Filmmaker James Gunn says the battered-looking version of Superman seen in the trailer for his highly anticipated “Superman” film represents America.
During a recent Q&A session at the trailer’s premiere, the director acknowledged the political implications present in the film, saying there is a theme of a bruised and bloodied America running through it.
“We do have a battered Superman in the beginning. That is our country,” Gunn said at the event.
Elsewhere during the Q&A, Gunn reiterated the idea that the movie is about human goodness overcoming these “darker” influences.
He said, “It’s about the basic kindness of human beings. It’s a noble premise, and one that seems designed to appeal across the political spectrum. It’s a moral call to embrace decency and optimism.”
Gunn, who steered clear of political specifics, has long been a critic of President-elect Donald Trump, calling him in a 2017 post “an incompetent President forging a full-blown attack on facts and journalism in the style of Hitler and Putin.”
During the Superman event, Gunn also mentioned how he wanted his reboot to keep its distance from some of the themes of the franchise’s past iterations.
“Yet, given how often contemporary superhero stories have been scrutinized as allegories for our polarized era, there’s an undercurrent of concern,” he said. “After all, previous DC installments have been criticized for flirting with darker political undertones and ‘fascistic power fantasies.’”
“We all felt like we were doing something good… not a fascistic power fantasy,” he added elsewhere.
The post Filmmaker politicizes his upcoming ‘Superman’ movie, says bloodied Superman represents ‘our country’ appeared first on Fox News.
