James Gunn Assures ‘Superman’ Does Not Set Up Other DCU Projects: “if something’s there just to set up something else, f–k it”

DCU’s Superman is one of the most anticipated movies coming next year. Directed by James Gunn, it stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.

This film is expected to restart Superman’s story after the struggles of the previous DCEU and launch the new DC Universe in a big way. With the first teaser trailer just days away, James Gunn has started answering questions about the movie and its progress.

Set leaks have already revealed that several characters will make appearances, including Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., who first appeared in Creature Commandos.

Some fans worried that the movie might focus too much on introducing other characters instead of telling Superman’s story. However, James Gunn reassured everyone that this isn’t true.

Gunn explained that Superman will focus only on its own story and not set up future DC projects or characters. He believes every moment in a movie should serve the story, unlike TV shows, which have more room for setup. Gunn made it clear he won’t include anything just to tease other projects, making sure Superman stands on its own.

I mean, maybe two little things, two moments, but basically if something’s there just to set up something else, f–k it.

Everything needs to stand by itself. I don’t want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else. If this sets up stuff in ‘Peacemaker,’ which it does, then that’s great. But that is never, ever, ever, with me, going to be something that I’m going to sacrifice even a moment or a beat in a story for, especially a movie

James Gunn explained that the movie starts with Superman already established in his world. Clark Kent and Lois Lane already know each other, and Lex Luthor hates Superman, even though they haven’t met yet. The story jumps straight into the action instead of starting from the beginning.

Gunn described the film’s tone as more grounded and less comedic than The Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy. While there are still funny moments, thanks to actors like Rachel Brosnahan and David Corenswet, the focus is on creating a believable, fantasy-like world where superheroes exist—similar to how Game of Thrones builds its unique universe.

It’s humorous, but it certainly is not as comic or as much a comedy as either ‘Suicide Squad’ or ‘Guardians. There’s plenty of humor in it. People like Rachel (Brosnahan) are so funny and David (Corenswet) is very funny as well, so there’s humor in it, but it’s trying to create something that is grounded, but also it’s an incredibly fanciful world, it’s fantasy, it’s taking from other things like ‘Game of Thrones,’ where it’s this universe where superheroes actually exist.

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Gunn also explained why he chose to remove “Legacy” from the title:

Well, I still think it has that aspect of ‘Legacy’ in it. We do this thing called the pre-mortem before we started shooting. You ever hear of this? It’s great. We go into a room with me and all the department heads, and we say, ‘let’s say this movie is a colossal fuck-up.’ We find out two years from now, when this movie comes out, it goes terribly wrong. What are we doing right now that we’re not talking about, that we’re doing this, making this movie wrong?

It gives a chance for all of the parties involved to speak their mind, whether it’s about the script, whether it’s about the casting, whether it’s about how departments aren’t communicating with each other. Everybody is allowed, from transportation to whatever, they’re all allowed to say what they think. And I found it extremely helpful.

And one of the things was, I thought maybe the title was they had a looking back feeling about it. And this isn’t about looking back, this is about looking forward, so, although when you see the movie, you’ll understand where Legacy comes from because it is, again, it’s about Clark and his relationship to the script. How many parents lose their relationship to human parents and whose legacy is he really? And so it’s about that. But I think as a title I felt it, it felt too looking back.

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