‘Superman’ Bleeds: James Gunn Breaks Down the New Teaser Trailer

It’s a startling first look at the world’s greatest hero—broken and bleeding into the snow.

The first teaser trailer for the new Superman film from Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn opens with David Corenswet’s Man of Steel crashing like a meteorite into a rocky, frozen landscape and barely able to move. All he can do is try to summon help with a half-hearted whistle. Like man’s best friend, Superman’s best friend also happens to be a dog.

We know this isn’t the end of Superman’s journey because it is literally just the start. Gunn and producer Peter Safran share chairman and CEO duties at DC Studios, and their take on Superman (coming July 11, 2025) inaugurates a new series of films based on the DC comic book universe. Like the new trailer, Gunn says, the film itself begins with the hero in literal freefall.

“This movie, at the end of the day, is not about power,” Gunn says. “This movie is about, in the loose sense of the word, a human being struggling with his day-to-day life. And we see a different aspect of him at the beginning. I thought it was a cool place to start the trailer—and the movie, frankly.”

The four-legged salvation that comes to the hero’s aid is Krypto the Superdog, who first appeared in Adventure Comics #210 in March 1955. But even this relationship gets a new twist in the upcoming film. “His relationship with Krypto is…complicated,” Gunn says during a preview of the footage at the Warner Bros. lot. “He’s not nearly the best dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”

Even including such an offbeat character is a signal to audiences that the new movie franchise is taking an expansive and inclusive approach to the character’s comic book legacy. “I thought that it was a way to say, yes, we’re embracing all of the Superman mythology,” says Gunn, who wanted to make sure people knew this was not just another stand-alone venture.

“There’s a way that superhero movies have taken these characters and said, ‘Okay, yeah, it’s Batman, but it’s not any of the other stuff …’ Or ‘It’s Superman, but it’s not any of the other stuff,’” Gunn says. “But in our [film], he lives in a world with superheroes. He has friends who are other superheroes. He has people he doesn’t get along with who are other superheroes.” The trailer also features Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific and Nathan Fillion a Green Lantern (not the Green Lantern) named Guy Gardner, who boasts the worst bowl-cut in this or any other galaxy. (Vanity Fair broke the news of their casting back when the film was still called Superman: Legacy.)

Gunn said Corenswet’s Superman stands in this world because of his dedication and decency, even though he is surrounded by other super-beings. “He’s got a flying dog, he’s got a giant fortress that springs from the ground. He fights giant monsters. He has a lot of the things that we love from the Superman comics and the Superman mythology that we haven’t been able to see as much of in filmed media,” the filmmaker said.

Gunn made the remarks on a panel for press, also attended by Corenswet and Superman’s two other leads: Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult, who shaved his head to play villain Lex Luthor. Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes journalist Erik Davis moderated the Q&A.

Superman is, of course, relentlessly cheerful, absurdly strong, and disarmingly charming, but to maintain his secret identity, Clark Kent has to be a more meek and awkward presence. Still, he has the same superhero physique, so Corenswet explained his different approach to playing the alter ego: “Specifically for Clark, I loosely stole some stuff from my brother-in-law, who’s six eight and 270 pounds and has the deepest voice—and is always in the way. And always trying not to be,” the actor says.

Gunn says Corenswet, who is best known for Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood and The Politician, helped shape this new version of Superman in numerous other ways, including when they were devising the movie’s approach to his iconic costume. “I didn’t want it to look like a wet T-shirt. I didn’t want to have a bunch of fake muscles in it. I didn’t want airbrushed abs on it. It was really a long process of development,” Gunn says.

“We were standing in the room with me and you and Judianna [Makovsky], our costume designer, who I’ve worked with going back to Guardians 2, and it was freaking colorful,” he continues. “I was like, ‘Ugh, I don’t know.’ And David goes, ‘Yeah—he’s an alien from outer space who’s super powerful, who doesn’t want children to be afraid of him.’ And it touched me in the moment. That is who he is, and that’s where the costume comes from.… He’s got red beams that come out of his eyes. He can blow over things with his breath. He wants to not be scary to children.”

The new trailer reveals Brosnahan’s Lois Lane already in a number of passionate embraces with Superman, and the actor explains her own approach to playing the indefatigable Daily Planet journalist. “Lois is certainly not always the most graceful in her pursuit of the truth and the things that she cares about,” Brosnahan says. “I think so often with these characters, the thing that is their biggest strength can also be the thing that undoes them. I find her relentlessness to be something that is really inspiring. That quality of looking around every corner and asking endless questions is one of the things that makes her an everyday superhero, I suppose. Sometimes it keeps her from being present in the moment and can sort of build a wall around her that doesn’t always let the squishier stuff in.”

The bad guy also got his say. The plot of the movie wasn’t revealed, but Hoult promises his Lex Luthor would not be a mere madman. “With this Lex, obviously, he’s smart and ruthless and he has to outmaneuver Superman on certain levels because he can’t match him in others,” Hoult says. “But there’s also something about this character, hopefully from my standpoint, where even though you perhaps don’t agree with his process, you can understand on some levels where he’s coming from and why perhaps what he’s pushing as his ideology is better for humanity.”

The trailer has little dialogue apart from Superman whispering Krypto’s name and saying, “Take me home.” The music underscoring the footage is a new take on the classic John Williams theme from the Christopher Reeve movies. Superman composer John Murphy (Kick-Ass, The Suicide Squad) created an electric-guitar version of the fanfare for the new film. It calls to mind Jimi Hendrix’s iconic version of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” which ties in with the hero’s tradition of standing for “truth, justice, and the American way”—albeit inadvertently. “I never thought of it until now, but it makes sense when you say it,” Gunn says.

The whole world adores Superman, of course, but the notion that the hero is an icon of American power was also on the filmmaker’s mind. “I think that’s what ‘Take me home’ is all about,’ Gunn says. “We do have a sort of a battered vision of Superman at the beginning, and I think that that is our country. I believe in the goodness of human beings. I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like to the other side—no matter what that other side might be.”

“I think this movie is about that. It’s about the basic kindness of human beings,” Gunn adds. “That can be seen as uncool, and it can be seen as under siege when some of the darker voices are also some of the louder voices.”