Superman: James Gunn Explains Why This Is His ‘First Superhero Movie’

James Gunn considers Superman to be his “first superhero movie.”

Written and directed by Gunn, Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios’ Superman finally opens in the United States this weekend. The DCU film stars David Corenswet as the titular superhero, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.

Prior to Superman, Gunn has worked on a number of other comic-related film and television projects, including 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2021’s The Suicide Squad, 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and the Peacemaker television series.

What did James Gunn say about directing Superman?

Speaking with GamesRadar+, Gunn explained why he doesn’t consider the aforementioned titles to be superhero movies in the same way that Superman is.

“Guardians were space adventurers,” he said. “They really weren’t superheroes. They didn’t have secret identities or masks or costumes, or they had superpowers, but they weren’t really superpowers. They were just the powers of wherever they were from.

“So I think that, really, in a lot of ways, this is my first superhero movie, because even the Suicide Squad were supervillains. So that brought in a bunch of challenges in itself. Because superheroes, everything I do comes from a place of, ‘Well, what if this was real?’ You know, if I started telling the story of Rocket Raccoon, ‘What if Rocket Raccoon was real? How would he exist? Where would he come from?’ And with this, ‘What if Superman was real? What are his beliefs? What is his relationship with his girlfriend like? What is his relationship to the government like?’ So it really was coming from that place.”

Superman arrives in United States theaters and IMAX on July 11, 2025. Following that, Gunn and Peter Safran’s DCU continues in August 2025 with Peacemaker Season 2.

Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net