James Gunn explains how he landed Bradley Cooper for that Superman cameo and tackles the big change.
What did James Gunn say about Bradley Cooper and Jor-El?
Bradley Cooper plays Jor-El in the movie, the Kryptonian father of the David Corenswet Man of Steel. Cooper, of course, also voiced Rocket Raccoon for Gunn in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
“Well, Bradley’s a friend of mine, and I needed somebody who could play Jor-El — and I don’t think this is a spoiler, everybody knows about this — who had the stature of what we imagine that character being, somebody who could walk in the footsteps of Marlon Brando,” said Gunn (via Deadline).
Gunn added, “A lot of times, Jor-El is played by a 70-year-old man and that means he was 70 when he had a baby, so I wanted somebody that wasn’t too old. Everyone was bringing up all these actors that were too old for me. I think Bradley was perfect, he did it for me as a favor because he’s my friend, and I really appreciated him doing it.”
The controversy
Gunn has yet to comment on the big change to Jor-El in the movie, which has lit a fire online among fans.
Update: Gunn has now commented:
“I’m a huge Superman fan. So, first of all, I had to trust myself that I was going to honor the pieces of Superman that we needed to keep the same and also allow myself to make changes where changes might work and wouldn’t go against the integrity of who the character is. And so, I think that was simply dealing with some of those things was simply dealing with allowing ourselves to change part of the story in a way that was interesting for the DCU but that wasn’t something that went against who Superman was. And it has been something that’s been played with in the comics before.”
James Gunn explains why he changed [SPOILER] for Superman's birth parents! #Superman pic.twitter.com/T4zIwnkTIV
— IGN (@IGN) July 14, 2025
In Gunn’s version, Jor-El basically sends Superman to Earth to take over and continue the Kryptonian bloodline. It’s similar to Omni-Man in Invincible, with fans joking online that Jor-El is now a Viltrumite.
Nerdrotic even goes so far as to say the change is worse than what Zack Snyder did with Pa Kent in Man of Steel and ruined the movie.
I disagree, at least for now, as it remains to be seen if the change and the message sticks. While they said in the movie the message is indeed legit, fans online are hoping it still got changed, maybe via Brainiac, or even Sean Gunn’s Maxwell Lord.
Also worth a mention is if Jor-El is evil, what does that mean for Supergirl?
yeah something like that would be cool
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) July 11, 2025
What did you think of the Jor-El message? Did it take you out of the movie completely? Let us know in the comments below.
