Why James Gunn included Flying Dog Krypto in the movie

Move over Benji and Lassie. One of the scene stealers to look forward to in James Gunn’s new Superman The film is about Man of Steel’s best friend, the dog Krypto.

In a moving moment in the trailer, a bloody Superman who has fallen to a snowy ground suddenly whistles and out of the blue we see a storm in the distance as Krypto the dog comes to some sort of rescue.

Gunn said at a presser for the trailer about including the dog in this live-action version of Superman: “I think we’re seeing, from the beginning, we’re seeing a little different side of Superman than we’ve seen.”

“At the end of the day, this movie is not about power. This movie is about a loose expression of the word human being and who he is as a person and almost struggles in his day-to-day life, and we see a different aspect of him at the beginning.”

“His relationship with Krypto is complicated. He’s nowhere near top dog. There’s a lot more to Krypto than you see in this trailer.”

“It was a way of saying we’re embracing the whole Superman mythology,” Gunn continued, “These superhero movies have taken characters and said ‘Okay, yes, it’s Batman, but it’s not any of the other things. It is Superman, but it’s not any of those other things.”

“He lives in a world of superheroes. This is an alternate history world where superheroes exist, but it’s also incredibly grounded. It’s about real people who have real lives who are just metahumans there. Superman has friends who are other superheroes.”

“He’s got a flying dog, he’s got a giant fortress,” adds Gunn. “He has a lot of the things that we love from the Superman comics and mythology that we haven’t been able to see as much of in a movie and certainly haven’t been able to in a grounded way.”

Here’s the trailer you can watch again: