Superman | July 11, 2025 | James Gunn writing and directing | David Corenswet is Clark, Rachel Brosnahan is Lois

[Spidey Freak]

On 4/8/2024 at 2:09 AM, Porthos said:

 

I think what's going on is that folks are conflating three/four announcements.

 

Aug 4th, 2022: "10 year plan" DC announcement

Oct 25th, 2022: James Gunn Hiring announced

Dec 14th, 2022: James Gunn Superman Movie announced/No Cavil confirmed

Jan 31st 2023:  DC (soft) reboot announced.

 

with each other as well as with all of the internet gossip/rumormongering that was going on (for example, a Jan 4th story from Variety looking back at Black Adam and mentioning a rumored incoming reboot).

 

Once James Gunn's hiring was announced people were going to want to know what his plans for DC were, especially with people still snarking about DC's 10 year plan announcement so fresh in their minds.  When it became clear that Henry Cavil wasn't going to be in Gunn's plans, those questions became even more intense.

 

Why, exactly, would WB/DC keep shtum about their future plans?  Especially since the longer you wait to start casting and pre-production, the later the films will come out.

 

If one will pardon the simile, WB was between a rock and a hard place here in how to execute the transition.  

 

There were rumors before Black Adam came out that Dwayne Johnson and James Gunn had competing visions for DC. Johnson apparently wanted to build up to a Black Adam centric Justice League/Suicide Squad crossover which is why he got Cavill back onboard and why Superman was working with Amanda Waller in the BA stinger. Apparently she was getting JL together to take down Black Adam and possibly the SS members who survived and defected at the end of TSS would side with BA.

 

However, Johnson's rivals got the better of him Succession style, had Gunn appointed, announced his hiring on the Monday after BA release, confirmed Cavill was out and then proceeded to put out a hit piece against The Rock in The Wrap sometime later. 

 

The first paragraph is mostly rumors (tho it's interesting that Waller and Superman working together in BA collaborates with them) but we saw everything in the second paragraph play out in public. Which is why I'm not entirely sure this wasn't a big cluster fuck decision. Will the rebooted Gunnverse really be more profitable than letting the Rock plan out his JLvsSS movie? 🤷‍♂️

[ChipDerby]

5 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

There were rumors before Black Adam came out that Dwayne Johnson and James Gunn had competing visions for DC. Johnson apparently wanted to build up to a Black Adam centric Justice League/Suicide Squad crossover which is why he got Cavill back onboard and why Superman was working with Amanda Waller in the BA stinger. Apparently she was getting JL together to take down Black Adam and possibly the SS members who survived and defected at the end of TSS would side with BA.

 

However, Johnson's rivals got the better of him Succession style, had Gunn appointed, announced his hiring on the Monday after BA release, confirmed Cavill was out and then proceeded to put out a hit piece against The Rock in The Wrap sometime later. 

 

The first paragraph is mostly rumors (tho it's interesting that Waller and Superman working together in BA collaborates with them) but we saw everything in the second paragraph play out in public. Which is why I'm not entirely sure this wasn't a big cluster fuck decision. Will the rebooted Gunnverse really be more profitable than letting the Rock plan out his JLvsSS movie? 🤷‍♂️

 

Yes

[Porthos]

1 minute ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

There were rumors before Black Adam came out that Dwayne Johnson and James Gunn had competing visions for DC.

 

There were rumors that James Gunn was gonna take over before Black Adam came out???  I thought the Gunn news literally came out of nowhere.

 

See, that's part of what I'm trying to address here.  We do know that there were fights between Dwayne Johnson and various other folks in DC.  What we didn't know was that James Gunn was coming in.  That was, as far as I know, a stunning and shocking turn (in a town where very little is shocking).

 

And this whole sub-conversation started when you asked why they kneecapped BA by announcing a universe reboot, and I reminded you ***THAT THEY DIDN'T***.

 

Now the 2023 slate got thrown under the bus, yes.  But I think a lot of this is that things are getting all jumbled up here in a kinda transitionary haze.

 

1 minute ago, Spidey Freak said:

Will the rebooted Gunnverse really be more profitable than letting the Rock plan out his JLvsSS movie? 🤷‍♂️

 

Honestly?  Probably.  At the very least, DC looks like it is letting Gunn take his time to plan things out and not lurch from one knee-jerk reflexive move to another to another.

 

Really, ever since DC/WB overreacted (or choose whatever word one wants that they think is better) to the reception to MoS, WB has been lurching from one set of "plans" to another without ever actually committing to a vision for the long haul.  After nearly 10 years of that a clean break and reset was... Well if not for the best, I can absolutely why they decided to stop quintupling down on a strat that wasn't working (to thier satisfaction).

 

Doesn't mean this one will work, as there's no guarantees in the world. And it is true that the DCEU got dealt some pretty bad luck along the way (COVID came at a really bad time for them, for instance). But the DCEU never really gelled and I have doubts that The Rock's vision would have helped set a new direction.

[emoviefan]

If  Black Adam was part of the Rock's vision then no thank you. I will gladly trust the man who did the Guardians trilogy and Suicide Squad over that. 

Edited April 9 by emoviefan

[Spidey Freak]

10 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

There were rumors that James Gunn was gonna take over before Black Adam came out???  I thought the Gunn news literally came out of nowhere.

 

See, that's part of what I'm trying to address here.  We do know that there were fights between Dwayne Johnson and various other folks in DC.  What we didn't know was that James Gunn was coming in.  That was, as far as I know, a stunning and shocking turn (in a town where very little is shocking).

 

And this whole sub-conversation started when you asked why they kneecapped BA by announcing a universe reboot, and I reminded you ***THAT THEY DIDN'T***.

 

Now the 2023 slate got thrown under the bus, yes.  But I think a lot of this is that things are getting all jumbled up here in a kinda transitionary haze.

 

THR put this article out on the Monday BEFORE BA came out. 

 

Scoopers then declared it was a power struggle (16:30 onwards) so it didn't come out of nowhere. We just didn't know that The Rock would be COMPLETELY shut out

 

 

[WittyUsername]

I don’t think there were rumors of Gunn getting the job as head of DC before it was officially announced near the end of October. It was reported that Dan Lin was in talks to take the job, but he ultimately turned it down. Of course, we do know that Michael de Luca secretly approached James Gunn in August 2022 to do a Superman reboot, which was around the same time The Rock was trying to bring back Cavill.

 

My assumption is that if Black Adam had been a hit, then James Gunn’s Superman project would’ve been canceled, and Seven Bucks Production would be the ones calling the shots at DC right now, but since that didn’t happen, Gunn got the job instead. 

Edited April 9 by WittyUsername

[SpiderByte]

Yep, Gunn was out of the blue.

 

As for Cinemacon...I don't think they'll show too much if anything, maybe a logo. Maybe, maybe, they'll have a photo of Superman. But it's too early for them to have anything real to show.

[Spidey Freak]

22 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

My assumption is that if Black Adam had been a hit, then James Gunn’s Superman project would’ve been canceled, and Seven Bucks Production would be the ones calling the shots at DC right now, but since that didn’t happen, Gunn got the job instead. 

 

But the Gunn announcement happened immediately on the Monday after BA OW. Black Adam didn't even get a proper chance tbh

 

9 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

Yep, Gunn was out of the blue.

 

In that video I posted, Grace is literally talking about a Gunn/Rock power struggle and she even semi-titled the video Dwayne Johnson vs. James Gunn. She posted the video on Tuesday BEFORE BA release

[SpiderByte]

31 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

 

But the Gunn announcement happened immediately on the Monday after BA OW. Black Adam didn't even get a proper chance tbh

 

 

In that video I posted, Grace is literally talking about a Gunn/Rock power struggle and she even semi-titled the video Dwayne Johnson vs. James Gunn. She posted the video on Tuesday BEFORE BA release

Grace makes up shit constantly. She was NOT talking about Gunn becoming CEO of DC.

[Spidey Freak]

10 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

Grace makes up shit constantly. She was NOT talking about Gunn becoming CEO of DC.

 

Au contraire, she seemed to be right about the scrapped Middle East subplot too. Credit where credit is due. And atleast she put the idea out about Gunn taking over DC. She even takes a poll around the 17.45 mark in the vid.

Edited April 9 by Spidey Freak

[Mojoguy]

Only reason I'm going to watch this is because of hot and talented Rachel Brosnahan is.

 

I'm just so happy the Henry Cavill drama is finally OVER with. Like him or hate him as Superman, Cavill got royally screwed over by WB mismanagement... along with Gadot.

[ZeroHour]

This is such a weird conversation. Black Adam was not even a good movie. Certainly not anything you could hang an entire cinematic universe on.

[eddyxx]

Would it bother people if James Gunn used popular music in this movie the way he did with the last 4 comic book movies that he directed?

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

21 minutes ago, eddyxx said:

Would it bother people if James Gunn used popular music in this movie the way he did with the last 4 comic book movies that he directed?

I think it just depends on the placement and how they’re used. It cant be the same way he did it in Guardians and Suicide Squad.

[SpiderByte]

35 minutes ago, eddyxx said:

Would it bother people if James Gunn used popular music in this movie the way he did with the last 4 comic book movies that he directed?

I honestly would be disappointed if it didn't.

[ChipDerby]

Literally the only person who suggested James Gunn would be running DC studios before Black Adam released... was me.

[ZeroHour]

24 minutes ago, ChipDerby said:

Literally the only person who suggested James Gunn would be running DC studios before Black Adam released... was me.

I can't believe you would sabotage the Rock like that.

[dudalb]

14 hours ago, emoviefan said:

If  Black Adam was part of the Rock's vision then no thank you. I will gladly trust the man who did the Guardians trilogy and Suicide Squad over that. 

Black Adam seems to be pretty obscure charecter to build a cinematic comic universe around.

Ad please don't give me "Iron Man" as a reply, Iron Man was much better known then Black Adam.

I have lost a certain amount of respect for Johnson over this; I think he let his ego take over and that is not a good thing.

 WB was never going to give him creative control of the DCU.

[TheDude391]

Seeing The Rock play an AMAZING heel on WWE right now does make me think that his Black Adam Universe idea could've worked. Treat the superhero fights almost like a wrestling match, big personalities and drama clashing...it's a fun idea! 

 

BUUUUUUT, if it weren't for Black Adam flopping and scaring The Rock, I don't think we see him playing heel right now (or doing the Safdie movie) and getting a personality again. Had BA been successful, his DC plans would've been more of the same, the boring sanitized corporate Rock we've been getting over the last 10 years (and doomed BA with it's blandness). 

 

Maybe if he brought that energy to Black Adam to begin with, would've been a better film and maybe a hit?

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, ChipDerby said:

Literally the only person who suggested James Gunn would be running DC studios before Black Adam released... was me.