James Gunn Is Making The Right Stylistic Choice With Superman

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 11, 2025 2 Views 8 Min Read
James Gunn Is Making The Right Stylistic Choice With Superman

On December 19th, 2024, the teaser trailer for James Gunn’s Superman film was uploaded to YouTube, giving fans their first taste of the long-awaited DC Universe reinvention, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel. With over 250 million global views in the first 24 hours, it quickly became the most-viewed trailer in the history of DC and Warner Bros, according to Gunn. And by and large, the response was positive, with many commenters expressing their excitement and hopefulness about a DC property for the first time in a long while.

Though of course, there have been some naysayers as well, with some on social media taking particular aim at the film’s visual style and bright color palette, likening it to one of The CW’s DC shows. It’s undeniably a stark contrast to the last couple of big-screen takes on the character, particularly the Snyderverse’s dark and grim version, but that’s exactly why Gunn seems to be making all the right moves with his film.

James Gunn Superman and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel-2

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Gunn’s Superman Isn’t Afraid to Be a Comic Book Movie

Superman (David Corenswet) and Krypto the Superdog in Superman (2025)
Warner Bros.

James Gunn is well-known to be a top-tier comic book nerd, shouting out the series that influence him and unafraid to get into the weeds with fans. He’s brought obscure characters to gleeful life, whether through his Guardians of the Galaxy films or The Suicide Squad and Creature Commandos, even if it’s only in service of a quick visual gag or a gruesome death. In any case, his comics bona fides have been well-established.

This is a big part of what makes his Superman movie so exciting, and it’s on full display in the teaser. Gunn seems to be going back to Superman’s Golden Age for his aesthetic, mixing in the bright primary colors of early comic books with a design that draws from Art Deco as well as more modern fare. He continues the trend of bringing in characters not seen on the big screen before, with brief glimpses of the likes of Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl. Then, of course, there’s Krypto, Superman’s super-dog, one of the teaser’s most delightful surprises.

All of these choices would have seemed unfathomable in the character’s previous incarnations, whether it’s Zack Snyder’s grayscale Man of Steel or Bryan Singer’s moody Superman Returns. Snyder’s films certainly have their ardent defenders, but many comics fans took umbrage with his take on Superman, which jettisoned much of what made the character special, particularly his inherent decency and nobility. Snyder’s Superman, and really all his DC heroes, were meant to be seen as gods among humans, above the fray of basic humanity rather than among it.

Why Superman Needs Color

An image of Superman (David Corenswet) from the trailer for Superman (2025)
Warner Bros.

At times, previous Superman movies have felt almost hostile to the very idea of being a comic book movie, trying to be seen as something more “serious.” By contrast, Gunn’s film seems to be not only embracing its comic book roots, but widely celebrating them, and fans by and large have responded enthusiastically. A quick scroll through the comments section on the teaser’s YouTube page shows dozens of commenters sharing their memories of watching earlier Superman films, or the loved ones they’ve lost that they wish were around to see Gunn’s film.

Much of the early criticism of DC Studios’ Snyder era was focused on its dour, ultra-serious tone, particularly compared to the more critically and commercially successful Marvel films. The backlash was so strong that the studio worked hard to course-correct, releasing more lighthearted fare like Shazam! and adding more humor into Wonder Woman and Aquaman, and these projects were largely seen as an improvement. Based on the teaser, it seems that Gunn has carried this lesson into his tenure as the creative head of DC Studios.

This isn’t to say that Snyder’s or Singer’s films were completely without merit, or that every comic book movie needs to be bright and cheerful. There’s room for many different takes on a character as iconic as Superman, and Snyder’s films are undeniably their own unique interpretation. They remain visually striking, and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the most Snydery of Snyder films, drew a warmer response for its unapologetically epic scope. Singer’s film is a quieter, more contemplative affair that examines the heavy burden of heroism, in a similar vein to his X-Men films.

While both of these adaptations have their merits and demerits, it’s hard to deny that Superman has been mired in heavy, gloomy interpretations for decades now, since before the dawn of the modern superhero movie era. For a character meant to represent basic goodness and nobility, a bit more color and lightness would be a welcome change of pace, and Gunn’s film is poised to deliver. Gunn needed to set his version of Superman apart from the rest by basically being the opposite of Snyder’s, and it’s no surprise that a filmmaker as unapologetically nerdy as him would be able to pull it off.

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