The Superman Trailer Promises a DC Comeback with Heart

DC Studios is in the middle of a new era of superhero movies, and their first shot at rebooting Superman comes this July in the form of writer-director James Gunn’s take on the Man of Steel. Months of rumors and hype have finally given way to a full trailer, and audiences have every reason to be excited for the film.

Full of new faces, a sassier Lois Lane, a fresh crop of DC favorites and foes, and an unmistakably adorable superdog, Gunn’s trailer for Superman does more than just promise a reboot—it shows a new, and emotionally grounded, way to tell a Superman story.

Superman’s a Journey, Not an Origin Story

The first and most important thing to know about Gunn’s take on Superman is that the story isn’t an origin story, by most definitions of the word. Gunn has already said the film isn’t a retread of familiar beats like discovering his powers or learning about Krypton. Instead, Superman will track the inner journey of Clark Kent as he struggles to reconcile his noble Kryptonian royal heritage with his grounded, Midwestern Kansas upbringing.

This thematic shift, more so than a straight-up back-to-basics origin story, is what gives the film its emotional core as the heroic protagonist tries to reconcile where he belongs in this big, new world of his.

To that end, longtime DC fan and The Suicide Squad favorite James Gunn has cast David Corenswet, known for recent roles in Pearl and the Amazon Original Hollywood, as the title hero. Presented as an already 25-year-old Superman more experienced in the ways of the world than previous depictions of an inexperienced, fresh-faced rookie, the duality of Corenswet’s two alter egos, both as Clark Kent and Superman, seems to be a driving point of the narrative, especially in his interactions with Lois Lane.

Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) stars as Lois Lane, a doggedly fierce and straightforward journalist who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. The trailer kicks off with a slight twist on their familiar history as we see Lois not being interviewed by a reporter but rather running through a hypothetical “interview” with Lois’s mother.

The two she’s playfully bantering with in this scene are, of course, Superman and Lois Lane—played by Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively. In other words, we see Lois Lane and Clark Kent at a bar flirting, both playing off their work personas and toying with the premise of Lois having potentially discovered Clark’s true identity. But have they? The wider internet seems to be fairly split on the matter, with half the commenters convinced she already knows and the other half calling BS and pointing to specific frames from the trailer where the tone and especially facial expressions of both Brosnahan and Corenswet imply that Lois Lane still has no idea.

Nicholas Hoult joins the ever-growing stable of big-name additions to Gunn’s project, making for a more than impressive all-star cast. Hoult has signed on to play the iconic Lex Luthor, with the trailer offering tantalizing hints of his usual mixture of corporate villainy and highbrow intellectual menace. Hoult is joined by Sara Sampaio, playing the character Eve Teschmacher, and Terence Rosemore, playing Otis, who will be Lex Luthor’s two stooges, so to speak.

Krypto the Superdog, Kaiju, and Introducing DC’s Extended Universe

Oh, and one last character is making more of an impression than most. Last December’s teaser trailer dropped fans’ first look at Superman’s famous white dog Krypto the Superdog. In the post-credits teaser last year, a catatonic Superman lies dying in the street of Metropolis, but Krypto has other plans. He drags his ailing hero from the street to the sanctuary of the Fortress of Solitude and doesn’t stop until the pair is safely inside.

Building on the success of the pre-credit sequence last December, the full trailer doubles down on the canine heroics as Krypto squares up paw-to-toe with Lex Luthor, powerful businessman and chief of the Luthor Corp, and new high-tech villain Angela Spica (Maria Gabriela de Faria).

Angela Spica, also known in her superhero alter ego as The Engineer, shows up in the trailer in her hallmark sleek, black spandex and tactical gear. Armed to the teeth with dual metal cylinders on her forearms and twin circular rotating blades on each of her elbows, Spica wields no-physical-force nanotech weapons that cut through metal like butter. She and her team of henchmen also have assault rifles. It’s a full-fledged invasion, and they’re storming the Fortress in the biggest display of heroics the trailer has to offer so far.

In between epic action sequences, kaiju shots, and team-up teases, we also get a first look at a lot of other previously lesser-known DC Comics characters. Nathan Fillion can be seen in a tight shot with his bowl cut playing Green Lantern Guy Gardner, while Anthony Carrigan shows off his naturalistic comic timing as Rex Mason/Metamorpho, an elemental shapeshifter who controls different elements of the periodic table by cycling different parts of his body through different elemental properties.

Also making their debut in the trailer is Isabela Merced as winged warrior Hawkgirl, as well as Edi Gathegi as the brilliant inventor, Maxwell Lord, aka Mister Terrific.

But perhaps the biggest of all the DC characters introduced is played by Milly Alcock, as Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, or as she would be known should she choose that path in this world: Supergirl.

With the inclusion of the younger sister of the legendary Superman comes an implication of a wider story to tell of this extended Kryptonian family.

Likewise, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell fill in as Clark Kent’s Kansas parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent.

Elsewhere, another mention for DC fans and especially those familiar with the comics is in the form of Frank Grillo, reprising his voice role as Rick Flag Sr. from the animated Creature Commandos series, while Sean Gunn (yes, that Gunn) shows up as Maxwell Lord.

Finding the Balance Between Scale and Substance

Superman is chock full of action, from rooftop jumping and city-wide heroics to saving the Earth from all-out cosmic onslaught, but what the trailer impresses on audiences most is that Clark’s not just a hero for his own sake.

The film strikes the first hints of a deeper conflict between Clark’s innate, uncompromising heroism and the demands of having to consider public perception, even down to the political oversight from people like the U.S. Secretary of Defense, himself. This conflict is made clear as Lois questions him on his motivations for being the hero Metropolis needs when his actions aren’t serving the public good or, more pointedly, the interests of the U.S. government. His furious retort of “People were going to die!” as justification for his actions shows that not all is well internally for Clark Kent. It’s only a teaser, of course, but it’s a conflict that hints at running throughout the film in some form.

Another repeated element in the trailer is a touch of humor, something we wouldn’t expect to see go so strongly emphasized in a straight-up action flick, but James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad proved popular and fresh in large part due to the same balance of equal parts action and heart.

In the final frames of the trailer, all the action pauses, and Superman just relaxes on his bed in one of the first signs of peace we get from Clark in the entire trailer. Supermom-approved Krypto is lying on his chest, resting after his good work in the day’s business, both presumably satiated and content in the immediate safety of the Fortress of Solitude. It’s a cute little shot, but one that’s no surprise for fans of Gunn, who has a clear track record of this kind of character-focused, emotionally resonant storytelling, even in something this action-driven.

More than just a reboot, Gunn’s Superman is the potential reset we need to see for DC’s entire extended universe. Based on the hype this trailer is receiving, DC might be on to something here.