Every Superman movie since 1978 has been haunted by Christopher Reeve. James Gunn just… didn’t care.
Producers have figured out that nostalgia is a great way to pack theaters over the last decade or so. At some point, fans became used to reboots, revivals, requels, and projects that rely heavily on the past to move towards the future. As disappointing as that sounds, there are still movies that dare to do things differently, and last year’s Superman was most certainly one of them.
In many ways, James Gunn’s Superman (2025) broke the mold and played against the conventions of modern superhero films. The result is an unconventional origin story that skips most of the usual beats of a movie of its kind in all the right places.
Why Every Superman Movie Has Been Running From the Same Ghost
A common challenge many “origin story” superhero films face is how to sell a well-known story to a new audience. It’s the same reason why we constantly see Uncle Ben and the Waynes die – those losses are the core elements of the Spider-Man and Batman mythos.
Even films that avoid that connection – like Spider-Man: Homecoming – are tied to a larger cinematic universe or a legacy that references the old to construct something new. 2013’s Man of Steel was, essentially, a retelling of Superman: The Movie; Gunn’s first Superman constantly avoids falling into the common pitfalls of nostalgia or references, establishing a true legacy of its own right away.
James Gunn Made a Superman Movie That Doesn’t Need You to Do Your Homework
Superhero films have become increasingly self-referential, to the point that each standalone movie hardly works as a self-contained story. Every film is a trailer for a much bigger project, or the next movie in the series. Superman (2025), on the other hand, has the benefit of being the first movie in the new DCU.
Instead of going for a “safe” plot, Gunn took a leap of faith and used a story that assumes the audience already knows who Superman is – and that makes perfect sense. Gunn trusts his audience, and that pays off. Everyone knows who the Man of Steel is, even if it’s just through cultural osmosis.
The Superman movie from last year didn’t rely on Zod, the Snyderverse, or even recycle comic storylines to bring the audience into its version of Metropolis. It simply used characters with nearly a century of publication history and crafted a new story that surprised fans while still honoring the characters we all know and love.
This Is What It Looks Like When a Director Actually Trusts the Audience
By coming up with an original story that utilizes characters from the comics in clever ways, Gunn shows that he respects not just Superman as a character, but his fans as well. He doesn’t need to explain who the Man of Steel is with references or callbacks – he can just show it.
Gunn’s Superman (2025) might, at times, feel like the most vulnerable iteration of the character, but thanks to a story that treats him like an active character and not like some venerable museum artifact, we received a new Man of Steel that resonates with the times. Let’s hope that Gunn can keep that momentum going for the rest of the new DCU – because, if he can, things are about to get very interesting for DC fans.
RELATED: Superman (2025) Made Every Other Version Feel Unfinished
