The last time that audiences officially saw Superman on the big screen, it was Henry Cavill appearing in a post-credit sequence for Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam… a tease the men were not able to capitalize on. Shortly after, the experiment known as the DCEU drew to a close, and James Gunn took over the comic book studio with a new blueprint, and bigger plans. This July, moviegoers will be able to see a brand new Superman in theaters, as David Corenswet steps into the suit for an adventure that carries the momentum on the developing DCU. And as we learned during a set visit to Gunn’s Superman in Cleveland, Ohio, we will be catching up with the iconic DC hero in the middle of his adventures, and fighting the battle of his life.
So many Superman movies dealt with the Man of Steel’s origin story. Even Zack Snyder began his movie Man of Steel with a sequence on Krypton, showing Jor-El (Russell Crowe) sending baby Kal to Earth as the planet collapsed around him. James Gunn plans something different. When his Superman kicks off on July 11, Superman already will be an established hero in and around Metropolis. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) will be aware of this visiting alien. And the world will be populated by other recognizable DC superheroes, as we know that Nathan Fillion is playing Guy Gardner, and Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl.
While I interviewed David Corenswet on the set of Superman, though, he spoke about the movie opening with a massive fight sequence, and I think I know what scene it will be, based on the trailer. First, here’s what Corenswet told us about the opening scenes of Superman, as he said:
Reading the script, the start was very flashy, and immediately got me excited. (There’s) very little world building to start. You start the way I like to start any movie, which is, a character who you're meeting in an interesting circumstance who's got a very clear problem and needs to overcome it. And the way I think you learn about a character – or an iteration of a character, in this case – 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 fail, or when they fall short, when a strategy doesn't work.
This sounds like a fantastic way for James Gunn to kick off his Superman movie. There are a lot of times that we come to a superhero movie – even the ones that people consider the best comic book movies of all time – and have to wait until Act 2 to see our beloved heroes using their superpowers. That’s not what we paid for, Hollywood! From what Corenswet tells us, this movie will deliver bang for our buck right off the bat, as he told us:
That's the whole opening sequence of this movie. 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, of course. And he’s really throwing everything he's got at this fight. And very few things are working. A couple things work, a little bit, or for a moment. But it's really seeing a character who I think generally should be thought of as, you know, he's the Man of Steel! A lot of people think of him 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.
So what’s my best guess? I think the scenes that we see of Superman fighting the giant dragon creature in the trailer is the opening scene of James Gunn’s movie. I think we will see Superman challenged in ways he didn’t expect. I think we will see him being assisted by Green Lantern and Hawkgirl. And we might see him fail. Maybe that’s why people are angry at him, because he’s sporting a burned suit in those moments.
Maybe I’m wrong. But it’s rare that a trailer shows off action footage from the back half of the movie, so again, I think that means Gunn is showing off his opening. We’ll find out for sure when the upcoming DC movie Superman opens in theaters everywhere on July 11.
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