“Superman” Reborn: The First Trailer for James Gunn’s Reboot Soars

December 19, 2024

James Gunn’s Superman has taken flight.

The first trailer for Gunn’s rebooted and reborn Man of Steel marks the official start of the feature film era for a newly invigorated DC Studios. However, the trailer opens with David Corenswet’s Superman in rough shape, bleeding in the snow near the Fortress of Solitude. We’re then inside the offices of The Daily Planet, getting our first glimpse of Rachel Brosnahan’s indispensable, irrepressible Lois Lane and her nerdy colleague, Clark Kent (Corenswet, obviously.)

Gunn’s Superman is the headliner in what he and fellow DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran have called “Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters,” the first phase in their newly unified DC Universe. There was no better way for Gunn to showcase the change in direction for DC than by giving its marquee superhero a makeover and letting him fly first out of the gate.

The trailer reveals David Corenswet’s Man of Steel, who in Gunn’s hands is already a known entity in Metropolis, not unlike the way The Batman director Matt Reeves introduced Robert Pattinson’s new Bruce Wayne in year two of his work as the Caped Crusader, sparing audiences another retelling of how Bruce’s parents, Martha and Thomas, were gunned down and set the young Bruce on his path of vengeance. Gunn’s Superman also eschews the Kryptonian’s classic origin story format, skipping over how Superman arrived on Earth from his destroyed home planet, was adopted by the Kents of Smallville, Kansas, and became the most recognizable superhero in the world. This means Superman wastes no time in establishing both his biggest adversary and most important ally; the trailer unveils Nicholas Hoult as the iconic villain, Lex Luthor, head of Luthorcorp, and Brosnahan’s Lois Lane, a casting coup that this brief glimpse confirms. Superman not only drops us in the middle of the action, it takes place over a short period of time.

For all of Gunn’s casting choices, Corenswet shoulders the biggest burden in the reboot, taking the cape from a well-liked Henry Cavill, who played Superman during DC’s Zack Snyder era. Gunn has been bullish on his casting choice.

“Honestly, from the bottom of my heart, David Corenswet is going to freak everyone out with how great he is,” Gunn told The Hollywood Reporter. “He is one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with, and he can do everything. The man is incredible.”

As he’s done time and time again in his career, Gunn’s gathered a cracking team of misfits, heroes, villains, and oddballs, some well-known, others lesser so, but all of whom provide his Superman with a more robust ensemble than any previous big-screen iteration of the character has. The world he’s built includes Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), the Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathigi), Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo), Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio), Perry White (Wendell Pierce), and more.

Gunn directs from a script that he wrote himself, and the core source of his inspiration, at least in tone, is Richard Donner’s 1978 classic, which inspired Gunn to drop Legacy from the title of his own film. His Superman will not be like his previous superhero epics, all of which had a gimlet-eyed view of the world of superheroes and villains, from his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy to The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker for DC. In Superman, Gunn has made perhaps the most surprising choice of his career; he’s created a film that, while still possessing comedic beats, doesn’t rely as much on an irreverent tone as his previous work has.

Check out the trailer below. Superman soars into theaters on July 11, 2025.