James Gunn will kick off a new, hopefully much more fruitful, era of DC movies this week when Superman hits theaters on July 11. Gunn was likely chosen, in part, due to his su🦋perhero movie pedigree. However, according to the man himself, Superman is the first superhero movie he has ever directed.

Gunn has been jumping between Marvel and DC for years, handling the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Guardians of the Galaxy for the former, and until he was brought on board to reboot the DCU alongside Peter Safran in 2022, the second attempt at a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Suicide Squad movie 🗹for the latter. Despite having four, what most would consider superhero movies under his belt already, Gunn explained to why Superman is actually his first.

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Superman will be James Gunn's first-ever superhero movie, apparently

Don't listen to him, Drax, he doesn't know what he's talking about

Superman Teaser Trailer

"You say I've made superhero movies with Marvel, but I really didn't," Gunn claims. "Guardians were space adventurers. They really weren't superheroes. They didn't have secret identities or masks or costumes." Perhaps most interesting of all is the last thing Gunn mentioꦺns that he believes a superhero needs to officially be dubbed a superhero - superpowers.

Theﷺ Guardians director notes that Star-Lord and the gang don't really have superpowers; they just have powers based✅ on where they're from. Even Groot, who can grow his branches at will to use them as weapons and even completely regenerate himself after being blown apart, technically shares those gifts with the rest of his kind.

Even though Gunn will almost certainly never work with Marvel again, I'm still holding out hope we get to visit Groot's home ꦯplan🦩et on the big screen one day.

If a traditional superhero has to check all of those boxes, then that rules out quite a few frontrunners. Batman has the mask and the secret identity, but he doesn't have any powers✱, he's just a strong rich guy with fancy gadgets. The same applies to Iron Man who doesn't even have the secret identity box checked on his superhero qualification application.

Guardians of the Galaxy film line up Gamora, Starlord, Rocket Racoon, Drax, and Groot

All of that being said, I do kind of get where Gunn is coming from. Even though the Guardians and the Suicide Squad have fought alongside superheroes and reside under the Marvel and DC cinematic umbrellas, they're not stereotypical superheroes. Superman, on the other hand, is about as stereotypical as it gets. While not technically the first-ever superhero, he might as well be, and almost 90 years later, he's the most famous superhero ever created alongside Batman and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Spider-Man. The Guardians of the Galaxy are still superheroes to me, but Superman will be the fir♚st traditional superhero movie Gunn has ever directed.

superman-2025-poster.jpeg
PG-13
Action
Sci-Fi
Adventure
Release Date
July 11, 2025
Runtime
130 Minutes
Director
James Gunn ꦯ
Writers
James Gunn, Jerry Siegel, Joe🐬 Shuster
Franchise(s)
DCU

Cast

  • instar51972662.jpg
    David Corenswet
  • instar53365758.jpg
    Rachel Brosnahan
    Lois Lane
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    Nicholas Hoult
    Lex Luthor
  • instar52384636.jpg
    Edi Gathegi