Today Warner Bros., James Gunn, and Peter Safran announced the title of their new Man of Steel movie with Superman: Legacy and revealed its release date of July 11, 2025.
The flick has been in the works since James Gunn first took over DC, with Gunn writing the movie.
What is Superman: Legacy about?
The official press release about James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC plans describes Superman: Legacy as “written by Gunn, the film will hit theaters on July 11, 2025, and focus on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.”
The details include no director is attached as of yet.
“It’s not an origins story, it focuses on Superman’s balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He’s the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, he’s kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old-fashioned,” said Safran about the movie.
Superman: Legacy is the first big project of “Chapter 1: God and Monsters”
Gunn also confirmed Superman: Legacy is their first big project and Safran said it is hoped that Gunn will direct.
“I think that we’ve gotten lucky with the next four movies because we have Shazam, which leads into Flash, which resets everything, which then goes into Blue Beetle, which is totally disconnected (from everything that came before) and can be a part of the DCU, which goes into Aquaman, which leads into Superman: Legacy, our first big project,” Gunn explained. “But the one thing that we can promise is that everything from our first project forward will be canon and will be connected. We’re using some actors from the past, we’re not using other actors from the past, but everything from that moment forward will be connected and consistent.”
Superman: Legacy will be rated PG-13
It’s also revealed the flick will be PG-13.
“It depends on the story,” Gunn said about how they decide on ratings and whether something should be live-action or animated. “We’re going to give every story what it deserves. Some things we know. Superman is definitely something we know we’d like to be PG-13, so I’m going to make sure it is. Other things, like the Waller TV show, are a little bit more mature. And we have other things that are aimed a bit more at young women or at kids that are still within this world.”
Plans are in place for video games featuring the Man of Steel
Gunn and Safran also revealed their DC plans not only include movies, TV, and animation, but gaming as well, where Gunn mentioned Superman.
“It’s not like we’re going to have the Superman movie come out and have this Superman game come out,” Gunn said “It’s more like we’ll have the Superman film come out, then maybe two years later, we have the Supergirl movie coming out. So, what’s the story in between there? Is there a Krypto game that we can play that comes in between them? Something that’s still set in the world with these characters, but is its own thing. We want to give the prominence to games that they deserve.”
The DC Trinity will prop other other characters
The pair also said they will be using the core characters to prop up other DC characters.
“One of our strategies is that we take our diamond characters — Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman– and we use that to help prop up other characters that people don’t know. Like what happened with the Guardians (of the Galaxy) in some way. Like taking teams like The Authority, which is I know is just as spectacular idea for a film that is completely different take on superheroes. Because it’s really connected to Superman. It’s about to use those well-known properties to help lead into lesser known properties,” said Gunn.
What happened with Henry Cavill?
Gunn also touched upon Henry Cavill at the press event, as Cavill came back for Black Adam.
“We didn’t fire Henry. Henry was never cast,” said Gunn. “For me, it’s about who do I want to cast as Superman and who do the filmmakers we have want to cast. And for me, for this story, it isn’t Henry.”
He added: “I like Henry, I think he’s a great guy. I think he’s getting dicked around by a lot of people, including the former regime at this company. But this Superman is not Henry, for a number of reasons.”
Previous details revealed by James Gunn include his film will feature a younger version of the Man of Steel, which is why they are not going with Henry Cavill.
The trades are also reporting Gunn’s choice for the character will be around 25 years old (Cavill is 39).
Update: Gunn says Cavill got dicked around.
What is Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow about?
Supergirl is also getting a movie with Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow described as a “science fiction adventure, which will be based on Tom King’s amazing, award-winning recent comics stories, presents a Supergirl viewers are not used to seeing.” Gunn also added in a video that Supergirl will be tonally different than Superman as she was differently.
“In our series we see the difference between Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl who was raised on a rock, a chip off Krypton, and watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life, and then came to Earth when she was a young girl. She’s much more hardcore, she’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re used to seeing,” he said.
