Meet James Gunn’s Superman

I’m not really ready to follow the James Gunn DC movieverse until I see evidence that he’s going to do a better take on the characters than Zack Snyder did (or that the comics are doing now). At this point I’m growing more and more jaded with these modern takes, made for…okay, stop lying. You aren’t doing them for “modern audiences” because there are still plenty of people today who still want the traditional superheroes. You’re doing it for the “cool kids”, the audience you want to be making movies for and satisfying the everything for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee crowd by making popular things for them instead of not them, aka the actual fans of the work.

Adding to the list of live-action Men Of Steel is David Corenswet, a name I don’t think I’ve gotten right once today while looking into this. After the announcement Variety found an interview with Entertainment Weekly when Corenswet was promoting his role in the movie Hollywood, which he was also a producer for according to IMDB, and mentioned in passing that he would love to play Superman. It’s something they happened to catch but despite being a short statement I don’t think he understood what the problem with the DC Snyderverse was…because he blamed Henry Cavill.

“It came to my attention before the internet got a hold of me,” Corenswet told EW at the time about comparisons to Cavill. “But my pie-in-the-sky ambition is definitely to play Superman. I would love to see somebody do an upbeat, throwback [take on Superman]. I love the Henry Cavill dark and gritty take, but I would love to see the next one be very bright and optimistic.”

There’s a lot you can blame Cavill for. He should have pushed for a brighter costume. He should have refused to play a darker take on Superman just like he allegedly left The Witcher when the showrunners decided they couldn’t care less about the novels because their story was more important and didn’t have the guts to just make something new, so they ruined a pre-existing property. You cannot, however, blame Cavill for that take on Superman. That was Zack Snyder and David Groyer who put Man Of Steel together and Snyder’s vision in Batman V Superman and the longer Justice League, which also including much of his appearance in the Weadon cut because he had to lighten a movie half-finished so of course it was going to be a mess. I remember catching an interview in passing where Cavill said he wanted to do a brighter take, but now will never get the chance unless they do yet another multiverse thing (in which case they’ll probably shove him back in the dark suit, though I’m not sure Warner Brothers would do anything to acknowledge it despite still staying connected to the Superman-without-Superman Smallville, and having that version give up his powers) or he actually tries voice acting for animation or audio dramas.

Gunn allegedly wanted a younger Superman. Control the origin, control the character, but I don’t know that we need to see Superman’s origin story because we all know it. Just let the audience know you aren’t going by Snyder’s alterations (Lara dying alone instead of embracing her alive husband, knowing at least their son is safe, Jonathan Kent all but keeping him from becoming a hero and to raise Clark to live in fear of his own powers and how the world will treat him) and you’ll be fine. All-Star Superman did the whole origin in three panels, which translated to seconds in the animated adaptation. The logo took longer than the origin, and they had to edit it into the first scene just to make it more than a “blink and you’ll miss it”. Either version worked. Here’s what you need to know, and now Superman.

I went over Corenswet’s IMDB and he doesn’t have a history of brighter programs, from the few on his list I’ve heard of. I’m not saying he can’t do it. Comedic actor Michael Keaton surprised everyone with his take on Batman (which is actually Tim Burton’s “fault”). I’m just saying that Rachel Brosnahan, who was picked for Lois Lane, has more credits to her on the lighter side. Not many, but she was a supporting or guest character in Elena Of Avalor and Spies In Disguise and…the title character of The Marvelous Mrs. Mazel? I mean, she was a comedienne with a positive attitude according to the trailers. Really all I have

I’ve seen him being compared to Cavill physically but I’d say he’s closer to Tom Welling, the not-Superman Clark Kent from Smallville. If this picture matches his current body type he may want to get a few muscle-building sessions in. Tobey Maguire pulled it off with a vegan diet to play Spider-Man, and he had an overly padded costume, so it’s not impossible. I can’t speak to his acting abilities because he hasn’t done anything I care to check out. My reason for this short post though is to say it wasn’t Cavill’s darker take on Superman, it was Snyder’s, and Cavill had to go along with it. The question still remains what James Gunn’s take will be and given his history with Scooby-Doo and the jokier movies like Guardians Of The Galaxy and his previous DC works with Suicide Squad and Peacemaker I still have yet to be convinced. It might be lighter than the DCEU but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be right.