We've no idea what Grodd will get up to in Gunn's DCU, but the fact that his movies will have room for, again, a gorilla with psychic powers is a balm to the soul. Superhero movies need characters as out there as Gorilla Grodd. They need to overflow with silly, splash-page inventiveness. Grodd brought precisely this in the DC animated universe (via the voice of the great Powers Boothe), so I can't wait to see what kind of havoc he'll wreak in a live-action movie.
"Superman" soars into theaters on July 11, 2025.
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