Credit: Warner Bros. / DCIn a recent social media post, one star from the upcoming film Superman: Legacy (2025) may have accidentally revealed the plot for the debut of James Gunn’s new DC Universe.
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Recently, the cast and crew for Superman: Legacy held the first readthrough of the script, which included director James Gunn, David Corenswet (Clark Kent/Superman), Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor), Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner/Green Lantern), Edi Gathegi (Mister Terrific), Anthony Carrigan (Metamorpho), and more.
Naturally, many of the people present wanted to celebrate the occasion, including Hawkgirl actor Isabela Merced. She did so by taking a picture of her nameplate. However, by doing this, she may have accidentally revealed the plot for the film, or at least the plot for Gunn’s greater DCU.
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The nameplate itself is simple enough. It has Merced’s name, her character’s name, and Superman’s symbol for the film. However, this symbol appears very different from most versions audiences have seen. That’s because it is from a particular story from DC Comics: Kingdom Come.
Even ignoring the fact that it’s black and white instead of red, yellow, and blue, the symbol changes from having the traditional curvy “S” in the center for a diagonal bar from the top left to the bottom right with slight curves near the edges. It’s much more subtle but still very striking.
While this may seem like a significant change to casual viewers, hardcore DC Comics fans would recognize this particular shield from the Kingdom Come comics. A miniseries initially published in 1996, Kingdom Come is an Elseworlds story that has become a fan-favorite over the years. The synopsis for the comic reads:
The new generation of heroes has lost their moral compass, becoming just as reckless and violent as the villains they fight. With Batman retired, Superman in a self-imposed exile and the rest of the Justice League nowhere to be found, it seems that all hope is lost. But not for long.
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While none of this has been confirmed by Gunn, there have been hints to the story. For one, he shared a panel from the comic in November 2022. On top of that, he prevented an animated film based on the comic from being made in 2023.
With all of that information and numerous heroes that have never been seen in live-action before, it’s pretty easy to speculate that Superman: Legacy is at least partially based on Kingdom Come.
What DC Comics story would you like to see translated to the big screen? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!