He’s coming. The first trailer for James Gunn’s Superman is due tomorrow, and writer/director James Gunn has been doing media, spawning dozens of headlines for each sentence uttered. 

For our report, we will only concentrate on one topic, however: to trunk or not to trunk. 

Superman’s earliest appearance by creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster was inspired by carnival strongmen and acrobats, thus beginning the long heritage of superheroes wearing trunks over their tights. The addition of a cape gave Superman flair, despite the warnings of Edna Mode many decades later. 

However, filmed versions of Superman have wrestled mightily with the trunks issue, resulting in a series of powerbombs to the original design. This was accelerated by the growing use of “exo-skeleton”-like costumes for superheroes, both on the page and in real life filming. Advances in stretchy stuff added layers of latex and gave more protection…and kept things fit and trim lest an actor appear on set with the teeniest bit of bloat. (Many film superheroes actually wear muscle suits.)

Although Henry Cavill was obviously in no need of super-spanx, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder ditched the trunks, giving his Superman a thoroughly modern textured armor-like appearance.

Henry Cavill, Man of Steel: Photos

But for Gunn’s Superman – the latest in a very long series of most important movies ever for DC’s superhero film efforts – the trunks are back. And Gunn has revealed that it was star David Corenswet himself who saved the look. But not after a lot of debate. 

“At the end of the day, [the debate] wasn’t that heated. It was heated for a while. I was on the ‘no trunks’ team for a long time,” Gunn said in a press op on set earlier this year, and reported by multiple outlets. “And Zack [Snyder] said that when he was doing it, he tried a billion different trunk versions as we did. And I kept going back to no trunks, no trunks, no trunks. And I’m like, well, ‘Let’s just grind it out. Let’s just keep trying trunks and see what happens.’ And David [Corenswet] said something to me that really affected me.”

What was Corenswet’s powerful message? “We were trying on all these different versions, and we screen-tested with trunks and no trunks,” Gunn told the press. “And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He’s an alien. He’s got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, can blow the truck over. He’s this incredibly powerful, could be considered scary, individual and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity.”

Ultimately, looking like a wrestler was a friendlier image, Gunn said. “He dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that. That really clicked in for me. And I think trying to pretend that Superman’s costume doesn’t have some frivolity to it, at its base, trying to make it look serious is silly because he is a superhero. He’s the first one, brightly colored, and that’s who he is. So that’s where we landed and, eventually, we all came to a place where almost all of us agreed on the trunks.”

Perhaps it was this garb debate that subconsciously influenced the (somewhat controversial) first teaser image for Superman which shows Corenswet…..getting dressed. 

superman teaser

Luckily we were spared the image of Superman pulling on his trunks. Are wrestlers in manties really friendly? Well, that is a long debate that goes into many areas we’re not touching this time out. 

Full-on images of Cowenswet’s costume have only been seen in set leaks which we dare not post, but they are briefs and they are red. 

As for the rest of Gunn’s comments about his Superman film, you can read many round-ups, but we scoured them for the key takeaways for our loyal ComicsBeat readers:

Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman is the comics inspiration for the film: “I think that all previous DC media influenced me. I think that obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there’s also a lot of things that this isn’t, like I’m just making a Donner-type movie. It’s very different from that. Zack [Snyder] did some excellent stuff. So there’s a lot of ways that influenced me. There’s a lot of ways in which the DC animated universe [influenced me], and then there’s a lot of stuff from the comic books – above and beyond anything else, All-Star Superman – that influenced me more than anything. To take that sort of Silver Age feel, that sort of science-fiction approach to it with gadgets, Lex [Luthor] is really a sort of sorcerer in a way. He’s a scientist, but he’s so good at science and I think of him as like a sorcerer.”

This is not an origin: “Superman already exists. Lois and Clark already know each other. Lex hates Superman’s guts from the beginning, although they don’t know each other personally. So we start right in the middle of the action.”

But it IS a movie that must stand on its own: “I don’t want somebody to have to go see this movie and be relying on anything else. Now listen, once we get down the line, that may change a little bit. Are seeds being planted? Yes, there’s seeds being planted, but that is never going to be the predominant thing in any scene for me. It’s always about getting to the next scene. What’s in the moment? How are we making this movie the best we can be?”

The Legacy part of the title was dropped: “I thought maybe the title had a looking back feeling about it. And this isn’t about looking back.”

Unlike previous Gunn films (Guardians of the Galaxy), this will be more serious: “It’s humorous, but it certainly is not as [comedic] as either Suicide Squad or Guardians. There’s plenty of humor in it. People like Rachel [Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane] are so funny and David [Corenswet, who plays Superman] is very [funny as well], so there’s humor in it, but it’s trying to create something that is grounded, but also it’s an incredibly fanciful world. It’s fantasy, it’s taking from other things like Game of Thrones where it’s this universe where superheroes actually exist. What are they like? There’s a magic there that’s undeniable.”

There will be songs, as in Guardians and THE Suicide Squad – really Gunn’s needle drops are epic, so this is a good thing. There will also be motifs from John Williams’ beloved Superman (original) score:  “The one thing is it is a score, it’s not a soundtrack. So it’s not about the songs. There’s a few songs in it. And of course, I chose those songs beforehand, but it isn’t like any of my previous movies really in terms of the score is what drives it. It’s a much, much more of a score film.”

Green Lantern (Nathon Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mister Terrific (Ed Gathegi) have important parts to play: “These characters all get their moment in the sun. They all have their moments. They’re not just cameos, these are the characters. They’re supporting cast, but Mister Terrific is the main character of those characters. He actually has a big part of the plot. And so that was fun.”

Clark and Lois will have a complicated relationship:  “There’s long scenes that are about their relationship and the way they relate and what it would be like for a person who’s this incredibly intelligent, strong-headed, stubborn, skeptical journalist, to have a relationship with someone who can lift a skyscraper.”

This is the latest most important film for DC, and for Gunn: “Just giving up everything in my life and soul, literally. I’m miserable, frankly. Really, I’m miserable, but hopefully it’s for the greater good.”

We’ll have the Superman trailer for you as soon as it drops on Thursday!

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