The next Superman movie titled ‘Superman: Legacy’, is slated to come out July 11th, 2025. It will be written and directed by James Gunn who, along with Peter Safran, are autonomously in charge of everything that will happen in the DC Universe going forward. Is James Gunn the answer? Maybe. Although there are some things to like…James Gunn writing and directing the new Superman movie for example, there are also some contradictions and things not to like that might make one scratch their heads. The comic book medium has been under attack by leftist activists for quite some time now, and the results have been nothing short of abysmal. The translation to the small and big screens has been no different, especially in the last few years or so. Just look at what happened to the CW and its outright, in your face woke destruction of all of their superhero shows and characters for the sake of representation. Worse ratings couldn’t be found if you tried. Marvel has taken it to a whole other level, by force feeding fans at the box office race and gender swapped heroes that failed miserably in the comic books. James Gunn, however, has managed to stay above the fray and avoid overtly injecting woke politics into his content whether he believes in them or not. But some of the decisions that he and Safran have come to regarding this whole “rebirth” of the DCU, warrant concerns and real questions. For example, why would David Zaslav and James Gunn feel the need to hold on to a degenerate like Ezra Miller as their Flash? He doesn’t even fit the part. As a big fan of James Gunn and what he’s done with obscure characters….Guardians of the Galaxy, Peacemaker, etc…I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt….a very weak benefit of the doubt. I’m a fan who has lost interest in anything both DC and Marvel have to offer on the big screen and the comic books. I stopped collecting anything new from DC and Marvel over five years ago as a result of the activism in everything they were publishing. I haven’t been to a superhero movie other than ‘The Batman’ since ‘Avengers: Endgame’. It’s not fun anymore. Marvel and DC have let virtue signaling activists plague and warp well established characters, and the fans are tired of it and have deservedly moved on. So here’s a fan, along with many more like me, that hope with many crossed fingers, James Gunn and Peter Safran get it right.
Credit – DC Animation
Truth, Justice, and the American Way
There are some things to like about what James Gunn and Peter Safran are bringing to this new DCU table. For example, bringing back Superman’s mantra of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”, is refreshing and brings fans a potential sliver of hope, that maybe someone might be able to express this character on the big screen in a way that he deserves. I mean it’s only been 45 years since that’s been done. I know ‘Superman: The Movie’ is the holy grail, but how come no one has been able to get him right since? Fans know the answer to that question, and rightly so. Richard Donner was faithful to the essence of the character, whereas everyone since, has forgotten what Superman stands for or believes in, and has given fans “their” visions for the Man of Steel. You know, like a Superman who kills, who is bisexual, and protests for climate change. Peter Safran, in an article from the Hollywood Reporter, kind of hit the nail on the head…even though I am still reserving quite a bit of judgement until I see the final product…when he said that Superman is the embodiment of Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
“Superman is the true kick-off for the duo’s DCU plans. “It’s not an origin story. It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks that kindness is old-fashioned.”
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Credit – DC and Warner Bros.
Why Hang on to Ezra Miller?
So that sounds all well and good, until you read that they still plan on going forward with a Ta-Nehisi Coates scribed Superman movie that will exist in their Elseworlds universe. This is an author who believes America is bad and that 9/11 first responders were “menaces of nature“. Even though this movie will exist outside of the main DCU, why would Gunn and Safran even want to take a chance on a movie that would potentially alienate a majority of the fanbase and lose them millions? Also, it doesn’t help that this alternate Superman movie would still be produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot productions, who have been notoriously activist. If David Zaslav is serious about extricating the woke and making some money, canceling this movie would be number one on my list. And what about the Ezra Miller Flash movie? Sure, I get it, the movie is done and it’s going to be the catalyst for the launching of Gunn’s reimagined DC Universe. But Gunn and Safran have said they see a potential future with an Ezra Miller playing the Flash. Ezra Miller is a degenerate who slammed a pregnant woman to the floor, and has been arrested numerous times for various crimes. Gunn even said that ‘The Flash’ was one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. That’s saying a lot since the writers have huge failures in their credits such as ‘Batgirl’…which was scrapped and not released because it was so bad…’Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn’…did anyone even see it or talk about how great it was?…and the failed Disney Plus series ‘Obi Wan Kenobi’. That’s certainly not a wealth of experience to attach that kind of credit. But who knows…stranger things have happened. It’s also a pretty tall claim considering DC’s track record at the box office. It sounds more like Gunn is trying desperately to salvage ‘The Flash’ from the repercussions of Miller’s antics off the screen, but we shall see.
Here are just a few of our plans. Up, up, and away! #DCStudios #DCU @DCComics pic.twitter.com/8XNDNLUEPq
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) January 31, 2023
Is Anyone Excited? Is it Enough?
The other content that was announced earlier this year, like ‘Waller’, ‘The Authority’, ‘Paradise Lost’, and ‘Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow’, just don’t give me the wow I can’t wait to see it factor, and the others like ‘Swamp Thing’, ‘Booster Gold’, ‘The Brave and the Bold’, and ‘Lanterns’, have me tepidly interested. But I guess if anyone can pull off it off, it would be James Gunn. But fans, including myself, have been let down so much that we have become apathetic to anything DC or Marvel has to offer. Fans just don’t trust DC or Marvel anymore to faithfully represent what they used to read in the comic books. ‘Avengers: Endgame’ was literally it for a lot of fans, and even that movie had a smattering of woke nonsense that we all rolled our eyes at. Maybe Gunn will get it right. Maybe ‘Superman: legacy’ will be the Superman movie fans have been waiting for since Christopher Reeve donned the suit. Maybe James Gunn is the answer. That’s a lot of maybes for fans to hand over their trust to considering the wealth of sewage they have been forced to ingest. The MCU and their devotion to race and gender swapping all of the MCU’s white male characters, and DC’s over the top representation and wokeness in their CW superhero line up, along with their inability to write a proper DCU movie, has made fans walk away in droves. The evidence is in the results of the last few years of dismal box office receipts and tanking TV ratings. But the legacy media will say that fans are asking too much by wanting a superhero movie that reflects the character they grew up with, and should embrace the diversity and reclamation of those characters. Why? It’s what sold millions of comic books and merchandise, and provided fans with unadulterated fun, imagination, and escape from the world outside our window. The great stories are there…and please not anything from the last 10 years from DC and Marvel…let’s go back to the 70’s, 80’s, and early 2000’s and use those wonderful stories that are there for the taking. Hopefully ‘Superman: Legacy’ will be the spark that DC needs. Hopefully, it will embody the core Americana that Superman has represented for decades in the comic books. James Gunn is a great storyteller and director, and knows his characters. I’m just not sure if it’s enough.
