James Gunn Says SUPERMAN Is Packed With Easter Eggs, Including a Mural That Tells the Story of DC's Metahumans — GeekTyrant
At a recent fan event in London's Leicester Square, where 30 minutes of Superman footage was screened ahead of its July 11 release, Gunn, producer Peter Safran, and cast members David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult offered a few insights into what fans can expect.
Among the highlights? Gunn's tease about just how loaded this film is when it comes to deep-cut DC references.
"This is the most Easter egg-laden movie I've ever made. I have a lot of easter eggs in this movie. I mean every character in the movie is practically from the comic books.
'Everyone in Lex's control room — all those people are characters from the comics… Every street in the movie is named after a comic book writer or artist."
But the real gem here might be the massive mural Gunn teased, which appears in a key scene and offers a glimpse into the long and mysterious history of metahumans in the DCU. Gunn explained:
'Most of the businesses are either named after either a comic book writer or artist, or they are named after businesses that exist within the DC Universe, on the page.
'Later on, there's an iconic scene with a huge, huge mural in the background that tells you the story of metahumans in the DCU and that's going to be really, really fun when we release those images to the public. So the stuff goes deep, it's really really fun and it was really fun creating the world.
'That was one of the reasons why I like DC a lot because it isn't New York and Los Angeles, it's Gotham and Central City and Evergreen. It's really creating another world, with other rules and other things that are common."
According to rumors, this mural may include the Justice Society of America, hinting that the new DCU won't be treating Superman as the first hero, but rather the latest in a long line of costumed champions. If true, that tracks with the way Gunn has talked about building a DCU with legacy and myth baked into its foundations.
It also echoes Young Justice and its metagene concept, where most Earth-born metahumans owe their powers to ancient bloodlines or mystical events, many of them traced back to Vandal Savage. This is pretty cool!
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