Credit: Warner Bros. / DCSuperman: Legacy is one of the most anticipated comic book movies in years, which says a lot in a world that has included Avengers: Endgame (2019), Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), and, uh, Black Adam (2022).
Writer/director James Gunn has been given the keys to Kingdom Come (not that one, sadly), and Superman: Legacy has been established as the formal reboot of the DC Universe, which means that it will be responsible for the tone and future of the franchise.
Sorry, Blue Beetle.
While James Gunn is still playing his cards close to the chest when it comes to the actual plot of Superman: Legacy, enough has been revealed (or strongly rumored) that we decided to put together everything we know about the movie right now.
We are going to have to wait until 2025 to actually to see the movie, but we’ve done the homework for you, just like Warner Bros apparently wants us all to do.
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‘Superman: Legacy’ Inspirations
James Gunn has been clear about one thing: Superman: Legacy will not be another origin story for the Man of Steel, much like the rival Marvel Cinematic Universe did away with explaining how Peter Parker became Spider-Man when the Tom Holland version was introduced in Captain America: Civil War (2016).
Instead, James Gunn has said that the movie will feature a younger version of Clark Kent than we are used to seeing, as he adapts to life in Metropolis and learns the ropes as a reporter at the Daily Planet. It sounds more like the movie is something of a coming-of-age story, which is interesting considering the source material Gunn has referenced.
DC Studios has referenced Superman: Birthright, Superman: Brainiac, Superman: Ending Battle, and All-Star Superman as inspirations for the upcoming movie. In particular, James Gunn has specifically mentioned All-Star Superman as a primary source for the tone of the movie, although that does not mean that the movie will necessarily replicate its plot in any way.
Credit: DC Comics
However, the Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely series prominently invoked the tone of a lighter Silver Age Superman than the grimmer Zack Snyder version we have since seen in films, so we likely can expect that we will have a more humorous yet philosophical Man of Steel in Superman: Legacy.
The Cast Confirmed So Far:
Superman
Obviously, Superman: Legacy will star the Big Blue Boy Scout, though that has not been without controversy. The dying embers of the DC Extended Universe last saw Superman appear in Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson’s attempt to rally the franchise around him, in a post-credits cameo that promised an epic brawl between the two characters.
However, much like the Darkseid battle promised by Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021), such is not to be. Unexpectedly, Henry Cavill was passively ousted from the role of Clark Kent; James Gunn has denied reports that Cavill was fired and put it more as he wasn’t hired back for the character.
While a sizable contingent of DC fans are still fuming that Henry Cavill will no longer be the official Kryptonian superhero (even as Gal Gadot is reportedly still in her role as Wonder Woman), it has been announced that David Corenswet will portray Superman in the upcoming movie.
The casting appears to have been made at least in part to reflect James Gunn’s vision of a younger, less experienced Superman, so it will be interesting to see how David Corenswet balances the difference between the most powerful being in the world and a guy from Kansas still figuring things out.
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Lois Lane
We also will likely never have a Superman movie that does not involve intrepid Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane in some capacity, even if Superman III (1983) did sideline her in favor of Richard Pryor.
It appears that Superman: Legacy will feature Lois Lane far more than that, given that at least part of the plot has been described as a workplace comedy involving Clark Kent and Lane. Many modern portrayals of Lane depict her as a far more experienced and aggressive journalist than Kent (Ol’ Smallville himself), so it seems likely that the new movie will fall in that direction.
Lois Lane was portrayed most recently by Amy Adams in the DCEU, beginning in Man of Steel (2013). However, much like Henry Cavill, Adams was not invited back for James Gunn’s new DCU, and the role has been recast with Rachel Brosnahan.
The Lesser Known Characters
While the characters of Clark Kent and Lois Lane are some of the best-known in all of modern pop history, James Gunn has revealed that Superman: Legacy will feature some pretty obscure characters from DC Comics lore. This makes a lot of sense, considering it comes from the writer/director behind Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the most obscure Marvel superhero team to become megastars in the toy aisle.
However, many casual moviegoers could probably use a reminder of who some of these weirdos are, and we are here to guide you around the more dusty corners of the DC Universe.
Hawkgirl
Of all the secondary characters that James Gunn has announced will appear in Superman: Legacy, Hawkgirl might be the most familiar to audiences, if only because her male counterpart Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) recently appeared in Black Adam.
However, it is fair to say that the Hawk family has one of the most tangled, convoluted backstories in the entire canon of DC Comics, to the point that the company gets confused about exactly what Hawkgirl and Hawkman are about.
The original Golden Age Hawkgirl (created by Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville) was the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess who fought crime through the simple method of smashing things with a giant mace. However, she was updated in the 1960s by Gardner and Joe Kubert to now be an alien space cop from planet Thanagar who came to Earth in pursuit of a space criminal. At some point, those two stories merged, separated again, and Hawkgirl was, at one point, revealed to be the earthbound version of a kind of Biblical angel.
However confusing that may be, it is nothing compared to the most recent version of Hawkgirl, who will be portrayed in Superman: Legacy by Isabela Merced.
The Kendra Saunders version of the character that Isabela Merced will portray was a human woman who died and whose body was inhabited by the spirit of the Golden Age Hawkgirl, who initially believed herself to be the human Saunders. Also, in some sense, she was still from Thanagar and had some (but not all) memories from all her different incarnations.
It is unclear exactly how Isabela Merced will be portraying Hawkgirl, but we will just have to trust James Gunn will find a way to streamline things.
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Metamorpho
In contrast, the backstory of Metamorpho is relatively simple. As often happens with Golden Age characters, Egypt is once again involved.
Metamorpho (created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon) is the superhero name of Rex Mason (an awesomely old-fashioned name), an all-purpose adventurer hired by an evil industrialist to steal the Orb of Ra, a mysterious Egyptian artifact. As it turned out, the Orb was made out of a radioactive meteorite, and exposure to it transformed Mason into an inhuman, indestructible creature with the ability to transform his body into any naturally occurring element.
However, that would not be complicated enough for comic books, so it eventually turns out that Metamorpho is just one of many humans transformed by the Egyptian god Ra as his servants in a battle against a snake deity; at times, he was joined by a female counterpart who called herself Element Girl.
Metamorpho will be portrayed by Anthony Carrigan in Superman: Legacy, although his relationship with the Kryptonian is still unknown.
In DC Comics lore, Anthony Carrigan’s character is an important hero and is frequently a member of the Justice League. He is also a tragic hero in the classical sense, able to transform his invulnerable body into any element but unable to appear human or pass as normal by putting on a pair of glasses.
Anthony Carrigan is best known for his soulfully comedic work on HBO’s Barry, so it will be fun to see how he brings humanity to a character who has been stripped of it.
Mr Terrific
James Gunn seems to have a real fondness for Golden Age superheroes, because the third of the announced supporting characters to appear in Superman: Legacy is another one of them: Mr Terrific.
We’ll put an asterisk on that because this particular version of Mr Teriffic (to be played by Edi Gathegi) is the modern-era Mr Terrific, who took on the persona originated by Terry Sloane (created by Charles Reizenstein and Hal Sharp).
The first Mr Terrific was a self-made millionaire, Olympian, and martial artist whose origin story is darkly rooted in suicidal ennui. Terry Sloane’s mastery of every part of human skill basically depressed him and drove him to contemplate killing himself until he decided fighting crime would be a better idea.
However, Superman: Legacy will feature Edi Gathegi as Michael Holt, a similarly brilliant and physically perfect man who is driven to suicidal thoughts by the deaths of his wife and daughter. The character (created by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake) encounters the supernatural force known as the Spectre, who inspires him to superheroics and take on the mantle of Mr Terrific.
Edi Gathegi’s character is a technological genius and basically a friendly rival to Batman (who owns Holt’s company in comics lore), but most notably, is one of the few DC Comics characters whose character is fundamentally rooted in his skepticism of spirituality and religion.
It would be interesting if Mr Terrific is a counterpoint to Superman’s sense of faith in the upcoming movie, both as a human and a hero, but we’ll just have to see.
Related: Major ‘Superman’ Project Reportedly Cancelled at DC
Guy Gardner
Of all the heroes that James Gunn has revealed will appear in Superman: Legacy, Guy Gardner is the sole non-Golden Age character. However, his inclusion in the movie does appear to be a reason to cast Gunn’s buddy Nathan Fillion, so that probably evens out.
Guy Gardner is best known as one of the most prominent characters to have carried the role of Green Lantern, which is how he will be portrayed in the film. Gardner was created by John Broome and Gil Kane but heavily revamped by Steve Englehart and Joe Staton into the version best known to most DC Comics fans: a big dumb galoot.
Originally, Guy Gardner was one of two humans deemed to be worthy of using a Green Lantern power ring when the alien space cop (DC has a lot of space cops) Abin Sur crash-landed on Earth. However, it turns out that Hal Jordan was slightly closer in physical proximity, so he got to be a superhero first.
While Nathan Fillion’s character was initially depicted as a fairly generic character, Englehart and Staton’s version of the character was a cocky, kinda-dumb, and macho lunkhead who still managed to be an interstellar superhero. Over the years, Guy Gardner has been a Green Lantern, an unaffiliated hero with a yellow power ring (it’s complicated), a shapeshifting human-alien hybrid, and a prominent member of the Justice League.
If we had to guess, it’s likely that the Nathan Fillion version of the character will lean into the “bonehead with a bowl-cut” version of the character and serve as an introduction to the more cosmic aspects of the DC Universe.
At the moment, there are a few characters that have been rumored to join Superman: Legacy (including Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and the world-shrinking menace Brainiac), but we’ll update those as they are confirmed!
Stay tuned!
Who else should show up in Superman: Legacy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!