Highlights
- James Gunn defends his choice to include a larger supporting cast in Superman: Legacy, comparing it to The 40-Year-Old Virgin's successful focus on the main character.
- Gunn's approach aims to break away from the typical origin story, allowing Superman to grapple with his identity and human experiences.
- While some fans criticize the inclusion of other heroes, Gunn's ambitious ideas will ultimately determine the success of Superman: Legacy, which is set for a July 11th, 2025 release.
Superman: Legacy director James Gunn defended his choices for his new DCU by invoking a classic comedy: The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Marking the first major project for Gunn and Peter Safran's rebooted DCU, Superman: Legacy eschews the predictable origin story and focuses on Superman struggling to reconcile his Kryptonian roots with his human lived experiences. As the flagship for the new DCU, the project immediately garnered a lot of attention, with Gunn offering updates on the casting process for the Superman film and more on social media. Some of these updates included details about the film’s ensemble cast, which immediately became a focus of discussions.
James Gunn Had To Shut Down A Ridiculous Rumor About Who Would Play The DCU's Lex Luthor
James Gunn has responded to several Superman: Legacy casting rumors, but this is one about who will play Lex Luthor is the strangest.
While many fans have come to accept that Gunn is right to include other heroes in Superman: Legacy as per his vision for the project, others have continued to levy criticism at the director. On a thread posted to Gunn's Threads account about Spotify playlists, a fan once again levied the complaint at the DC studios boss, emphasizing worries about a lack of time to focus on the titular hero due to Gunn's addition of other characters like Hawkgirl, Metamorpho, Guy Gardner and more. In response, Gunn posted a short reply, “I don’t understand this fear. There are less characters than in 40-Year-Old Virgin. Did you think Steve Carell got enough time?”
40-Year-Old Virgin was a Steve Carell-led 2005 comedy in which the actor plays the titular 40-year-old virgin Andy, alongside a cast that also included Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen, and many more big names in the supporting cast as the film chronicles Andy's quest to lose his virginity with pressure and assistance from his co-workers. Despite the large cast, the focus was firmly on Andy, and Carell's performance launched him to new levels of success that he still enjoys today, most recently being seen taking part in some killer therapy in The Patient alongside Domhnall Gleeson. Gunn's witty reference to the film expresses his assertion that the supporting characters need not smother the main character, irrespective of how many and how prominent they may be.
While the execution remains to be seen, Gunn's attitude toward the casting isn’t inherently bad. It may be what the film needs to truly escape the feeling of an origin story that clings stubbornly to the reboot. While there are a few lessons Superman: Legacy can take from past Superman movies, having a larger supporting cast of other DC heroes hasn't been tried before, so Gunn's ambitious ideas must play out and sink or swim on their own merits.
One way or another, fans will have to get used to Superman sharing the spotlight as the flagship hero of the new franchise due to the sheer number of Superman characters that could appear in the new DCU under Gunn and Safran. In the meantime, how well this approach will work for Superman: Legacy will have to be judged at the theaters.
Superman: Legacy is set for a July 11th, 2025 release.
Source: James Gunn/Threads