I Didn’t See The One Superman Change James Gunn Made Thanks To Smallville Coming

I thought I’d clocked every major swing James Gunn took with his 2025 take on Superman. The brighter tone. The emphasis on optimism. The quiet promise that this wasn’t going to be another grim reboot pretending hope was a liability. I watched closely. Or at least, I thought I had — until Gunn slipped in a Universe change so small, so nerdy, and so deeply rooted in the hit 2000s television show Smallville that it caught me entirely off guard.

In a response to a fan on Threads, Gunn confirmed that the decision to swap out the familiar “LexCorp” for “LuthorCorp” was a decision he directly credits to Smallville. The fan had written:

If that made your brain light up, you’re not alone. After the fan thanked Gunn for the change, Gunn’s response was brief and quick, giving credit where it was due. The director wrote:

For longtime Smallville fans, LuthorCorp isn’t a new moniker. The CW series consistently used the more formal name, emphasizing Lex’s obsession with legacy, power, and respectability. It wasn’t branding for branding’s sake — it was about control and perception. Lex didn’t want to be seen as a comic-book villain-in-waiting. He wanted to be taken seriously as a leader. LuthorCorp sounded colder, sharper, and more permanent. LexCorp always felt a little too cute by comparison.

What’s fascinating is how quietly Gunn folded this into the first chapter of the DCU. There was no major announcement, but a simple background detail rooted in a show that shaped an entire generation’s understanding of the Last Son of Krypton’s lore. It’s the kind of choice that doesn’t change the plot, but absolutely changes the texture of the world.

It also reinforces something Gunn has been signaling all along, and that is that this Superman isn’t built in a vacuum, as he’s pulling from decades of interpretations of the character. Smallville mattered. It influenced how people think about Clark, Lex, and the slow erosion of friendship into rivalry. Acknowledging that influence, even in something as granular as a corporate name, feels validating for this longtime fan of new DC movies.

And LutherCorp makes more sense than LexCorp. LexCorp always felt like a comic-book brand, whereas LuthorCorp feels like a multinational entity. This totally aligns with Lex’s personality and obsession with legacy. The best part is how easily this could’ve gone unnoticed. I missed it. A lot of people probably did. But once you see it, you can’t unsee it — and you start to wonder what other Smallville-adjacent choices are hiding in plain sight.

If this is the level of detail Gunn is willing to canonize, it's clear the Studio Co-CEO continues to respect the past without being trapped by it. And it makes me even more excited to see what is coming down the pike with the upcoming Supergirl, soon to hit the 2026 movie schedule, and the Superman sequel, Man of Tomorrow, beginning to take shape.

For anyone who wants to see the roots of that choice, Smallville is streaming for everyone with a Hulu plan, while Gunn’s Superman is now available to watch at home with your HBO Max subscription.