After months of Krypto-related teasers and the kind of fan speculation usually reserved for album drops, the final trailer for James Gunn’s Superman is finally here — and it’s giving us something the DC Extended Universe’s (DCEU) moody Man of Steel never quite managed: charm.
Yes, there’s action. Yes, buildings fall and fists fly. But what sticks after watching this new look isn’t destruction — it’s the way David Corenswet’s Superman leans forward in an interview with Lois Lane and, with one flick of a smile and shift in posture, becomes Superman.
No red eyes. No operatic brooding. Just a guy from Kansas with superpowers and a conscience. It’s the kind of moment that nods lovingly at Christopher Reeve’s take without being trapped by it.
The trailer opens with what could have easily been a throwaway gimmick: Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) interviewing Superman. But it turns into a framing device for the whole film’s central conflict. Is Superman just a superpowered saviour? Or is he a moral actor in a deeply complicated world?
When Clark says, “People were going to die,” after intervening in a foreign war, you feel the weight of a man caught between his ideals and reality. It’s the most overtly human moment we’ve seen in a Superman film since maybe ever. The fallout plays out through glimpses of chaos: a collapsing building, an injured Superman being helped out of a crater by a random guy — a beat that’s rare in its crowd-sourced heroism.
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Visually, the film feels like it finally took the DCEU colour correction filter off. This isn’t all washed-out greys and self-serious slo-mo. The palette is brighter, the tempo more kinetic, and even the weird stuff — like a woman with spinning blade arms in the Fortress of Solitude — lands with confidence. It’s classic Silver Age chaos filtered through Gunn’s sci-fi sensibilities, and it works.
The trailer also gives us our first real peeks at DC’s new benchwarmers-turned-headliners: Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and yes, a slightly less spotlight-hogging Krypto. It’s a crowded roster, but if anyone knows how to juggle an ensemble of left-of-centre weirdos, it’s the guy who made Guardians of the Galaxy work with a talking raccoon.
Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor doesn’t get much screen time in the trailer, but the glowering intensity is there. This isn’t Eisenberg’s tech-bro manic energy — Hoult looks more composed, calculating, and (thankfully) wigless. We don’t know his full plan yet, but that’s probably intentional. It’s a Superman trailer, not Lex: Origins.
What is clear, though, is Gunn’s tone. He’s pulling from All-Star Superman, channeling the hopeful weirdness of the Silver Age, and throwing in action choreography that (per Gunn himself) takes cues from Top Gun: Maverick. It’s nostalgic without being pandering, and modern without being cynical.
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Let’s be honest: this isn’t just another superhero movie. It’s the superhero movie — the one tasked with launching Gunn and Peter Safran’s brand-new DC cinematic universe after the last one slowly collapsed under its own multiversal weight.
The fact that they’re starting with Superman — not Batman, not another Joker origin story — is significant. It’s a bet on optimism. A bet on decency. A bet on a big blue Boy Scout who still believes in helping people, even if he occasionally breaks a few sound barriers in the process.