We have been waiting patiently since December for new footage from James Gunn’s Superman. After all, the first record-breaking teaser looked incredible. However, with the movie coming out in less than two months, Gunn and team have decided it’s time to show us more. Yesterday morning, they sure delivered!
With July’s release of Superman, the new DCU will finally kick off in theaters (everything technically kicked off already on the small screen with Creature Commandos, but nothing of this magnitude yet). And with so much riding on the line, Gunn’s passion for these characters and this universe will be more valuable than ever before, as he engages in a mission to show the naysayers he’s the perfect fan for the job. Frankly, with every nerdy frame of this trailer, I honestly don’t think fans will have anything to worry about.
Let’s breakdown the nerdiest and most fun moments from this latest trailer for Superman.
The trailer kicks off with an impromptu interview between Lois and Clark, as Superman. It seems like she already knows Clark is Superman and they have a well-defined relationship at this point. Things gets pretty heated because she’s asking some pretty hard-hitting questions about whether or not the Man of Steel overstepped his boundaries by engaging in international conflicts overseas. It’s the type of intelligent take on the character that makes it so much more relevant to our times than anything we’ve seen before.
There are shots of the public turning on Superman, including a man throwing a can at his head. Lois says he’s come under a lot of fire, and the Secretary of Defense was going to investigate his actions. We cut to Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag Sr., making his live action DCU debut after first voicing the character in the Creature Commandos animated series.
Superman maintains that he helped stop a war and there’s brief glimpses of him in, what looks like, a Middle Eastern territory, intervening as tanks fire on him. She emphasizes that he illegally entered their country, without the consent of the president, and, as a US citizen, essentially technically acted on behalf of the US. Clark gets upset, maintaining that he was only doing the right thing to prevent others from dying. It is a really complicated situation. Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t as simple as just going in to stop it.
We get a shot of Superman being arrested by the US Army, Rick Flag Sr., Ultraman, and The Engineer in downtown Metropolis. Ultraman, in the comics is an evil alternate version of Superman, who first debuted in 1964’s Justice League of America #29. This version of The Engineer (Gabriela de Faría) will be the Angela Spica version from The Authority and Stormwatch, who made her official DC debut in The New 52 (she was previously part of the WildStorm imprint prior to that).
Superman is not resisting arrest, and is walking down Waid St. (an Easter Egg for Kingdom Come author Mark Waid). Much like Man of Steel, this movie seems to be treating the story as a hypothetical scenario in which we question how the world today would view Superman, and what he would have to do to prove he’s on the side of humanity and justice.
We see lots of chaos going on around Metropolis with buildings crumbling and Superman doing his best to save the little guy (or a little girl in this case). We then see him getting into a fight with a large golden robot that looks similar to the MCU’s Hulkbuster. The robot apparently has heat vision, flight, and super strength, making it a formidable challenge for Kal-El. We cannot say for sure what this robot is, or if there’s an equivalent in the comics, as it looks pretty unfamiliar. It could be an original creation or something new.
We see Superman getting beaten down pretty hard, but being helped by ordinary citizens in Metropolis. This really speaks to how much the city loves and reveres its hero. He gets back up and into the fight.
We then get a few shots of Lex and The Engineer invading the Fortress of Solitude. As The Engineer does battle with the All-Star Superman-inspired robots guarding The Fortress, she turns her hands into sawblades (made of what look like nanobots, which is a contrast to Angela’s powers in the comics which are derived from liquid metal), and cuts them apart before Krypto attacks her.
For those who don’t know the origins of Krypto, the character first appeared in in 1955, in the pages of Adventure Comics #210. He was only supposed to be a one-off character but grew so popular that he became an official regular within the DC Universe.
We get some shots of Superman breaking out of a glass cage, rescuing a woman from a kaiju, and hugging Lois as a monster attacks Metropolis, while Jonathan “Pa” Kent reiterates that Superman’s choices are what make him who he is. The speech implies that Superman will definitely be facing a crisis of identity within the movie, most likely questioning himself after the public decides to turn on him. There are some really sweet looking scenes of Clark as a boy in Smallville and him as an adult having a moment with Jonathan.
We see a quick glimpse of Mister Terrific exiting his T-Ship, with a handful of T-Spheres. He begins to decimate a bunch of bad guys with the spheres, showcasing once more why he’s one of the smartest beings in the DC Universe. In the comics, Mister Terrific, aka Michael Holt, debuted in 1997 in the pages of The Spectre. He’s known as a genius inventor and scientist. It’ll be great to see Edi Gathegi’s interpretation of the character, and so far it looks terrific!
We get a few glimpses of Nicholas Hoult’s Lex, as he narrates his bitter jealousy about the public’s support of Superman. This is vintage Lex: petty, narcissistic, and jealous. He simply cannot take it when someone outshines him, which is really core to his character. Hoult looks like he’s crushing it!
We see a few glimpses of Superman and Metamorpho in a glass prison as guards beat Clark. Metamorpho is a really interesting character to include, because he’s such a unique metahuman character. He can turn his body into any element, which could be really useful as a means of escape. Real name, Rex Mason, the character was created in 1965 in the pages of The Brave and the Bold, and has made appearances in the DC Animated Universe and several DC Animated films. It’ll be really interesting to see him in live action, as portrayed by Barry star Anthony Carrigan.
We get a really quick glimpse of Maxwell Lord’s Justice League trio featuring Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, a douchey Green Lantern, as well as Isabella Merced’s Hawkgirl (the Kendra Saunders iteration), and Mister Terrific, assembling on a high rise somewhere. Between the three of these characters, plus Clark, and Metamorpho, I’d say that the new version of the Justice League is starting to fill out, and the lineup is incredibly interesting!
We get really quick glimpses of a boy raising up a Superman flag, as well as a high octane fight between Superman and The Engineer in a baseball stadium somewhere. We get further glimpses of Guy Gardner using his Green Lantern constructs to smack away some soldiers, as well as Hawkgirl flying and growling viciously through the air.
We stop at a sweet moment where Martha Kent tells her son she’s cleaned his boots, and encouraging him to get back into action. I imagine this will be shortly after his conversation with Jonathan. Frankly, I think The Kents will be the heart and soul of this movie.
We get a few very quick glimpses of Eve Teschmacher taking a selfie, Lex Luthor drinking coffee, Jimmy and Clark goofing around, Metamorpho doing something with his fingers, and Superman being healed (painfully) by his robots. The montage culminates in an iconic shot of Lois and Superman kissing in the air.
We get a final glimpse of Superman rocketing up into the sky, before coming right back down, and crashing back to Earth. The iconic logo shield appears on the screen. The tag scene to the trailer shows Lois finding out about Krypto, and Superman’s faithful canine companion comforting him.
It looks epic and incredibly hopeful. I simply cannot wait to look back up in the sky!