Why Superman: Legacy Has So Many Other Heroes, According to James Gunn

James Gunn greeting fans at Disneyland Paris in April.

Whatever your idea of a typical Superman movie is, James Gunn is not making that. The writer and director of 2025's Superman: Legacy got the ball rolling by first casting David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Which makes sense. Those characters are the leads in most Superman movies. From there, casting so far has been atypical, to say the least, and Gunn recently commented on why that is.

After casting Clark/Superman and Lois, Gunn followed it up by casting Isabela Merced to play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi to play Mister Terrific, and Nathan Fillion as a Green Lantern. Which is rather unexpected. Then, soon after that, news broke Gunn had cast Barry’s Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho. None of these are the typical characters one expects in a Superman movie, especially the first Superman movie in a planned series. So, as a way to explain but also keep things vague, Gunn replied to a comment about that on his Instagram.

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“I thought this was a movie about Superman?” a fan asked. Gunn replied, “Superman is a man of two worlds: Clark with Lois, Jimmy, and Perry—and Superman with his meta human compatriots. How could I tell a full story about Clark/Superman without including all areas of his life?” Here’s a screenshot with a little bonus comment from Carrigan.

In addition to all but confirming that Jimmy Olsen and Perry White will be in the movie (which, again, is to be expected), Gunn paints a picture here of a Superman movie that’s quite different. On screen, with the exception of later films in the Snyderverse, Superman is usually a lone wolf. But this Superman is part of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe—which, apparently, they want to fill up with heroes as soon as possible.

And, if you step back and think about it, that’s an excellent way to distinguish DC movies from Marvel movies. Marvel movies started small. One superhero here, another there, and it took decades to build to a movie with more than just a handful. Gunn’s film seems like it may establish that this world, the world of DC, is not new to superheroes. They’re already everywhere. And that’s an interesting new twist.

Superman: Legacy is, currently, scheduled for release about two years from now, on July 11, 2025.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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