Inspiring the DC Universe’s Superman Reboot
For the primary time since Man of Metal launched the DC Prolonged Universe in 2013, the Final Son of Krypton will fly solo in Superman: Legacy. The reboot, written and produced by James Gunn for DC Studios, releases in theaters on July eleventh, 2025, because the official begin of the DC Universe. “It is not an origin story,” Gunn’s DC Studios co-chief, Peter Safran, mentioned throughout a slate presentation. Like The Batman — an Elseworlds story separate from the brand new DCU that launched Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne in his second 12 months as a costumed crime-fighter — Legacy will concentrate on a youthful model of Superman. The function can be recast, and Henry Cavill is not going to be the DCU’s Superman.
“Superman: Legacy is the true basis of our artistic imaginative and prescient for the DC Universe,” mentioned Gunn. “Not solely is Superman an iconic a part of DC lore, he’s additionally a favourite character for comedian guide readers, viewers of earlier motion pictures, and followers all over the world. I am unable to wait to introduce our model of Superman who audiences will have the ability to observe and get to know throughout movies, motion pictures, animation and gaming.”
Gunn’s Superman is roughly 25 years previous, making him extra established than Tom Welling’s excessive school-aged Clark Kent in Smallville, however youthful than Cavill’s 33-year-old rookie superhero in Man of Metal.
A greener, younger Clark Kent usually options in retellings of Superman’s oft-told origins — John Byrne’s seminal 1986 origin story Superman: The Man of Metal, and extra fashionable variations in 2004’s Superman: Birthright and 2009’s Superman: Secret Origin — however Legacy will not be Superman: 12 months One (one more younger-skewing Superman origin story).
As a substitute, Legacy attracts inspiration from author Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely’s 12-part sequence All-Star Superman. Morrison envisioned his alternate-universe as a “timeless” tackle the Tremendous-mythos with such basic characters as Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White of The Day by day Planet, Ma and Pa Kent, Krypto the Superdog, the Fortress of Solitude, and Lex Luthor.
Whereas Legacy will not be an adaptation of All-Star Superman, Gunn mentioned, “I am an enormous fan of All-Star Superman, and it is rather impressed by All-Star Superman.”
In All-Star Superman, a visit to the Solar exposes Superman to essential ranges of stellar radiation: Superman is dying from the very supply of his superpowers. It is a world the place Lois Lane describes her bumbling co-worker, a careless Clark Kent, as a “massive nation lummox,” whereas Superman has had a storied profession of saving the world. Like that alien farm boy-turned-idealistic superhero, the DCU Superman can be “the embodiment of reality, justice, and the American method,” Safran mentioned, revealing Legacy “focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage together with his human upbringing.”
Added Gunn, “I actually love the thought of Superman. He is a giant previous galoot. He’s a farm boy from Kansas who may be very idealistic. His biggest weak spot is that he’ll by no means kill anyone, would not wish to damage a dwelling soul. And I like that type of innate goodness about Superman as his defining attribute.”
Superman: Legacy opens in theaters July eleventh, 2025.
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