James Gunn’s Superman Trailer Soars with Action, Heart, and Krypto the Superdog

A rebooted superhero tale, starring the blue-colored Man of Steel, writer-director James Gunn‘s Superman is poised to usher DC Studios into its new era this July. Weeks of hype over the first summer movie tentpole have been churning throughout the internet this past few months, but with the official debut of the first full trailer for Gunn’s latest, fans have more than enough reason to jump out of their skins. New Superman, which promises a more grounded reboot than other iterations in the past, stars a new Clark Kent and Lois Lane, an array of DC comic heroes and villains, and that one superdog who may just steal the entire show.

Superman Trailer: It’s a Journey, Not an Origin Story

In a new interview with Collider, Gunn clarified that this film is not an origin story of sorts. While past Supermen have taken a dive into Clark Kent’s literal origins coming from a different planet, Gunn’s Superman is more of an internal origin story, with Kent struggling to find where he stands in the world—both as a royal Kryptonian and a Kansas-raised small-town kid.

Pearl and Hollywood actor David Corenswet stars in the lead role of Superman, taking on the character as a 25-year-old, more world-weary, and less doe-eyed hero compared to the character’s past incarnations. Corenswet’s dual identities both as Clark Kent and Superman play a key role in the film, which is seen in his interactions with Lois Lane.

Playing Lois Lane is Rachel Brosnahan (best known for her role as Miriam “Midge” Maisel in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). In the new trailer, a pre-credits sequence opens with Lois running out of a staged interview with Superman. Played by Clark Kent, he tries to be all suave and sly with Lois until the newshound reporter is off-camera and kicking back with a drink. From their banter, the two are less than professional, with a tinge of flirtation and an underlying taste of competition between them. It is a little unclear whether Lois has already figured out Clark’s secret or not. Some fans are dead sure she already knows. Others, including myself, don’t think so. The moment they part ways is one telling and suspicious—judging by their facial expressions, there’s a sense that Clark has outplayed Lois, and she hasn’t got a clue (yet) about his secret identity.

Nicholas Hoult (The Devil Wears Prada) is another high-profile actor who joins Gunn’s film as Superman’s arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. The trailer also teases him with that trademark blend of smugness, danger, corporate evil, and outright weirdness, and he’s not alone. Actor and model Sara Sampaio plays Eve Teschmacher, while Terence Rosemore is cast as Otis, who both take on supporting roles as Luthor’s devoted and morally flexible followers.

Krypto and Kaiju in DC’s Expanding Universe

Who would have thought a dog could steal the spotlight in such a short trailer? But guess what? Superman’s white dog, Krypto, steals the show. Viewers have caught a glimpse of him already in last December’s teaser, when he single-handedly drags an unconscious Superman to safety at the Fortress of Solitude. But the new trailer goes all out in doling out heroics for the canine as he takes on Lex Luthor himself and the high-tech villain Angela Spica, also known as The Engineer, played by Brazilian actor Maria Gabriela de Faria. Spica herself, who is clad in a bodysuit of black spandex with three rotating blade-like projections attached to each forearm (courtesy of nanotech tech by the way), leads an aggressive full-scale attack on the Fortress, alongside a kaiju of sorts.

The trailer has a good dose of superhero spectacle, from over-the-top fight sequences, flashes of otherworldly creatures of kaiju, and action-packed team-ups and moments in between. Fans get their first look at a seemingly large ensemble of lesser-known, but no less exciting DC characters.

Gunner of the hit TV series The Rookie, Nathan Fillion shows up as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, who is recognizable by his distinct bowl-cut hairstyle; Anthony Carrigan of the HBO series Barry plays Rex Mason, also known as Metamorpho, who can alter his molecular density and manipulate the elements that make up matter through his body; Isabela Merced of DemiLovato’s Siempre Mi Bebé fame takes on the role of winged warrior Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi, who you might know from Stranger Things and 12 Years a Slave, takes on the role of Michael Holt, also known as Mister Terrific, a genius inventor who dons a techno-suit and mask, and becomes a masked crime-fighter.

The character roster also expands with the introduction of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El, played by Milly Alcock. She is better known in comics as Supergirl. Her inclusion may hint at a larger Kryptonian family narrative for future films in the new DCU. And speaking of family, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell portray Clark’s adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, respectively.

Fans of DC’s animated series Creature Commandos will spot one familiar face from the show. Actor Frank Grillo reprises his role as Rick Flag Sr., while The Guardian’s Sean Gunn shows up as Maxwell Lord.

A Good Balance of Heart and Heroism

The trailer is action-packed with epic fight sequences and battles from wall-to-wall, rife with high-speed chases and fight sequences from rooftops to deep space. There is something about the trailer, however, that really stands out, and that’s Clark’s humanity when it comes to the moral decisions he makes.

When Lois quizzed him on what the right thing to do was in the midst of a superheroic altercation (e.g. how did his decision look like to the Secretary of Defense? ), he responded back in a voiceover to the camera with emotion in his voice and frustration in his eyes, “People were going to die!” It’s not hard to imagine this line to be directed right back at Lois, too. With a line like that, and that amount of conviction, one would think that this theme of ethics versus heroism would find a central role in the film.

There are some throwaway moments of humor in the trailer, too. It is in the last moments when you see Superman quietly lying on his bed, with not much more than sweatpants on and his comically-large physique doing nothing, that you get a sense that he actually took a breather. The shot of a satisfied Krypto lying on his chest in a fetal position is one of the many comedic touches in the film Gunn himself has mentioned, and in the same way it is not over-the-top like what we expect of a Superman movie, the end of the trailer too is an uncharacteristically quiet one for a big-budget superhero film that defies expectations and coaxes us to think that the new film will toe the line of being epic in scale, but with something to hold on to at its center.

Superman looks to be more than just another reboot of the superhero by the DCU, but instead a promising reset button.