With ‘Superman’, James Gunn is Approaching DC World-Building Different from Zack Snyder, and It’s All for the Better

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Superman’James Gunn‘s much-anticipated Superman has now been released to the masses, finally giving us a first look at what the filmmaker and DC Studios Co-CEO might have in store for DC Comics’ beloved characters. First and foremost, Gunn set out to create a good Superman movie with the main purpose being to introduce David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as the Man of Steel and Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. Gunn is also taking a very different approach than the one taken by his long-time pal Zack Snyder, when he was given the keys to the DC kingdom with Man of Steel back in 2013.

Shortly after the worldwide success of Man of Steel, Snyder attended San Diego Comic-Con in 2013 to tease what would eventually become 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. At the time, Ben Affleck hadn’t been announced as Batman to Henry Cavill‘s Superman, but it didn’t take long before it was obvious that the next DCEU movie would be a way to bring the DC heroes together for an eventual Justice League movie. Dawn of Justice would give us our first brief glimpses at Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, and Ray Fisher‘s Cyborg. Three of those characters would get their very own movies, and two of which spawned sequels. At the time, DC Entertainment was essentially trying to do what worked for Marvel Studios, except they were in too big a rush to get to that Justice League movie. Counter to that path, Gunn doesn’t even mention any of those other Justice League members, and that’s one of the many things that makes Superman so different from Snyder’s Man of Steel.

From the get-go, Superman immediately introduces us to other characters from DC Comics, and not just Nicholas Hoult‘s version of the villainous Lex Luthor. Firstly, there’s a duo of super-powered henchmen after Superman, with the “Hammer of Boravia” quickly being revealed as Ultraman, a significant DC super-villain, and a member of the Crime Syndicate of America from Earth-3. In Superman, Ultraman is paired with María Gabriela de Faría’s The Engineer to take Superman into detention. Like his Earth-3 counterpart in the comics, Ultraman has had far more interactions with Superman than the Engineer.

When a fire-breathing Kaiju dragon attacks Metropolis, Superman focuses on saving people before being joined by a trio of superheroes, with whom he is already familiar with. Gunn deliberately avoids retelling another Superman origin story for the umpteenth time, but he also brings us midway into the story with many relationships already established. Because of that, Superman already knows Edi Gathegi‘s Mr Terrific, as well as Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, played by one of Gunn’s regular go-tos, Nathan Fillion.

Who Is Mister Terrific, the Other Hero in James Gunn’s ‘Superman’?

Edi Gathegi’s tech genius might hint at a greater heroic legacy in the new DC Universe.

The final significant DC Comics character introduced in Superman has also had many direct interactions with Superman in the comics. Metamorpho, as played by Anthony Carrigan from HBO’s Barry, was approached to be a member of the Justice League back in the ’60s. It wasn’t until decades later that he would join Justice League International and then Batman’s The Outsiders, a group that deliberately broke off from the by-the-books methodology of Superman and the Justice League.

Supergirl Isn’t the Only ‘Superman’ Character We’ll Be Seeing Again Sometime Soon

Towards the end of the movie, Superman offers us our very first look at Milly Alcock as Superman’s cousin, Supergirl. It’s just a quick introduction that gives us a small taste of her personality and the fact that Krypto is actually her dog, not Superman’s. This scene is significant since we already know that Alcock’s Supergirl will be getting her own movie, scheduled for June 26, 2026. We also already know that former Aquaman Jason Momoa will be shifted into a new role as Lobo for that movie. Once again, it’s giving Gunn and Safran a chance to introduce a character as part of something else before just jumping right into a Lobo movie, which has been in the works seemingly for decades.

There have been incarnations of the Justice League with Superman, Guy Gardner, and Hawkgirl — maybe not all at the same time — and both Mr. Terrific and Metamorpho have also often been members of the superteam. There has never been a “Justice Gang” in the comics, and for good reason – it’s a stupid name for a superteam, Guy! But Mr. Terrific and Metamorpho have already been on another team together in the comics, the short-lived Terrifics, introduced in 2018 as part of the “New Age of DC Heroes,” which barely lasted two years.

Getting back to The Engineer, during Gunn’s very first press announcement of his DCU plans on January 31, 2023, he announced a movie based on Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch‘s hugely popular 1999 series, The Authority. Angela Spica’s Engineer was introduced as part of that Wildstorm Comics group that was eventually merged into the DC Universe. Although we don’t learn much about her in Superman, other than her powers, that’s one piece of a much greater puzzle Gunn has already put into play.

Even Frank Grillo‘s appearance as Rick Flag, Sr, the government agent helping Lex Luthor put a stop to his mortal enemy, is significant, not only due to being the father of Joel Kinnaman‘s Rick Flag, Jr, from 2016’s Suicide Squad and its Gunn-directed 2021 sequel. Grillo already voiced that character in the animated Creature Commandos. In 2023, Gunn declared he would utilize the same actors to play their characters in all iterations, whether they be animated or live action; Grillo’s appearance confirms this. Grillo will also appear in the second season of Peacemaker, and we already know that Fillion’s Guy Gardner will be appearing in the HBO Lanterns series.

There are other factors involved in where Gunn might take things. So far, there isn’t much to say about other planned projects like Swamp Thing, Teen Titans, or anything Batman-related. We know that Matt Reeves is working on a sequel to 2022’s The Batman, reportedly as a standalone from what Gunn has planned, but there’s also the previously announced The Brave and the Bold, which would introduce a brand-new Batman and Robin. For now, those will all have to be tabled with no significant mention or even an Easter Egg within Superman.

Some might view how Gunn introduces all these characters in Superman as something akin to what was done in the 2022 disaster that was Black Adam, just throwing in random DC Comics characters willy-nilly with little to no rhyme or reason. In fact, when you really think about the different pieces and what we know from what has already been announced, Gunn clearly knows what he’s doing when it comes to building out the DC Comics universe into planned television and movie projects. This might make Gunn’s Superman a movie that will be studied closely over the next five years, to see how much he covertly set up in advance without giving everything away.