Arguably (and maybe not even arguably) the most anticipated geek movie of 2025 is James Gunn’s Superman. This movie, more than any other in the nascent DCU, will need to establish the style, the tone, the overall ethos of this revamped DC Studios connected universe. If the first teaser trailer for the DCU’s Superman is anything to go by, we’re in exceedingly good hands. Superman looks full of heart, warmth, hope, and kindness amid all the expected superhero action and world-building. And the music, weaving in a guitar-shredding version of John Williams’ classic 1978 Superman theme. It all just looks…super! See for yourself.
From the opening moments of a battered Superman (David Corenswet) crashing into the arctic and whistling for Krypto to take him home, we were sold. What better way to illustrate a version of Kal-El who relies on friends (even the four-legged ones) and tries so hard to protect people that he suffers massive harm? In contrast to certain other Superman depictions in recent memory, this trailer immediately shows us not a weary god who can annihilate anyone and any thing around him. No, this is a Superman who puts himself between innocents and potential harm.
This point is driven home further when the trailer shows us Superman saving a girl from debris at the hands of a giant monster attacking Metropolis. We also see our first glimpse of other super-powered individuals we knew would be in the movie. Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner (complete with stupid hair), Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan’s Metamorpho, and Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl get a moment or two apiece. Of course we also get a couple of villain glimpses. Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor and his sinister baldness get a couple of good moments opposite Superman, Luthorcorp’s skyscrapers adorning the skyline.
We’re not sure we see signs of it in this movie, but we’re curious to see if Brainiac, long rumored to be the movie’s secret villain, will pop up in these teasers sometime soon. That might explain the giant alien craft/weapon we see in promo images and elsewhere in the teaser. Sure isn’t a Lex thing.
But amid all of the cool DC Comics shiz we see, one thing really stands out in the teaser trailer. It’s Superman’s, for lack of a better word, humanity. We see him hug his adoptive father (Pruitt Taylor Vince) on the Kent farm. He looks charmingly befuddled in his curly-haired Clark Kent getup at The Daily Planet. And, most importantly, we see Superman opposite Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) a lot in this trailer. Grounding whatever wild thing is happening in the relationships Superman has with people in his life is so important. It’s what makes Superman Superman.
And yes, we get a mix of how society at large feels about him. We see a little boy in what looks like a war-torn area raising a Superman emblem flag juxtaposed with Metropolitans shouting and throwing things at Superman. Universal good is harder to quantify these days. How our hero deals with that is what makes him more than just a thug with powers.
I truly can’t wait for more of this take on Superman, but we’ll of course have to. Superman takes flight, and the DCU begins in earnest, July 11, 2025.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
