“Whatever your idea of a typical Superman movie is, James Gunn is not making that.” — Germain Lussier, Gizmodo
There has been a lot of hubbub regarding the end of the current DCEU by James Gunn and Peter Safran, and a huge negative of that whole thing was that Henry Cavill will no longer be playing Superman. (Cue sounds of much weeping in DC fandom…) We were told that they were essentially rebooting the DCEU — which will be known as the DCU — and wanted a younger, 30ish actor to play the new Superman. (Cavill is now 40.) Fair enough. But, who could possibly fill Cavill’s red boots, as it were, in the upcoming Superman: Legacy?
After much speculation, it was announced that David Corenswet (6’4″,b.1993) (“The Politician”, “Hollywood”) had landed the title role and Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, “House of Cards”) had been chosen as our new ‘Lois Lane’. All things considered, I think Corenswet may be a terrific choice. (I say this while not having seen him in anything.) He said four years ago that playing Superman would be his dream job, plus he even bears an uncanny resemblance to Cavill. He is a tad taller even than Cavill, and he should look great once he has put on 30 lbs. of muscle.
I am less enthused about Brosnahan. (She was in several episodes of Season 1 of “The Blacklist”, so I have seen her in action, but I have no memory of her.) Doesn’t have the right look, imo; but, then, neither did Margot Kidder, and she did a great job opposite Christopher Reeve. Hopefully, she can portray the right balance of independence and, um, softness.
Later casting announcements included:
Nathan Fillion (6’1.5″,b.1971) (“Firefly”, “The Rookie”) as a Green Lantern (later clarified to be Guy Gardner): I can’t really picture him as the red-headed Gardner (especially with the tradmark bowlcut, which Vanity Fair reports he will have), and Fillion is too old for the comics-version of the character. At the same time, behavior-wise, I think Fillion is perfect to play the obnoxious-yet-likable character. Plus, he has voiced Green Lantern in animated projects.
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Isabela Merced (5’1″,b.2001) (Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Transformers: The Last Knight) as Hawkgirl: I’m going to assume she is playing the Kendra Saunders version of the character, in which case she could be a pretty good choice. Assuming she goes through training for a bit of muscle or at least muscle tone, the main drawback is her short stature, since Kendra has always been around 5’6″.
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Edi Gathegi (6’1″,b.1979) (“Briarpatch”, “For All Mankind”) as Mister Terrific: I have liked Gathegi in other things, but this is the first time he’ll play a proper superhero since X-Men: First Class (2011). It’s about time! He’s slender but fit. I can definitely imagine him as the incredibly smart Michael Holt version of the character. As with Fillion, though, ideally I would have preferred someone a few years younger.
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Anthony Carrigan (6′,b.1983) (“Gotham”, “Barry”) as Metamorpho: I think Carrigan is interesting, if a bit odd. (Or, maybe that’s just the odd characters he plays.) I guess he was OK as The Mist in a couple episodes of “The Flash”, but I didn’t like his interpretation of Victor Zsasz in “Gotham” (Blame the writers, I suppose.) His trademark (of the past several years, anyway) bald head probably helped him get this part. If he bulks up a bit, he may do a decent job as Rex Mason, aka Metamorpho, though I suppose they’ll CGI his body during shapeshifting.
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Other potential characters whose casting could be announced anyday now include Clark’s Kryptonian parents and/or the Kents, his friends in Smallville (Lana Lang, Pete Ross), co-workers at the Daily Planet (e.g., Perry White, Jimmy Olson, Ron Troupe), maybe Lois’s family (General Lane, Lucy Lane). Then, of course, we still don’t know the names of any villains — super or otherwise — who may show up. In fact, we don’t know all that much about the plot. Here’s what we do know at this point. As per Jeremy Smith at Slashfilm,
“During the introductory press conference last January, Gunn revealed that Superman: Legacy will center on a young Clark Kent as he makes his way in Metropolis. The narrative thrust of the film will find Clark ruminating on his Smallville upbringing and his Kryptonian birth parents he never knew.
Sounds kinda moody, no? Don’t fret too much. According to Safran, Gunn’s Superman will be ‘the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way; he’s kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.’… Gunn has unambiguously stated that he will draw the bulk of his inspiration for Superman: Legacy from Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman 12-part comic book series.”
Sounds good. However, we don’t know which parts or to what degree that comic book story will show up in the film.
I am reasonably excited in anticipation of this film. But, one of my concerns is that there are so many other heroes from the get-go. I wouldn’t think Warner Bros. Discovery would want to jump into a “superteam” scenario right off the bat with this reboot of the franchise. How much screen time will Green Lantern et al. get? Will the development of Superman and other core characters suffer or benefit from this? Will Superman in some sense be the older heroes’ “legacy”?
By way of partial explanation of his reasoning, however inadequate, Gunn said the following on Instagram back in July:
“Superman is a man of two worlds: Clark with Lois, Jimmy, and Perry — and Superman with his meta human compatriots. How could I tell a full story about Clark/Superman without including all areas of his life?”
Gunn has also said that this will be a “workplace origin story”, implying a focus on Clark’s job at the Daily Planet.
If I were to extrapolate from all of this, here’s what I think might be the setting for the “hero” side of the story. Clark/Superman will be introduced as an established superhero, if still a bit young (20-something?). Instead of his being one of the first super-powered heroes on the scene, there are actually several other established superheroes, including the team known as The Authority. Heroes like Green Lantern (i.e., Guy Gardner) and Mister Terrific (i.e., Michael Holt) may be a bit older because they have been around for a decade or two, perhaps acting as mentors to the younger generation (e.g., Superman, Hawkgirl). It may be revealed that there was a Mister Terrific and at least one Green Lantern on Earth even before Holt and Gardner took on those identities. Clark might even get some good advice from these older heroes as he is “ruminating on his Smallville upbringing and his Kryptonian birth parents he never knew.”
This would all be pretty much in line with the comics (though The Authority, a Wildstorm property originally published via Image Comics, was retconned into DC history a few years back). As long as it doesn’t feel like the heroes are either extraneous or that they take too much spotlight away from Superman, I would be totally OK with that.
BREAKING NEWS! As I was finishing up this post, I saw that a Deadline article came out today announcing that María Gabriela de Faría (“Deadly Class”, “Animal Control”) will be playing a villainous ‘(The) Engineer’, aka Angela Spica. The nanotech-powered character was first introduced in The Authority vol.1 #1 in 1999. Frankly, I don’t remember specifics about “The Engineer” (other than being mostly covered in metal), and I’ve never watched de Faria in anything, so I have no opinion on this casting choice. Use of the character, however, is an interesting way of introducing The Authority prior to their own film.
Heroes and Aliens 