The Superman trailer shows the Bruised, Bloody Version in the James Gunn film

On By Littum

Superman is at a low point when audiences first see him in the trailer for his new movie. Bloody and bruised, he crashes into a frozen landscape. His breathing is labored, as if he has fluid in his lungs, or maybe some broken ribs.

Then there is hope on the horizon – in the form of his faithful friend, Krypto. “Take me home,” Superman says to his canine friend, later in the trailer (below).

It’s one of only two spoken lines in the play—the other is a young boy with closed eyes and a makeshift flag muttering “Superman, Superman” in desperate hope—but it’s a line that points to a hope , writer-director James Gunn wanted to characterize his new film.

Created in 1939, Superman embodied for decades its motto, “Truth, Justice and the American Way,” with the character serving as a symbol of the good things America could represent to the world. That view has become more complicated in recent years, prompting DC to officially drop the motto in favor of “Truth, Justice and a Better Tomorrow” in 2021.

During a trailer launch event for the press on Monday at the Warner Bros. site in Burbank, Gunn was asked how he incorporated the decency that Superman can represent to America and the rest of the world in the film

“I think that’s what ‘Take Me Home’ is about,” Gunn said. “We have a kind of battered vision of Superman at the beginning, and I think that’s our country. I believe in the goodness of people, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, doing their best to get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like to the other side, whatever the other side may be,” Gunn continued.

There is a lot of driving Supermanarriving on July 11 as the first solo film for the character since 2013’s Man of steel. It’s the cornerstone property for DC Studios co-heads Gunn and Peter Safran, who have an entire universe of TV and movies planned after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hired them with the mandate to reinvent DC. Thus, the team is already doing everything it can to build excitement, including the early press reception that also included stars David Corenswet (Superman), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.

Corenswet, who appeared on Ryan Murphy shows such as Hollywood and The politicianadmitted that sometimes he didn’t feel like Superman on set, but seeing his co-stars’ reaction to him told him all he needed to know.

“It’s like when you get a nice haircut and you forget about it, but then you walk around and everyone’s like, ‘Wow, you look good for once!'” he laughed. “I got to see other people see Superman.”

It’s something Brosnahan experienced firsthand. After spending part of the shoot only interacting with Corenswet without the suit, she encountered him in the costume for the first time. Addressing the actor on stage in the screening room on Monday, Brosnahan said: “I just remember … walking through a field and following you with the suit on. I ran up to you and thought, ‘You’re freaking Superman! Crazy .”

A hero is only as interesting as their villain, and Hoult said Gunn’s script presented a Lex Luthor he believes audiences can relate to.

“Even though you might not agree with his process, there’s an element where you can understand on some level where he’s coming from and why maybe what he’s pushing as his ideology might be better for humanity,” Hoult said .

The trailer also gave glimpses of the other superheroes in that world, including Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (dodgy haircut and all), Isabela Merced’s Hawkgirl and Edi Gathegi’s Mr. Terrific.

Gunn is known for bringing beloved animals to the screen, such as Rocket Raccoon, who was the central character of last year Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

With Krypto, he may have done it again, with a version that subverts the decades-long version seen in comics and other media as a mere dog with its chest out. This one looks more like a rescue than anything else. Of the trailer’s dog scene-stealer, Gunn says, “He’s nowhere near the best dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”

As for the film’s themes, Gunn said, “it’s a movie about kindness.”

— Borys Kit contributed to this story.