In retrospect, this feels like it was inevitable. But when James Gunn took to social media in early March to announce he would be directing Superman: Legacythe first major movie in the new DC Studios initiative dreamed up by himself and producer Peter Safran, the news came as a complicated surprise to fans – and, it seems, to the filmmaker himself.
Known for his candor on social platforms, Gunn previously admitted he was hesitant to direct the film. “Just because I’m writing something doesn’t mean I feel it in my bones, visually and emotionally, enough to spend more than two years on it,” he said on Twitter. “Especially not something of this size.” That’s not exactly a reassuring vote of confidence for fans who’ve been waiting (and waiting) for another solo Superman movie from Warner Bros. ever since. Man of Steel Found its way to theaters 10 years ago. Gunn’s reluctance seems to be ahead of the prospects Superman: Legacy.
But Gunn sells himself short. Hell, we could all be. Over the years, the 56-year-old filmmaker has become more than a Troma provocateur or the former golden boy at Marvel Studios; he’s become a thoughtful, skilled storyteller through the projects he’s created, whether they’re grody, goofy, or awesome. The suicide squad, Guardians of the Universe, Full. 2and so forth Full. 3plus low-budget fare like Super, The special offersAnd Burn bright have all played a part in the development of Gunn’s distinctive voice as a producer, writer and director. To me it all adds up Superman: Legacy getting the chance to be the film moviegoers have been hoping to experience since Christopher Reeve hung up his cape all those years ago.
Gunn’s path to Superman really started with superheroes. The special offershis first credited post-Troma Entertainment work in which he wrote, produced, and co-starred (as the shrinking hero Minuteman, not pronounced as you think), featured an unusual Justice League draped in late-’90s douchery. The special offers is a role of Gunn proto-matter foaming with the kind of material that would later make him famous (or infamous): incessant jokes, fraught relationships, impromptu dance sequences, disappointment and boredom.
The special offers established other Gunn fixtures, such as his affinity for misfits and needle drops. Particularities is real Y2K lounge lizard super stuff, crafted by an impeccable cast (including Thomas Haden Church, Judy Greer and Rob Lowe) and boosted/hampered by ubiquitous pop music, with a touch of Daniel Clowes coming out of his skeezy bowels. But laced into its laconic Gen-X dullness is a reverence for the weird superhero comics Gunn devoured as a kid. “I learned to read on them and have been reading them ever since,” he posted on Instagram in 2018. “Few things give me the comfort that a good comic book gives.”
Gunn seems like the kind of comics reader who absorbs the tricks of the trade from his favorite writers. As an Alan Moore fan, he used grittier storytelling chops Supera scuzzy, low-budget feature film that juggled dirtbag comedy with a vigilante power fantasy akin to the Rorschach character Moore and co-creator Dave Gibbons came up with on Guardians. Super pulls all sorts of comedic tricks to maximize Frank’s (Rainn Wilson) deranged, sexually repressed mania. While the motley crew of The special offers consists of archetypes pulled from decades worth of cape comics, a deconstruction of those archetypes is what supports Super.
Image: IFC Films
Also known as the Crimson Avenger, Frank is a step ahead of Gunn as a storyteller. Super is a refinement of his maverick trope; Frank finds a fellow traveler in Libbie (Elliot Page), another eccentric who indulges violent tendencies driven by darker desire. Through them, the film poignantly battles themes of isolation and addiction, the latter of which Gunn has said publicly is something he himself has battled with. As the film’s director, Gunn exorcises personal demons with Super in the way it is best suited: through cinematic catharsis in all its myriad forms. Super is cathartic, and if the depictions of alienation feel honest, it’s because James Gunn was once a misfit himself. He can still think of himself as someone who can say it.
Then there is Burn bright, an edgelord riff about Superman’s origins produced by Gunn and written by his brothers Mark and Brian. It’s a cruel what-if that twists the lessons of Moore’s screenplay by essentially plopping the British writer’s sassy Kid Miracleman character onto the Kent family farm. The film’s defacto “Kents” (played by Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) are portrayed as selfish country-hip types trying to make a Old Callercoup on their alien son (Jackson A. Dunn) when his strange abilities and alien origins make him hostile.
It’s a superpowered slasher movie, and the clumsy execution clashes against all the complex family implications the Gunns were aiming for. Yet, while many rightly point out Burn bright as opposed to Superman’s optimism, there are elements tucked into his framework that speak to the chaos of a family growing apart, and as the Superman character has grown in depth over the years, so have different interpretations of his relationship with his parents – both terrestrial and extra. Burn bright gestures to that complexity, which is given extra weight by the life experiences of the Gunn family.
When he tweeted to the world that he would direct Superman: Legacy, Gunn noted that the film’s release date, July 11, 2025, falls on the birthday of his late father, Jim Gunn. “He was my best friend,” he says. “He didn’t understand me as a kid, but he supported my love of comics and my love of film and I wouldn’t be making this movie now without him.” His complicated relationship with his father and reverence for misfits reveal more about Gunn’s work as he grows older. The suicide squad reaches its emotional crescendo as Ratcatcher II (Daniela Melchior) faces off against Starro the Conqueror, encouraged by a few words from her dear, deceased father (Taika Waititi, in a surprisingly effective cameo). “Why rats, Daddy?” she asks, in remembrance, to which her father replies, “Rats are the lowest and most despised of all creatures, my dear.” But if they have a goal, so do we all.”
Image: Marvel Studios
The concept of fathers teaching their kids about purpose gets a corkscrew Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Here, the living planet Ego (Kurt Russell) attempts to use his son Peter (Chris Pratt) to imbue the cosmos with his influence through heightened sci-fi contrivances. While Ego manipulates Peter by appealing to his personal vanity, it takes the relationships he’s built with Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Groot (Vin Diesel) and Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) to bring him back to life. draw solid ground. . But what makes Peter decide to destroy his biological father – the poignant death blow of the entire film – is the realization that he had already lived a full life with another father figure, however thorny and fraught with emotional danger. “Maybe he was your daddy, boy,” Yondu (Michael Rooker) says to Peter as Ego finally implodes on himself. “But he wasn’t your father.”
The synopsis for Superman: Legacy talks about the character’s “journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent from Smallville, Kansas.” Superman is, if nothing else, the quintessential outcast of the comic book world, an orphaned alien child raised on Earth who finds inner strength through relationships with those he cares about. legacy will explore Superman’s struggle to find himself, and with Gunn at the helm there’s no doubt the journey will be raw, messy, exuberant and human in every way James Gunn can make it. It’s not a leap to say that his entire career has been built up to this moment.
The imminent release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 marks the end of another era in Gunn’s career. Troma taught him everything he needed to know about filmmaking, The special offers proceed to Super saw him hone those techniques into something recognizably awesome, and his tenure at Marvel Studios, his most successful yet as a director, pushed him to broader horizons with higher stakes. Of superman: legacy, a new section begins.