James Gunn's Superman was released last July to positive reviews and ultimately grossed over $615 million worldwide (making it 2025's highest-grossing superhero movie).
The filmmaker and DC Studios co-CEO wore his inspirations on his sleeve, with Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman among them. The prolific writer has penned many different takes on the Man of Steel, including in the pages of Action Comics and Superman and The Authority.
Morrison gave Superman his seal of approval last year, and in a recent interview with Half the Picture, maintained that it was the "best Superman movie yet." However, he also laid out some of his issues with Gunn's take on the character.
"It became the closest to capturing what Superman feels like. I had a few things I didn't like about it," Morrison said. "[James] made specific choices that I think were made for dramatic reasons that were understandable...in order to make him seem more relatable, he had him getting beaten up an awful lot. I want to see him stop getting beaten up and fight back."
This version of Superman did take a beating and appeared far less powerful than other interpretations of the character. Much of that was down to Gunn hoping to make him more relatable and less God-like.
A bigger issue for many fans was the revelation that Jor-El and Lara sent their son to Earth with the hope that he'd conquer the planet and form a harem. Like many comic book fans, Morrison wasn't a fan of the change but admitted that it "worked" within the context of the story Gunn was telling.
"I didn't like it because I prefer wit hen Krypton's this lost utopia," he shared. "I like the idea that there was something amazing, and nature just wiped it out. Their own lack of attention to detail allowed them to be wiped out. I think there's something much more poignant about that."
"The thing I found almost upsetting in it was that it felt like Superman's morality was quite fragile. It was just based on this wish-fulfilment bullshit," Morrison said of how Kal-El interpreted the message left by his parents before the truth was revealed.
While the writer admitted to being worried by Clark Kent's "fragility" in some scenes, he was happy to see Superman showing his "strength" during his speech to Lex Luthor after the final battle. "They put him in a position where I was concerned that he would break down, lose his compass," Morrison noted. "The fact that he didn't was just nice to see."
With his DCU introduction out of the way, Superman can come into his own in next summer's Man of Tomorrow movie. However, he'll be sharing the spotlight with Lex Luthor, a villain Gunn has said he intends to portray in a heroic light for this team-up.
Written and directed by James Gunn, Man of Tomorrow stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabela Merced as Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl, and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag, Sr. We recently learned that Lars Eidinger will play the movie's big bad, Brainiac.
Several actors and characters are rumoured to appear, including Aaron Pierre's John Stewart/Green Lantern and John Cena's Peacemaker.
Man of Tomorrow arrives in theaters on July 9, 2027.