In the five months since James Gunn revealed the title and early plans for his Superman sequel, fans have been treated to a steady stream of updates from the director, even if many are the updates are just to point out rumors that are off-base, or to justify why he hasn’t cast the DCU’s Batman yet. (Not exactly a Man of Tomorrow update, but still.) Now, Gunn has shined a bit of light on what influenced his take on the sequel’s villain Brainiac.
Since the point when Brainiac was fully confirmed and Lars Eidinger was cast to play him (even before that, really), the rumor mill was maxed out with fan-suggested comic book storylines that James Gunn would supposedly be using in the upcoming superhero movie. So when one fan asked him directly on Threads about whether a particular arc was a direct inspiration, the director decided to personally weigh in with some clarification.
Specifically the follower wondered whether the 1992 crossover event “Panic in the Sky” served as a lead-in inspiration to Man of Tomorrow, given that the story revolves around Brainiac and includes the rumored-for-live-action Maxima, not to mention it being Superman’s first chance in the post-Crisis continuity to head up a bigger group of heroes. While complimentary about the story in general, Gunn pointed out that his live-action Brainiac isn’t based on any one specific iteration.
Fun story but not really, no. More specifically: I read almost every Brainiac story to put Brainiac in MoT together and used bits and pieces I thought worked best. But PitS wasn't a key influence on the story.
On the one hand, that's a pretty clear bummer for that fan and anyone else with grand hopes and ideals about Man of Tomorrow bringing "Panic in the Sky" to life like never before, since this was the best shot possible for that story to get spun into a different medium. But on the other, I always tend to agree with the advantages of pulling character traits from a variety of different eras in a hero or villain's past.
If every live-action Superman only looked back to Christopher Reeve for inspriation, then there wouldn't be any measurable difference from one actor's performance to the next. But having a variety of inspirations and touchstones to lean into tends to make for fresher and more rewatchable storytelling. We also shouldn't expect Eidinger to mirror Supergirl's take on Brainiac 5 or any of the animated versions of the brilliant villian, but to rise up and make the character his own.
When Man of Tomorrow arrives, fans will be watching David Corenswet's Man of Steel partnering up with Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor to bring Brainiac down, and I cannot wait to see how those conversations happen. (Especially if Martian Manhunter actually IS in the movie.)
Barring any global catastrophes, Superman: Man of Tomorrow will hit theaters well after the 2026 release scendule is over, on July 9, 2027.
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