Superman Trailer: A Refreshing, Funny, and Packed Reboot

DC Studios is diving headfirst into the big blue pool of reboots with Superman, the writer-director James Gunn’s version of the Man of Steel. The film is set to debut this July, and while months of early buzz and a sizzle reel have teased the project to death, today’s first full trailer has fans amply primed for the DC Comics adaptation. Get your popcorn ready, because new Clark Kent, new Lois Lane, big guns, and a lotta bad boys from the DC Comics universe all collide in Gunn’s heartfelt, emotionally rich reboot.

It’s a Superman Reboot (Not an Origin Story)

For starters, this is not an origin story, per Gunn himself (his exact words: “It’s not an origin movie.”). Superman takes place after the young Clark Kent (newly) realizes he has powers—our story doesn’t see the eye-popping discovery of flight, x-ray vision, or “super breath.” Instead, it’s his emotional journey to reconcile his Kryptonian upbringing and hereditary role as prince of the alien planet with the grounded, Midwestern sensibilities of his Kansas-based “earthly” parents. It’s a noble, if complicated, origin story in that sense, and it gives the film’s narrative some welcome heft.

Gunn has cast Hollywood vet David Corenswet (Pearl, Hollywood) as the titular superhero. A 25-year-old Superman, rather than an inexperienced wet-behind-the-ears kid, Corenswet will bring his costar and Clark’s Lois Lane the benefit of his dual identities as Superman and Clark Kent. Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) headlines the film as the brash, non-nonsense reporter, and Gunn wastes no time on Lois. As the trailer starts, a full-tilt Lois is barreling through a faux interview as the journalist readies her notes on the subject of… Superman.

Who, surprise, is played by Clark Kent. But if this Lois Lane looks hot for that Clark Kent, is she… in on the secret? To be fair, most folks who’ve seen the trailer are saying yes. I’m not one of them. Read into those flirty retorts all you want, but the complete denial and struggle to contain that grin on Brosnahan’s face make me think she’s the last person on earth to know. And that’s on purpose. As viewers, it’s Clark we’re following, after all. Sure, he may have his champion white dog (more on that later), but a woman is on the other side of his superhero persona, and his S#$T hitting the fan with Lois Lane is central to the plot.

Lex Luthor, with Nicholas Hoult

Said fan has a ton of company, Lex Luthor first and foremost. Nicholas Hoult has been cast as Superman’s nemesis, and trailer fliers have him giving early displays of the charmingly (but ominously) overeducated corporate genius we know and love. Hoult’s Luthor is nicely joined by Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher and Terence Rosemore as Otis, two disreputable but highly intelligent Luthor acolytes of apparent variety.

Superdog Krypto Joins the Brawl

Speaking of dogs, that guy has been getting a lot of play recently. Superman’s animal companion Krypto makes his first cinematic appearance in a big way, and after his brief teaser in December’s teaser trailer (the one where he heroically drags a gravely wounded Superman to the Fortress of Solitude), his strong showing in today’s trailer should reconfirm him as a favorite. The dog goes toe-to-paw with Lex Luthor and, in a later scene, an intimidating and mysterious new foe: Angela Spica, a.k.a. The Engineer.

Played by Maria Gabriela de Faria, Spica is one sleek cyber-science-dominated character. Sporting all-black (naturally) spandex and sporting a massive starfighter pilot-style helmet, she’s joined by a pair of rotating blade discs created by nanotechnology as she and a small squadron of power-armored Luthor troops storm the Fortress of Solitude. Turns out, there’s more than one alien attack at play.

Cutting Back and Forth Between Kaiju and (DC Comics) Icons

This is where things get bigger. The sheer volume of eye candy in the trailer ranges from adrenaline-pumping close-up battles in the Fortress of Solitude to kaiju-sized space whales, right down to epic team-ups, with Gunn also previewing a host of lesser-known (but still great!) DC Comics icons. Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner, a Green Lantern with a bowl-cut haircut to match. Anthony Carrigan is Rex Mason/Metamorpho, a superhero with elemental body transmutation powers (yes, the shapeshifter). Isabela Merced plays Hawkgirl, the flying warrior from ancient Kryptonian lore, and Edi Gathegi portrays Michael Holt/Mister Terrific, a whiz-kid inventor turned costumed do-gooder.

Even more characters line up in the trailer, including newcomer Milly Alcock as Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl. Jonathan and Martha Kent (Clark’s parents) are played by Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell, respectively. Frank Grillo returns as Rick Flag Sr., his first DC comics project since the animated feature Creature Commandos, and Sean Gunn also has a part as Maxwell Lord.

Superman’s Heart Beats Louder Than A Flash

From top-of-a-skyscraper Superman smashes to full-on Fortress of Solitude destruction, the action beats in Gunn’s trailer are hardly the only place where this film shines. Maybe it’s because the fight scenes aren’t overbearing (yet), but the real emotional meat of Superman’s trailer (outside of the admittedly wild personal stakes) is found in Clark’s instinctive, knee-jerk need to help when he’s been stopped by Lois Lane and her mic-drop interrogation about how Superman is seen by those in power. She’s not wrong—though his “They were gonna die!” cry in his defense gets right at the heart of one of the film’s likely moral questions, Lois and her posse of government officials (shout out to James C. Morton as the Secretary of Defense) have a point.

The trailer also shows Superman’s more intimate and, by extension, human side. After the world-is-ending action at the trailer’s midpoint, its closing act takes a breather. Superman flops down into his clothes-covered bed, stretched out in a rare moment of peace… with his ever-vigilant, loyal white dog Krypto on his chest. Again, simple, but Gunn seems to be gunning for a film with big heroics with a grounded emotional center, and after the trailer for Batman v. Superman, that’s a welcome promise.

It’s only one trailer, and trailers can’t sell films alone, but Superman has an enviable stack of talent behind it both onscreen and behind the scenes, a fun but modern tone, and big story threads that seem, finally, to recognize what makes this superhero resonate. In one word: family. A reboot may be too mild a term for what Gunn’s film looks to be; Superman looks like it’s rebooting DC Studios for the next phase of DC’s big-screen universe.