James Gunn’s Superman trailer is already making the rounds. The film comes out in July 2025 and it will officially kickstart Gunn’s DC Film Universe.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Gunn’s future rests solely on Superman’s shoulders. The DCEU battered its fans with so many subpar movies that audiences eventually abandoned it.
The likes of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom and The Flash struggled to recoup their production budgets. Gunn’s Superman must regain our trust. Superman can afford to lose money but it can’t afford poor or mediocre reviews.
This brings us to the trailer. I will be honest; I was underwhelmed. But that does not matter. This is not an assessment of the trailer. I’m more interested in the reaction. The hype train began a few days ago when Gunn released the motion poster.
It shows Superman in full costume, streaking towards the sky, surrounded by a curtain of multi-colored lights. Most striking was the score, boasting an awestriking melody reminiscent of the John Williams track from the original Christopher Reeve/ Superman film.
Aptly titled ‘Look up,’ the poster reduced some viewers to tears, and similar reactions erupted when the trailer debuted days later. The majority of comments holds the same sentiment. Gunn’s Superman manifests the spirit they have always associated with the comic book character, the hope, and elation his presence was designed to instill in readers.
This response speaks to a relatively recent transformation we’ve all noticed in viewer preferences. For a while, audiences were obsessed with the darker aspects of storytelling. By that, I don’t mean viewers began favouring the grimdark genre.
Rather, directors and writers reshaped historically heroic characters, turning them
into grimier, less pleasant protagonists. Let me put it this way. Initially, superheroes
were the best of us. They personified the most idealistic aspects of humanity.
But then they became just like us, displaying the same greed and selfishness you see in your least pleasant friends, family members, and acquaintances. The objective was to make them more relatable.
The notion of a hero like Superman who was essentially too good to misbehave was no longer appealing. But then, decades passed and a more drastic change occurred. Superheroes became even worse than us.
It was not enough for them to lie and cheat. They raped and murdered, and surprisingly, viewers relished this development. Maybe they liked the novelty. The old paradigm had become stale.
Or maybe it goes back to that strange attribute human beings have where they find joy in witnessing the fall of those they envy because it makes them feel better about their own inadequacies.
Think about it. Have you noticed what happens when a celebrated figure is caught in a criminal or immoral act, such as adultery? It isn’t enough to condemn them. Some people actually rejoice. This brings us back to the Superman trailer. Audiences have entered a new phase.
You can blame the many catastrophic events they have endured in recent years, ranging from COVID-19 to inflation, wars, and everything in between. When life takes a turn for the worst, people seek an escape in entertainment. This would explain the recent demand for brighter, less jaded comic book adaptations.
Audiences don’t want to leave a theater more depressed than when they went in because a Hollywood studio just flooded them with two hours of dour, cynical content.
Gunn’s Superman trailer has set the internet ablaze because audiences are searching for the light at the end of the tunnel. They crave optimism and Gunn will give it to them when Superman comes out in a few months.
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