The first official trailer for James Gunn‘s Superman reboot movie has arrived, and viewers are already noticing the film’s apparent Silver Age inspired tone, with its bright colors and big sci-fi concepts. But Gunn himself says the film relies on striking a powerful balance between that kind of classic Superman imagery and more modern storytelling.
Speaking at a press conference for the trailer’s premiere which GamesRadar+ attended, Gunn explains that, while the aesthetic of the Silver Age is important to his film, the story itself is much more character driven than the often very surface level comics of the ’50s and ’60s.
“I love the Silver Age of Comics in terms of the aesthetics of it, but I think, like I said at the beginning, it isn’t completely that,” Gunn explains. “It’s also taking the character of Superman and really getting into who he is as an individual and what his personal obstacles are in this film. I think that’s a really big difference from not only other superheroes, but other superhero films. This is a story about a man and both his external and internal obstacles and what he’s facing in life, and that’s what the film is about. And so although some of the imagery is very Silver Age, I don’t think that’s a very Silver Age plot. So it has elements of both the traditional and the new. And I think that’s where we find our balance.”
Still, Gunn found a particular challenge in making sure to meet fan expectations of Superman’s portrayal, while also finding ways to innovate with his new film. He states that the key lies in finding an “authentic” angle for his story and characters.
“It was trying to balance what was classic and what was completely new, which could be a brace at the time, because Superman is such a big character,” he says. “Superman is one of the most popular characters, famous characters, in the world, and everyone has their idea of what he should be like, what his costume should look like, what his moral should be, what his power set is.”
“And so finding something that was as true and as authentic as I could possibly make it, because at the end of the day, if I can make something that’s authentic, then I think it works,” Gunn continues. “And so I think that balancing was just something that was trial and error, trial and error, trial and error, both in writing the script and working with Juliana, our costume designer, and working with the VFX folks and what we, you know, make our giant monsters and robots look like, to give it that feeling of the Silver Age stuff, but again, also to see those things as a grounded way that we haven’t seen them before, is what makes the movie.”
We’ll get to see for ourselves when Superman releases in July.
Superman flies into theaters on July 11, 2025. For more, check out our list of all the upcoming DC movies and shows you need to know about.