First Superman teaser trailer: James Gunn explains his vision, introduces Krypto the dog

The prospect of a James Gunn-directed Superman trailer has been teased for more than two years and is now only seven months away.

For the first time, the filmmaker behind the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and now a studio executive in charge, along with Peter Safran, of DC Comics’ screen slate, has given fans a taste of what his Superman will look and feel like, dropping a teaser trailer for the upcoming film.

At just over two minutes long, the clip features fast edits and the introductions of new versions of the iconic DC characters, including Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet), Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), Lex Luther (Nicholas Hoult), Green Lantern/Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, Hawgirl (Isabela Merced) and Jonathan Kent (Pruit Taylor Vince).

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In a virtual Q&A session for media, Gunn said Superman was a symbol of old-fashioned values and “mum and apple pie”, and his vision was to manifest that ideal and kindness in a new way.

“This movie is about Clark Kent’s humanities. Yes, he’s an alien from another planet who’s super powerful, but he is also deeply, deeply human,” Gunn explained.

“He has emotions and feelings, and every day he wakes up and tries to make the best choices he can, and sometimes he fails. That’s what this movie is about. It’s a complex character, and that’s the thing that audiences are going to be completely surprised by that you can’t really see in the trailer.”

Unusually for a trailer about the near-invincible Superman, it opens with him hurt, bloodied and wheezing on the ground. It was an opportunity for Gunn to introduce Krypto, Superman’s pet pooch, which has never before appeared in live-action form on the big screen.

Like Superman, Krypto has superpowers and in the trailer, Superman whistles for and then calls on his dog to take him home.

Gunn said Superman’s relationship with Krypto is much more complicated than obedient dog and human. Gunn drew from his own rescue dog, which had been raised in a small backyard and was, at first, scared of other humans.

Krypto the super dog gets his live-action big screen debut. Credit: Warner Bros

“Ozu was the world’s worst dog, he destroyed my entire house,” he said.

“He was actually one of the inspirations because I was like, ‘Well, thank god I don’t have a superdog like Krypto, and what if Krypto was as bad as Ozu, you’d have a pretty difficult situation’.”

Gunn cast Corenswet (Hollywood, The Politician, Twisters) in the lead role after seeing hundreds of auditions, and the filmmaker remembered telling the actor he had to work on two things, his shoulders and his vulnerability.

“David has that Boy Scout quality that Superman is, both on screen and in real life,” Gunn said.

Gunn earlier released this first-look image of David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent. Credit: Warner Bros

Gunn also mentioned he loved that Corenswet really wanted the character to be someone children wouldn’t be scared of, and fought for the red trunks outside of the blue tights to be part of the costume.

The filmmaker had been going back and forth on the trunks, and even consulted with Zack Snyder who told Gunn that he never solved the problem (Snyder’s Superman, played by Henry Cavill, never wore them).

“The trunks are on and I’m like, ‘Oh, god, I don’t know, it’s so colourful, David how do you feel?’. He’s like, ‘I love it’, and I’m like, ‘Really? That colourful’. He goes, ‘I’m an alien from outer space who can fly and lift buildings and I shoot laser beams out of my eyes that can dissolve things. I want kids to not be afraid of me’.

“That’s where that part of the costume came from, and I saw the character in a new way.”

If Superman is the force for good, then archvillain Lex Luther is the opposite. Gunn was adamant Lex had to be Superman’s equal, and that this version is properly scary.

“It’s not just because he’s a bad guy, but he has his reasons for thinking what he thinks,” he said. “When you get into it, it’s a lot of ideological things about what Superman represents versus what (Lex) represents as the world’s most intelligent man.

Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luther. Credit: Warner Bros

“It really is a battle of ideologies between the two of them and how they look at the world. One of them is very generous in his point of view, which is Superman, and one of them is not very generous, which is Lex.”

But Gunn admitted that because Hoult is “every ounce the big time movie star”, every time he walked onto set as Lex, all the women in the production were “swooning over him”.

“Everybody loves a bad boy,” he added.

The upcoming film, which opens in Australia on July 10, will not go through Superman’s origin story because it’s a tale that is already so embedded in the wider culture. But Gunn is aware that, by the same token, everyone has their own existing conceptions of what this character should be.

“Many people in this world are intimately attached to Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the big three. They have specific ideas about what that character is to them.

“All these different people have different ideas of what Superman is supposed to be, and you have to deal with all of them. Hopefully people are able to go, ‘OK, I like my idea of what Superman is, let’s see what this idea of Superman is’.”

For some people, it’ll feel as if this Superman was made just for them, for others, it’ll be totally different to what’s in their head.”

Gunn’s iteration of the famous superhero will be the sixth version on the big screen, following Kirk Alyn, George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh and Cavill. Countless more have played him on TV.

Christopher Reeves as Superman in Richard Donner’s films. Credit: Warner Bros

When Gunn and Safran were appointed in October 2022 to oversee and cohere DC’s screen program (with exceptions for Todd Phillips’ Joker and Matt Reeves’ Batman movies, and The Penguin series), Superman was high on Gunn’s list.

Weeks before Gunn and Safran were brought in, Cavill had announced he was returning to the role after five years away. It was short-lived.

The new management swept through the existing DC Extended Universe and effectively retired all the stars (Cavill, Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck who had pretty much already hung up his cowl and cape, Jason Momoa and Dwayne Johnson) that had headlined the franchise.

It was a new era, which was to be called the DC Universe (DCU). The following February, Gunn revealed his plans for TV and cinema, starting with Superman.

The next movie will be Supergirl, starring Australian actor Milly Alcock and to be directed by Australian Craig Gillespie. The first TV series, Creature Commandos, premiered earlier this month while pre-production on Lanterns has been busy with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre already cast.

But all eyes are on the main game, Superman’s release in July as the DCU and Gunn’s coming out party.

For Gunn, the character represents more than just one movie, or even a screen universe.

“It’s about bringing the innate goodness of Superman, bringing it home, bringing this character home, bringing our battered world to a brighter place of healing and hope.

“Superman can be a symbol of that as well, and I think that this is the right time for this movie.”

Superman is in cinemas on July 10