James Gunn's Superman Coming In 2025

I would much prefer The Authority not play a big role in the Superman movie, or even appear. I don’t want to see an adaptation of “What's So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?” (with the real Authority and not The Elite) as the first Superman film of Gunn’s DCU. he’s setting up a brand new Superman world and it would be stupid to go straight to a big moral conflict before the character is truly establish. It would be repeating the same mistakes of Batman v. Superman.

I know a lot of people want them to save Brainiac until later down the line but they need to kick this new DCU off with a massive bang. Audiences have seen so much already from the superhero genre and the DC brand is still pretty trashed. Some lower tier villain isn’t going to cut it. There’s also gonna be a ton of complaining from the Snyder bros pissed about the Cavill situation. Gunn needs something huge like finally bringing Brainiac to the big screen to drown out the angry static and put butts in the seats.

Since Gunn is such a big fan of Morrison, I wouldn’t be surprised if Superman first encounters a Brainiac similar to The Collector from the New 52 Action Comics. A more robotic being. It would also be a way for Clark to discover aspects of Krypton’s LEGACY. Then in later movies we find out that the real Brainiac (a more traditional version) is still out there and is an even bigger threat.

I agree with the notion of not holding back. If this movie isn't a success it won't matter if they save the big name villains for later, because we'll never get a sequel anyway.

This is the shit I'm talking about when I complain about studios being too worried about the next film/s down the line, and not worrying enough about what's in front of them. So use Brainiac in Legacy! Is it hard to go bigger after that? Sure, but failing to impress audiences now means you won't get an "after that" at all. And you *can* go bigger after Brainiac. More importantly, you can go *different* too. You 'could' do Brainiac now, then do Imperiex, Darkseid, Mongul, or any number of super powered cosmic threats afterwards. That's an escalation of scale which fits most conventional sequel wisdom. But you could do a sequel that tackles a different kind of threat-scale too.

Nobody wants this, and neither do I, but just as an example of switching things up, the sequel could do 90's Toyman. That's going to have a very personal, very real sense of threat, very different from a world-eater like Brainiac but still something that could get audiences engaged and invested because the danger is so personal and real; easy for audiences to feel like that could be their kid in Toyman's clutches.

And again, that's just an example so nobody start clutching their pearls about it. All I'm saying is if you do Brainiac now, you aren't locking yourself into the same kind of villain/problem/conflict in the sequels. The sequel could do Maxima, or Ultra-Humanite...many of Clark's rogues aren't the heavy hitters Brainiac is, but can still provide a quality story with adequate threat scale, without having to be "Brainiac but louder!"

[QUOTE=Vordan;6477790]Casting calls are probably correct. If we’re getting Teschmacher, does that mean we won’t get Mercy Graves? She’s not a hugely important character but I like her, the concept of Lex having a cyborg bodyguard is neat, and I’d prefer she be a consistent henchwoman for Lex. Maybe we’ll get both.

I don’t know what to make of Gonzales teasing Brainiac. Maybe the trades were wrong about Apex being the villain for Legacy, since that seems to be Jack Hawksmoor, but it’s kind of suspicious that they could all get that so wrong. Maybe Gunn is lying and the Authority will in fact be the antagonists of Legacy? Biggest hangup I have about that is I can’t see how the Authority would play into Gunn’s statement regarding the movie’s themes of Clark balancing his dual heritage, whereas I can easily see how Brainiac could be used for that kind of story. I’m fine with the Authority as long as Manchester Black is on the team, and I’d be happy to see Brainiac otherwise.[/QUOTE]

It depends where the actual identity of the characters come from. Casting calls for Legacy have characters' descriptions associated to codenames ("Apex" and "Blitz") but not the real name of the characters. In 2013, when WB was looking for actress to play Diana, agencies were asking for exotic women to be the female lead in the BvS film, and going by the description it was believed to be for a Batman villain like Talia. Gal herself thought she was auditioning for Catwoman. More recently, the lead of the Gotham Knights show was mistaken for Dick Grayson because the casting description: [url]https://www.murphysmultiverse.com/exclusive-dick-grayson-harper-row-and-spoiler-headline-the-roster-of-cws-gotham-knights/[/url]

If the identity of Apex or Blitz were guessed based on the descriptions, they could turn out being off or for characters that share similarities with the ones listed.

[QUOTE=Last Son of Krypton;6478172]It depends where the actual identity of the characters come from. Casting calls for Legacy have characters' descriptions associated to codenames ("Apex" and "Blitz") but not the real name of the characters. In 2013, when WB was looking for actress to play Diana, agencies were asking for exotic women to be the female lead in the BvS film, and going by the description it was believed to be for a Batman villain like Talia. Gal herself thought she was auditioning for Catwoman. More recently, the lead of the Gotham Knights show was mistaken for Dick Grayson because the casting description: [url]https://www.murphysmultiverse.com/exclusive-dick-grayson-harper-row-and-spoiler-headline-the-roster-of-cws-gotham-knights/[/url]

If the identity of Apex or Blitz were guessed based on the descriptions, they could turn out being off or for characters that share similarities with the ones listed.[/QUOTE]

Good to know, so people could be wrong about Apex and Blitz? Even though I don’t mind doing Superman vs. the Authority as long as Manchester Black is on the team, I would prefer a traditional Superman Rogue as the lead villain. I saw one theory that in Legacy, the Authority isn’t actually formed yet. Instead Hawksmoor, Sparks, and the rest are part of Stormwatch, and they get destroyed by Brainiac, which leads to Superman saving the day and cementing himself as the top hero. Then as part of the fallout, Sparks and other survivors go form the Authority from Stormwatch’s ashes, leading into the Authority movie where they’ll spar with Superman. Something like that would work for me in terms of using the wider shared universe while still keeping Legacy a Superman story.

I really have no personal investment in the Authority, though I wonder if Brainiac is too "big" for what they're looking to do and the budget they'll need. Though Gunn knows how to work within a budget.

Do we know if the writer's strike will effect the movie?

[QUOTE=superduperman;6478389]Do we know if the writer's strike will effect the movie?[/QUOTE]

It will if the strike lasts into 2024. Right now however it doesn’t, Gunn is doing casting and story boarding. Pre-production hasn’t been paused yet.

[QUOTE=Vordan;6478232]Good to know, so people could be wrong about Apex and Blitz? Even though I don’t mind doing Superman vs. the Authority as long as Manchester Black is on the team, I would prefer a traditional Superman Rogue as the lead villain. I saw one theory that in Legacy, the Authority isn’t actually formed yet. Instead Hawksmoor, Sparks, and the rest are part of Stormwatch, and they get destroyed by Brainiac, which leads to Superman saving the day and cementing himself as the top hero. Then as part of the fallout, Sparks and other survivors go form the Authority from Stormwatch’s ashes, leading into the Authority movie where they’ll spar with Superman. Something like that would work for me in terms of using the wider shared universe while still keeping Legacy a Superman story.[/QUOTE]

What's seem sure so far about Apex and Blitz is the ethnicity of the actors they are looking for (black and asian/latinx respectively). If the "verified source" is someone working in a casting agency likely he/she's making educated guesses based on the character descriptions associated to the codenames and could guess right or wrong. Or maybe that person got some casting grid with the list of characters requested for the film, idk. Like this, from Sept. 2022 (you should know which episode it turns out to be):

[QUOTE=Last Son of Krypton;6186847]Apparently Johns came up with some weird Titans/Doom Patrol crossover with Stargirl having a cameo too. There was a casting sheet being shared privately that listed the Titans and Doom Patrol actors to film in August, while Brec Bassinger is supposed to film her scenes in less than 2 weeks.[/QUOTE]

We'll know for sure who is and who isn't in Legacy when they'll announce officially the actors.

I wouldn't know if it would be something Gunn would even think about, but I saw the main page mention For All Seasons as something Gunn could look at, and I'd quite like that

[URL="https://www.reddit.com/r/DCEUleaks/comments/13rkvst/according_to_danielrpk_brainiac_will_appear_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&utm_content=1&utm_term=15"]Now the latest scoop is that Brainiac is indeed the villain of Superman: Legacy[/URL]

Screen testing for the actors should be happening this week or next. We might find out who the other forntrunners besides Corenswet for Superman are.

[QUOTE=Vordan;6487359]Screen testing for the actors should be happening this week or next. We might find out who the other forntrunners besides Corenswet for Superman are.[/QUOTE]

More than the actor I'm more curious to see how the costume will get adapted.

[URL="https://variety.com/2023/film/columns/superman-james-gunn-pierson-fode-bold-and-the-beautiful-1235628571/"]James Gunn’s Superman Search Includes Former ‘Bold and the Beautiful’ Star Pierson Fodé[/URL]

Seeing some chatter that Corenswet has officially got the Superman role. Nothing from anyone trustworthy just yet however.

Corenswet seems to be the frontrunner for the role. 99% is going to be new Superman.