When Superman started kissing the football on a stick, it all clicked together. The day was June 24, 2024 and io9 was in Cleveland to watch the filming of James Gunn’s Superman. At the end of a giant battle over the streets of Metropolis, the Man of Steel knelt down to kiss and profess his love to an inanimate object that special effects would later transform into his dog, Krypto. That little dash of heartfelt weirdness, in the middle of a massive action scene, did a near-perfect job of showing what the film’s cast and crew had been trying to articulate all day: this is not just a unique, new Superman, it’s James Gunn’s Superman.
Superman is coming to theaters July 11 but last summer it was day 65 of 88, about two-thirds of the way through production. That production that started in Norway then went to Atlanta had now hit the streets of Cleveland, a city that’s both ripe with Superman history (character creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came up with the character there) and also had just the right look to stand in for Gunn’s Metropolis. It’s here where the exteriors of the Daily Planet were filmed, where several blocks were shut down and redecorated with all manner of cars, rubble, and extras, standing in for the giant climactic battle between Superman, his friends, and Lex Luthor. Or so we guessed.
Over a year from release, almost everyone involved that we spoke with—writer-director James Gunn, and stars David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Wendell Pierce, Skyler Gisondo, Beck Bennett, Sara Sampaio, Mikaela Hoover, and more—were very cautious about what could, and couldn’t, be revealed. But in between the lines was the message that Gunn is making a Superman movie about a character who is struggling. He’s struggling to find a legacy between his Earth and Kryptonian roots, struggling to make a meaningful relationship with Lois Lane, and of course struggling to fight some kind of world-ending threat that may or may not have to do with tech billionaire Lex Luthor hoping to rid Earth of his archnemesis.
Lois and Clark, I mean Superman, on the streets of Metropolis – WBWhatever the story is actually about, it’s focused and direct. The film takes place over the span of about a week and picks up in a world where superheroes have existed for centuries and Superman is already a hero. “Superman already exists. 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,” Gunn said.
Corenswet loved that as a place to start his character, one he could potentially be playing for a long, long time. “The way I think you learn about a character is watching what strategies they employ to overcome whatever their big problem is to begin with, and how they react, how their spirit reacts, how they react when they they fail, when they fall short, when their strategy doesn’t work. And that’s the whole opening sequence of this movie,” the new Superman said.
“You’re seeing Superman right in the middle of a big fight, the fight of his life at that point, although he’ll have bigger ones later. And really throwing everything he’s got at this fight and very few things are working … it’s really seeing a character who … a lot of people think of as invincible and impervious and always optimistic and hopeful. And you’re seeing him in a moment where all of that is being very heavily tested. And so, as a moment to meet the character and especially where he doesn’t really overcome … to have that be the jumping off point for the rest of the story was really fun because it leaves you everywhere to go.”
From there, in typical Superman fashion, the film will feature the character as Superman, Clark Kent, and interestingly enough, a version best described as “Clark Superman”—a take where the character’s identity is known. Corenswet says most of his time is as Superman himself but it’s pretty split throughout the film. “It’s a lot of Superman and a small but significant amount of Clark,” he said. “And then there’s a, I don’t know, 20% of a middle ground where he’s either with people who know both of his identities or with people as Superman, where he’s not really performing as Superman. He’s not in public as Superman, so there’s more of Clark in that Superman than there is normally. And then there are a couple of moments where as Clark, he is with somebody who also knows that he’s Superman, but first he’s Clark. These would be like scenes with Ma and Pa Kent where he’s not pretending to be Clark. He’s not his character of Clark, but he’s more the boy who grew up than he is the superhero that everybody sees.”
The Daily Planet trio – WBOver the course of multiple decades, movies, actors, directors, and more, everyone has seen all those versions of Superman and more. To bring something different to the character and vibe of the film, Gunn made sure his star was very well-versed in All-Star Superman, the 2005 comic series written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Frank Quitely. It was a huge inspiration for the filmmaker as well as the actor.
“The thing that I found in that was the gentle nerdiness of Superman,” Corenswet said. “I love seeing when he goes into his Fortress of Solitude that he’s got a man cave. Not in the way that… it’s not a Bat Cave. He’s got his technology and stuff, but it’s mostly all of these relics and fun things that he’s gotten to collect because he does what he does. And he wants to show them off to Lois because he can’t show them off to many people because he’s not supposed to. That sort of… the gentle loneliness of that, but without any sense of dark brooding, just like brimming with excitement about the things that he gets to do and collect. And wanting to bring other people into that and just not being able to.”
While that specific scene isn’t in the movie itself, the Fortress of Solitude definitely is, as is Superman’s friend and love interest, Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. Their relationship is front and center from the very beginning and, on set in 2024, everyone was very careful about revealing too many specifics about it. However, we now know from marketing that Lois is aware of Superman’s secret identity for most of the film. And that revelation brings a lot of context to how Gunn described their relationship last year.
“I don’t think it’s something we’ve ever seen in any superhero movie ever,” Gunn said about his two leads. “It’s a complicated relationship and we really get into it. There are 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.”
“Yeah, I think it’s pretty special,” Brosnahan, best known for her award-winning role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, said in agreement. “There have been so many wonderfully iconic versions of this relationship. And I do think that this particular film is honoring the mythology and the lore that’s been built before, but it’s swinging the lens to look at it from a slightly different angle at a slightly different point in time.”
Lex and Superman in Lex’s office – WBLois Lane is never just about her relationship with Clark Kent or Superman, though, and that’s no different in this version. Brosnahan is bringing a grounded nature to the character, a hard-hitting journalist who has a very distinct perspective on Superman and his place in this world. “She’s hungry for that front page, always,” she said. “And there’s a big story that unfolds over the course of this movie that she becomes embroiled in. I think she appreciates Superman’s existence, and then sometimes has questions about his methodology. I think she’s somebody who sees around every corner and questions everything and everyone.”
Another person who sees every angle from every direction is Lex Luthor. We’ve seen many versions of Lex over the years but this one has more going on than most. Though he’s still that billionaire tech genius on the outside, this Lex goes much deeper. “One of the things I really love about this version of Lex is that all his beliefs and fears are what drive him” Hoult said. “But in some ways that drive is real and what he is weary of, what Superman represents, is something that could be a real danger and threat to humanity … his beliefs and almost his love of humanity and this idea that they should be master of their own fate and destiny is important to him. [While] the rest of society has kind of fallen into this path of trusting Superman, believing in Superman.”
Among the people who believe in Superman, of course, is James Gunn himself. Gunn is not just the writer and director, he’s also the co-president of DC Films, meaning he has more than a little riding on the success of this movie. And so, he feels, Superman is something a bit more elevated than the previous comic book movies he’s known for. “I start with a place that’s very hopeful, fun, but incredibly grim, incredibly serious, all at the same time. It’s humorous, but it certainly is not as comic, or as much a comedy as either Suicide Squad or Guardians,” he said.
Gunn and his Superman on set – WBBrosnanan put an even finer point on Gunn’s film. “It feels hopeful rather than explicitly comedic to me,” she said. “I think one of the things I love about so many of these movies is that they’re a real shot in the arm of hope. It reminds you the reason people love comic books is because they teach us that superheroes aren’t the only superheroes. They aren’t the only ones with important powers in these worlds. They remind us the importance of courage and tenacity and interest in each other’s well-being… A lot of these movies, you know, the best Batman movies were such a specific representation of these comics at a specific moment in time. And I think part of the reason they were so successful is because they felt like what we needed. So the hope is that this version is the Superman movie right now.”
Right now, on the set of Superman, a whole block of downtown Cleveland is closed off and covered with Metropolis emergency vehicles. There are piles of rubble everywhere, smoking cars, giant blue screens standing in for landing spaceships. And, at one point, seemingly the entire cast reuniting for what must have been the very end of the film. We can’t hear what they’re saying. We do know that there are well over 100 Easter eggs in the film, with seemingly every street, store, van and Post-It note in the movie given careful consideration as a little treat for audiences. Oh, and there’s also a man who can leap tall buildings in a single bound, kneeling down, kissing a rubber football on a stick, and saying he loves it. Yup, this is a James Gunn Superman movie all right.
Superman opens in theaters July 11. Warner Bros. provided travel and accommodations to Cleveland for this story.
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