First photo confirms: James Gunn’s Superman will be wearing his underwear on the outside

With just 14 months to go until Warner Bros.’ first film.’ reimagined DC Comics film slate, director James Gunn shared a first look at his Superman film in the traditional way, by showing off a new take on the hero’s costume. But that’s not the only traditional thing about it.

Actor David Corenswet appears in a dusty version of the classic red and blue look, with an angular, seemingly Kingdom come–inspired chest emblem and its own set of modern textured lines. But if you look closely (ignore that glowing ball of energy outside, it’s probably fine), the photo also features a throwback detail that you haven’t seen on a big screen from Superman since before 2013. Man of Steel: Red trunks.

When Superman set the standard that all future superhero costumes would definitively reflect, it was in the wake of athletic stage costumes of the 1930s: brightly colored, form-fitting, and with a set of trunks for modesty. But Superman spent most of the 2010s without a suitcase after a 2011 costume redesign; his costume consisted of a blue sleeve with structure from neck to boot, interrupted only by a mainly decorative red belt.

It is that shape that inspired the Superman costume from the Snyderverse. But just as DC Comics returned to the traditional red trunks for its thousandth issue Action comics in 2018 to honor Superman’s enduring presence, it seems Superman (formerly known as Superman: Legacy) aims to evoke an earlier era, or a broader consideration of Superman’s atmosphere.

That ball of purple and green energy (classic Lex Luthor colors) is certainly mysterious, but the clearest hint this photo has of what audiences will find in Superman from 2025 sits right on the seat of that chair. The structured lines and angular S say modernity, even futurism, but the trunks? The tribes say tradition.

And James Gunn is steeped in enough comics and comic criticism to know.