James Gunn’s DC movie features Krypto, the Green Lantern

“Home. Take me home.”

There’s a remarkable amount of symbolism packed into those words, the only ones spoken by the titular Man of Steel in the first teaser trailer for “Superman.” The footage premiered Thursday after a Dec. 17 press preview, introduced by writer-director James Gunn. The filmmaker has been saying for two years now that this film will formally launch the new DC Universe, which he and fellow DC Studios boss Peter Safran have been tasked with leading. But as the teaser makes abundantly clear, this Superman — as played by relative newcomer David Corenswet (“Hollywood,” “Twisters”) — will debut for the first time in a cinematic universe populated by the full spectrum of DC Comics characters. Superman is indeed coming home to DC.

Of course, the teaser offers a first look at Corenswet as Superman’s bespectacled alter ego, Clark Kent, reporter for Metropolis newspaper The Daily Planet. There are also several quick shots of Kent’s colleague and Superman’s beloved, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), both at the Daily Planet and with Superman; and Superman’s archenemy, Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who glares as he hatches some kind of nefarious plot. Additionally, there are a few quick glimpses of Skyler Gisondo as Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, as well as Pruitt Taylor Vince as Jonathan Kent, Clark’s adopted father.

All of these characters have been staples in almost every live-action and animated adaptation of Superman thus far. But for the first time in the modern era of live-action superhero movies, we also meet the last son of Krypton’s rambling dog, Krypto the Superdog, who rescues a bloodied and exhausted Superman after he crashes into the arctic ice. There are also quick glimpses of several other DC superheroes making their film debuts. They include Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, who is seen floating inside an impenetrable sphere; Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, the combative member of the Green Lantern Corps who marches against Superman with a purpose that doesn’t seem friendly; Isabela Merced (“Alien: Romulus”) as the winged Hawkgirl; and Anthony Corrigan as the pale, balding Metamorpho.

As Gunn explained in a Q&A after the press screening at the Warner Bros. lot, the teaser is meant to demonstrate that this Superman “lives in a world of superheroes.”

“Superhero movies have taken these characters and said, ‘Okay, it’s Batman (or) it’s Superman, but it’s not any of those other things,'” Gunn said. “We embrace the whole Superman mythology. He has friends who are other superheroes. He has people he doesn’t get along with who are other superheroes. He has a lot of the things that we love from the Superman comics, that we haven’t been able to see as much of in filmed media, and certainly haven’t been able to see in a grounded way, which I hope we’ve created.”

Gunn said his DC Universe “shares as many elements with ‘Game of Thrones’ as it does with the Marvel Universe,” wanting it to feel like a fully lived-in world that just happens to contain fantastical elements.

Here are some more revelations from the extended Q&A with Gunn, Corenswet, Brosnahan and Hoult.

Yes, it’s an electric guitar playing John Williams’ classic ‘Superman’ theme, but the film will also have original music

Gunn said he struggled with whether to include the rousing main theme composed by John Williams for the 1978 “Superman” film, which he ultimately realized was so indelibly associated with the character that his film should incorporate it on one or other way – like the electric guitar riff used in the teaser.

“It was one of my favorite soundtracks of all time,” he said.

The director turned to John Murphy, who composed the scores for Gunn’s 2021 DC film “The Suicide Squad” and his 2023 Marvel film “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.” “I said, ‘I’m going to use a version of the Williams theme, but I’m going to do our own version of it,'” Gunn said. “It leads to a lot of other pieces, some of which go back to the Williams theme, but some of which are purely John Murphy.”

The director brought Murphy in early in the process—a rare early appointment for film composers—and sent him preliminary drafts of the script nearly two years ago. Gunn then played some of Murphy’s opening passes at a score on the set while they were shooting the film. “It’s finding that balance between the novel and the traditional.”

The film will embrace Superman’s innate goodness

Several times during the Q&A, Gunn kept coming back to the point that he wanted the film to be, at its core, about goodness, and how much he feels the world could use a story that embraces it.

“We have a battered Superman at the beginning,” he said, referring to the opening of the teaser (and, he implied, the opening of the film itself) with Superman running into the ice. “This is our country. I believe in the goodness of people, and I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs, their politics, do their best to get by and be good people – despite , how it can work on the other side, whatever the other side might be. This film is about that. It’s about the basic kindness of man, and that it can be seen as uncool and under siege (by) some of the darker voices. some of the higher ones votes.”

After the Q&A, Gunn elaborated on this theme as he spoke Black.

“I’m excited for people to see the essence of what we’re doing, because it’s really been like this private secret that we’ve all been hoarding,” he said. “We felt really good about it, like from a moral place, even from the beginning. We all felt like we were doing something good, both in terms of quality and actually something that’s not a fascist power fantasy.”

“I don’t say that about other superhero movies in general,” he added, as if anticipating the displeasure the sentiment might spark among the hardcore fans of Zack Snyder’s DC movies — which have been criticized for indulging in, well, fascist power fantasies. “But it felt good to do something that was about someone’s kindness.”

The actors developed their own approaches to their iconic characters

At one point in the Q&A, while talking about Superman “standing eye-to-eye” with Lex Luthor, Corenswet stopped himself short, as if he was about to reveal something he shouldn’t. “This is my first project where I have to be very careful about spoilers,” he said with a laugh. But each of the actors ended up sharing some telling insights into their interpretations of their respective characters.

Corenswet seemed to feel the most personal connection with his character, specifically what some see as Superman’s naivety about the innate goodness of humanity. “I was always cut out of the drama when I was in school,” he said. “I never felt like I knew the exciting, juicy gossip that was going on. And because of that, I’ve always seen people as the best versions of themselves—I don’t think in a terribly naive way. A lot of people consider Superman to be a naive character, and it’s really just a blindness to the little imperfections and the silly little things that we get caught up in as humans. I tend to miss those, and I think Superman misses them, and it is that which keeps him steadfast and determined to look upon the good and the hopeful.”

For Superman’s physical inspiration, Corenswet said he drew most from his brother-in-law, “who is six (feet) eight (inches) and 270 pounds, has the deepest voice and is always in the way and always trying not to be.” But that it wasn’t until he started working with his co-stars, particularly Brosnahan and Hoult, “that I became aware of who Clark was and who Superman was,” he said.

For Brosnahan, Lois Lane has been a character that “evolves to fit what it would mean to be a fearless journalist in each generation or decade in which she is presented.” So she looked at what it would mean for Lois to live in a world where print journalism “maybe an endangered art form, and she’s someone who’s dedicated her whole life to it.”

“Because of her profession, but also because of who she is, she questions everything,” Brosnahan continued. “She tries to look around every corner. And that’s the way she meets the world.”

Many of Lex Luthor’s classic qualities are quite present in Hoult’s version of Metropolis’ titan of industry. “Obviously, he’s smart and ruthless, and he has to outmaneuver Superman on certain levels because he can’t match him on others,” Hoult said. “But there’s also something about this character, hopefully from my point of view, where even though you might not agree with his process, you can understand where he’s coming from and why what he’s pushing as his ideology might be better for humanity.”

Superman’s suit was designed to look very different from previous superhero costumes – but it still brought a smile to everyone’s face

While Gunn said it took “a long development process” to finalize his version of Superman’s suit, he was clear from the start what he was doing not want it to look like.

“I didn’t want it to look like a wet T-shirt,” he said. “I didn’t want it to have a lot of fake muscle in it, and I didn’t want airbrushed abs on it.”

For his part, Corenswet said that because there were so many iterations of every aspect of the costume, he never had a moment when he wore it for the “first time.” Instead, he got to experience how others saw him in the final version of the suit for the first time.

“I didn’t feel like Superman, but it was so great to see my co-stars and the crew members,” he said. “You’re going to witness them witness it.”

Hoult then told his side of this experience. “When I saw David in the costume, I was in awe,” the actor said. “I hate to admit it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. There was a scene where he flies into the set and I would have a little private grin on my face. And I turned around and I then everyone else in the room with the same look on their faces saw him.”

“And then the best thing is to see kids see it,” Corenswet added. “There’s just nothing like it.”

On that note, Gunn told the story, as he has told versions in the past, that during one of Corenswet’s fittings, he complained about how silly and colorful the suit looked. “And David says, ‘Yeah, he’s an alien from outer space who’s super powerful who doesn’t want kids to be afraid of him.’ It touched me in the moment and it touches me now. That’s who he is.”

“Superman” opens in theaters on July 11. Watch the trailer below.