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Fox News
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Superman' director James Gunn addresses 'Superwoke' backlash for his movie
"Superman" director James Gunn remarked on Friday that he'd want to see what's considered "woke" in his movie after facing backlash for some of his comments on the film. "I've heard people say it was woke, and then I've heard a lot of people say it's not," Gunn told Entertainment Weekly. "I am curious as to what in the movie is considered woke." Gunn recalled the original interview for the "London newspaper" The Sunday Times when he said that "Superman is the story of America," describing it as "an immigrant that came from other places and populated the country." Gunn said that the reporter was the one who first remarked that Superman co-creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were the sons of immigrants and that the character was written as an immigrant story. "I said, yeah, it's a story about an immigrant, but mostly it's a story to me about kindness, which it is. That's the center of the movie for me," Gunn said. He added, "That's the thing we can all act upon, is kindness. And so what does that lead to? Well, does that lead to the way you vote? Sure. Does that lead to everything? Yeah. Does it lead to how many people are dying from road rage? Yes. All those things are affected if people just start to value kindness. I mean, people did value kindness in the past. That was an American value, was kindness, and it doesn't necessarily seem to be that way to me anymore. So that was always the center of the movie for me, and it wasn't about anything other than that." The character, first introduced in 1938, was born from the imagination of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in Cleveland, Ohio. In the comics, Superman is the sole survivor of the planet Krypton, sent to Earth by his parents as their world faced destruction. Gunn faced backlash for his original comments, which were made just days before his "Superman" movie was released on July 11 and at the height of national discussion on the ongoing immigration raids throughout the country. In the same interview with The Sunday Times, he emphasized that his movie was about politics but that it was mostly about kindness and morality. "And obviously, there will be jerks out there who are just not kind and will take it as offensive just because it is about kindness. But screw them," Gunn remarked.
CBC
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
From Canadian roots to odd superpowers: 5 fun Superman facts
The superhero wasn't always able to fly ⭐️HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW⭐️ Superman, the newest film to star the comic book hero, hit theatres July 11. With more than 80 years of history, there's a lot to know about the character. His past includes Canadian roots, multiple names and some weird superpowers. Plus, a real dog inspired his sidekick. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Superman is the biggest hit movie of the summer so far. It hit theatres July 11 and made $122 million US in its opening weekend. But this isn't Superman's first time on the big screen. Fans have been following the superhero's adventures in the movies — along with comic books, TV shows and more — for more than eight decades. With such a long history, there are a lot of interesting things about Superman that you may not know. Here are five of them. 1. He has Canadian roots While Superman is often seen as an all-American hero, he actually has a few connections to Canada. Joe Shuster, one of Superman's creators, was born in Toronto, Ontario. While he eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he met co-creator Jerry Siegel, his time in Canada still had an impact on the hero's world. Metropolis, the city where many of Superman's adventures take place, was partially inspired by Toronto. The newspaper where Superman works under his secret identity of Clark Kent, The Daily Planet, was inspired by the Canadian newspaper Shuster delivered as a child: the Toronto Star. That's according to a Toronto Star interview with Shuster shortly before his death in 1992. 2. He has 3 names We all know that Clark Kent is Superman's secret identity — those glasses don't actually hide that much — but he also has another name. Superman was born on the planet Krypton, where he was given the name Kal-El. When the planet was about to be destroyed, his parents tried to save their baby by sending him to another planet in a rocketship. The rocket ended up landing on Earth, in the U.S. state of Kansas. It was found by two farmers, Martha and Jonathan Kent, who adopted the baby and named him Clark. 3. He hasn't always been able to fly Superman is in great shape, so you might not realize that he's actually 87 years old. His first appearance was in Action Comics No. 1, published in June 1938. The Superman we met in that comic is a little different than the one we know today. For one thing, he couldn't fly. Originally, his powers were described as being 'faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.' It wasn't until the 1940s that Superman would be shown flying in comics. Over the years, Superman has developed a lot of different powers. Some of them stayed — like flying — and some of them didn't — like shooting mini Superman clones out of his hands. 4. The first Superman movie came out almost 75 years ago While he started as a comic book character, Superman has appeared in many different mediums, from radio to television and, of course, films. Superman's first appearance on the big screen was in 1951's Superman and The Mole Men. It was later reused as a two-part TV episode in 1952's The Adventures of Superman series. Since Mole Men, there have been eight live-action Superman films, and four actors have played the character on the big screen, with David Corenswet becoming the most recent in the new film. 5. Superman's super dog was inspired by a real rescue dog There's an expression that says man's best friend is a dog, so it makes sense that Superman's best friend would be a super dog. Krypto is a dog from Krypton who has all the same powers as Superman but is, well, a dog. Krypto debuted in a March 1955 comic, but this summer he's making his first appearance in a live-action film. On July 9, Superman director and writer James Gunn told Fox News 2 St. Louis that he was inspired to include Krypto by his own dog. Ozu, left, with his owner, Superman writer and director James Gunn. Gunn says adopting Ozu inspired him to include Krypto, right, in the 2025 movie. (Image credit: James Gunn/Instagram) While he was writing the script, Gunn adopted Ozu, a rescue dog. Because Ozu wasn't used to living inside, Gunn said, the dog tore apart his house. That made him think about how much more destructive Ozu would have been if he had superpowers. In the film, Krypto is entirely CGI, but Ozu was used as the model.
Wall Street Journal
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
The Broken Spirit Behind Superman
Superman rules the world again. The latest in a long line of movies based on the comic-book hero made an estimated $217 million worldwide last weekend. The character has brought in billions more over the years in various incarnations. Superman will never die. But today I think about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Have you ever lost something that haunts you for the rest of your days? Something that other people grow weary of hearing you grieve for, but that you can't let go?
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
James Gunn Took a Huge Risk By Changing Superman's Origin Story, Does It Work?
This article contains spoilers for Superman. Superman's origin was first revealed on a single page during his debut in 1938's Action Comics #1. In the eighty-plus years since then, the story has shifted and changed but the broad strokes have stayed the same: As the dying planet Krypton implodes, aliens send their infant son to Earth to save him. It's an archetype as old as Moses that got a sci-fi twist from iconic creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and has been enchanting readers and viewers ever since. But in James Gunn's Superman, that origin is given a twist, one that sees what we know about Superman upended. But as writer/director Gunn explained to IGN at a screening of the film on the Warner Bros. backlot in Los Angeles, there's precedent in both the comics and some long-running television shows, and it fits into the new, more vulnerable and human Superman that his film centers around. Is James Gunn Teasing This Iconic DC Villain for Superman 2? With the New Lex Luthor, James Gunn Unlocks the Trick to Supervillains Superman Ending and Post-Credits Scene Explained Superman Review Superman and Why the Battle for Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow Is Neverending Ranking the Superman Actors The Utterly Bizarre History of Superman's Powers Superman Movies Ranked Worst to Best and Where to Watch Them We spend a decent amount of the film believing that it's business as usual when it comes to Superman's biological parents, as does the Man of Steel. He has his traditional loving relationship with Ma and Pa Kent (played by Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince respectively), but it is Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara Lor-Van (Angela Sarafyan) that he turns to when he needs inspiration or soothing. The message that was sent with Kal-El to Earth is, he believes, what drives his central ethos of protecting Earth and all of its creatures. Problem is, that message is fragmented. Kal-El knows that Jor-El and Lara's message is broken, but he believes that it continues on offering loving missives to the son they gave up so that Earth can be safe and the Kryptonians can live on. Unfortunately for our hero, that belief couldn't be more wrong. Jor-El and Lara's real mission for their son is revealed after the Engineer hacks into the Fortress of Solitude's super snow computer. Soon we learn that the end of the transmission — one which Kal-El never heard until it is publicly released by Lex Luthor (Nicholas Holt) to smear him — showcases a different side of the El family, who actually chose Earth due to the perceived weakness of the human kind in the hopes that their beloved Kal-El would spread his Kryptonian seed among Earth's women and eventually rule Earth with an iron fist as the so-called "Last Son of Krypton." For Gunn, it was his love of the character that inspired the surprising twist. "I'm a huge Superman fan, so first of all I had to trust myself that I was going to honor the pieces of Superman that we needed to keep the same and also allow myself to make changes where changes might work and wouldn't go against the integrity of who the character is," he told IGN. Gunn seems to have never wavered in that trust in himself, at least not so far as Kal-El's origins are concerned. Taking such a risk in the first film of the new DCU might seem like a big swing, but Jor-El and Lara's nefarious intentions were in the script from the earliest days of the project. "It was in James's first draft," DC Studios co-chairperson and co-CEO Peter Safran shared with IGN. "The story hasn't changed at all. It's exactly what he initially pitched and wrote. James was always very specific about the story that he wanted to tell," Safran continued. "What you see is the movie that he genuinely wanted to make." So how does Safran feel about the change? "I love it. I never questioned it," he told IGN. "I thought it was an incredibly effective thing. I just love the idea that family is about bond, not necessarily about blood. And that's his family. These people are his family and they're there for him when he's down, and then they're what bring him back up as well at the end. So I loved that in the script and I love it even more in the movie because I think the performances are so strong." We'll get to the 'bond, not necessarily about blood' bit in a moment. In the meantime, let's take a quick look at Superman's Kryptonian Parents Been Evil Before? In the words of Gunn, making the Els essentially antithetical to who Superman becomes was "simply allowing ourselves to change part of the story in a way that was interesting for the DCU but wasn't something that went against who Superman was." It allows for some of the film's most powerful emotional moments and gives Clark an impressive amount of agency over his heroic legacy. Gunn is aware of the impact of the choice, but correctly points out that "it's something that has been played with in the comics before." Fans of Superman's television outings know that it's not just the comics either. Eagle-eared Smallville fans were likely the first to notice a similarity between the film's representation of Jor-El and Gunn's. On the cult WB coming-of-age Superman series, Jor-El is introduced as an AI representation of Kal-El's father made of his memories and experiences that exists within the walls of the Fortress of Solitude. In his early days, he was known as a harsh taskmaster who once uttered the immortal and now familiar sounding words, "on this third planet from this star Sol, you will be a god among men. They are a flawed race. Rule them with strength, my son. That is where your greatness lies." It's incredibly similar to the recording and message that Cooper's Jor-El gives to Kal-El in Superman, pre-dating it by around 20 years. More recently during the Rebirth relaunch, the Superman comics resurrected Jor-El under the alias Mr. Oz. This version of the alien father figure escaped Krypton, landing on Earth. But his time on our planet made him bitter, violent, and furious at the horrors that he watched humankind enact. This twisted version of Jor-El became both an antagonist and ally to Superman, despite the fact that he's desperate to destroy Earth and its inhabitants. The short-lived Syfy series Krypton played with the idea that the El's were just as culpable as the Zods in the planet's decline. More recently theMax animated series My Adventures With Superman, it's revealed like in Superman (2025) that Jor-El was far from a benevolent father and instead a wannabe conqueror of Earth and had planned to use Kal-El and Kara to do it. So, as you can see, this is hardly a massive break from canon and it's a key part of why the movie works. Does Superman's Origin Twist Work For the DCU? At its core, James Gunn's Superman is a story about the choices we make and the power of those choices to change not only the lives of others but also ourselves. The change in the Man of Steel's classic origin inspires a crisis of conscience that allows Superman to showcase his humanity, vulnerability, and fear. And, most importantly, it reminds the audience that no matter where or who you come from, you can be the person that you want to be. Clark chooses to be the kind, loving, and open hero that he had already become without his Kryptonian parents thanks to the nurturing of Ma and Pa Kent. Gunn has spoken about how his take on Krypton's most famous son is that Superman is the edgiest and most punk superhero because he goes against the grim, gritty, and violent grain that is the current mainstream of comic book storytelling. As the film ends, we're reminded of just that as Gary the Superman Robot plays images of Superman's parents to soothe him, but instead of the Kryptonian hologram we saw earlier it's home video footage of Clark as a child with Ma and Pa Kent at Christmas, summer vacation, and numerous other major moments throughout his life. As Clark heals and watches the films, the fictional band that he loves, "The Mighty Crabjoys," — previously introduced in a blink and you'll miss it moment in Creature Commandos — plays over the credits with lyrics about being punk rock. In Gunn's DCU the most punk thing you can do is love your chosen family,help out those in need, and care about your fellow man while the rest of the world labels such things as 'cringe' or 'twee'. That focus feels like a pretty radical take, especially for a film coming out in 2025. Superman has — for the most part — always been a symbol of hope, to the point that in different on-screen and page adaptations the S on his chest represents Krypton rather than Ma Kent's impeccable eye for graphic design and influence on her son. That influence is writ large here as Clark's midwestern upbringing is the foundation of the compassion and generosity that he shares with the world. No longer is he an alien on a mission; he's an illegal immigrant learning what it means to be a giving, caring member of his community. This all establishes some deeply interesting themes and threads for the DCU to explore. Anyone who has read the comics will know that Clark isn't the only survivor of Krypton, and we even meet another intergalactic straggler, Kara Zor-El (Millie Alcock), at the end of Superman, setting up the upcoming Supergirl film. Historically, many other Kryptonians end up making their way to safety, and in this universe we'd imagine they're less than happy that Clark became a friend and hero to the people of Earth rather than the alien conqueror he was supposed to within the confines of this first DCU film, we experience contrasts to Superman's righteous self-empowerment that show how personal choices define us. The Engineer has been enhanced by Lex Luthor's nanotech upgrades, and instead of choosing to use her fantastical abilities to heal or help others she would rather hunt and hurt. Clark's clone, seen both as the Hammer of Boravia and Ultraman, has been replicated by Lex to cause damage and disgrace the hero of Metropolis. He doesn't make choices that counter his flawed programming, submitting to the will of his creator instead of forging forward with his own intentions. Edi Gathegi's Mr. Terrific is immediately highlighted as the most sympathetic member of the Justice Gang (they're not calling themselves that) despite avoiding most human emotion because unlike Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl and Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner, he chooses to help Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane save Superman when doing so comes at great personal risk. Whatever happens next, Gunn has returned the on-screen depiction of Superman to its roots, once again depicting a kind and hopeful hero who values those core tenets above anything else. This new world will feature all kinds of heroes with many different creeds, but it seems to be intended that Superman remains the new franchise's beating heart. Superman (2025) is another story for the outsiders who maybe don't have it all together but are always trying their best, proving that you're not defined by the past expectations of your ancestors but by the choices and community you make in the present. Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.
Times
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Don't listen to the critics — this film reboot is super fun
E veryone's wrong about the Superman movie. Please don't believe the fleshy-arsed, bloodless, sanctimonious UK film critics. They know all about posh arty movies where they can have a fancy opinion about the editing and pretend to have heard of the cinematographer, but they don't understand comics. David Corenswet is a great Soops. And not just because I rather like the first half of his surname. Although partly because of that. After all, he and I are probably related at some remove, he being the first Jew, or part-Jew, to be cast in the role; his great-grandfather, Sam Corenswet, having emigrated out of the Russian empire about the same time as mine. It's nice because, as you probably know, Superman was the creation, in 1938, of two Jewish boys from New York, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the children of refugees from the Russian pogroms who envisaged a superpowered alien in the aftermath of that horror to come to the aid of the weak and the persecuted. A golem to protect them from the ravages of modernity. An alien who, like them, could just about pass for American, whose home, like theirs, had been blown to smithereens. Corenswet has the race memory of that horror in his sexy black eyes. But he is essentially a clown, as early Superman was, and any Jew, really, who wanted to be popular. The dark, avenging Supermen of the recent DC Universe have been a wild irrelevance. That's why this movie has such bright colours and gives a big-screen debut to Krypto the Superdog, a creation of the early 1950s high-camp 'Superboy' period at DC and a mainstay of the even camper 1970s 'Superman Family' era. Likewise, it gives us back the enigmatic 1960s multicoloured goodie/baddie Metamorpho, a comically vain and middle-aged Green Lantern and a snide, bitchy, immoral (and hot) Hawkgirl — a great setup for a fun new DC Universe. Best of all, the plot is ridiculous, the science a joke, there is far too much going on and none of it hangs together, just like in the comics I loved. Which is why my son loved it every bit as much as I loved the 1978 original, which my father took me to when I was his age. Corenswet will be Sam's Superman, as Christopher Reeve was mine. And if you need a film to entertain a child this summer, or the child in you, rather than a bunch of troglodytic critics with neck aches from shaking their heads too much because it doesn't measure up to Battleship Potemkin, give it a try. I won't pretend for a second that it's a great film. But it is a very good thing. The Duke of York's departure in disgrace from 64 charities had 'no overall impact' on their income, a new report has revealed. They also found 'no convincing evidence that Prince Andrew's patronage increased revenues' when he was there. Wow. It's almost like the royal family is completely irrelevant. Trust Lord Mandelson to provide us with the best political bon mot of this veracity-depleted decade so far. That line of his to The Sunday Times, 'more often than not there's a kernel of truth in everything [Trump] says', is the 'you might think that; I couldn't possibly comment' of the mid-2020s. Indeed, as a grand diplomatic euphemism for compulsive mendaciousness, it's as good as Jonathan Swift's Houyhnhnms who, unable even to conceive of such a thing as a lie, called it instead, 'the thing which is not'. 'Have you met my friend Bernie Madoff? More often than not there's a kernel of truth in what he's saying.' 'Oh hi, you must be Jonathan Aitken, I gather that more often than not there's a kernel of truth in…' 'Surely you know my friend Lord Archer, more often than not there's a kernel…' 'This is my son Pinocchio, more often than not there's…' 'Allow me to introduce Mr and Mrs Winn…' Right, that's that done. Now Sam and I are off to Lord's to witness an English cricketing miracle. Don't tell me what happened.
