Clark Kent Struggles with Identity in New Superman Reboot

DC Studios is preparing to take its next step into bold, bright, and probably a little strange new territory with a rebooted version of Superman from writer-director James Gunn. The film, starring a new Clark Kent, feisty Lois Lane, a bevy of DC heroes and villains, and one superdog that steals every scene he’s in, is due out in July. Months of hype have built up anticipation for the film. Now that the first full trailer is out, hype is one thing fans have in abundance.

Fresh Start, New Direction

First things first, this isn’t an origin story of sorts, according to Gunn. Superman will be a reboot of the titular hero and, in many ways, is thematically the same story many other iterations have tried to tell—Clark Kent’s journey to find out where he belongs. But instead of focusing on the conflict of being both a Kryptonian royal and a Kansas farm boy, the focus of the story is on the former soldier’s emotional journey to find the balance between both worlds.

Pearl and Hollywood alum David Corenswet, who’s now 25, plays Superman/Clark Kent. He’s older than many fans may be used to, with previous incarnations of the character starting their superhero careers as green, doe-eyed newbies. His older, wiser interpretation of the character has his identity split fairly evenly as both Clark Kent and Superman, with a big emphasis on his dual identity in his professional and personal interactions with Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan).

Speaking of Lois, Brosnahan, the Emmy winner best known for her role as Midge Maisel in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, plays Lois Lane in Superman. The trailer opens with Lois sprinting through a practice interview with “Superman,” who is none other than Clark Kent. While the scene offers up a smattering of potentially hot-and-heavy repartee, teasing flirtation between a reporter and her interview subject, what remains unclear is whether Lois has figured out Clark’s secret identity or not. Many fans believe she has. Others, like this reporter, feel like the lack of conviction in the actors’ faces during key moments of this scene strongly suggests the opposite. No matter which way you read it, it’s hard to argue this particular relationship isn’t placed front and center in the film.

High-Profile Heroes and Villains

The decision to cast Academy Award-nominated actor Nicholas Hoult, best known for his roles in multiple X-Men films, Super 8, Wild, and more, as legendary DC villain Lex Luthor has also paid off in the trailer. Hoult gets to unleash his usual brand of evil, slow-burn charisma, offering Luthor’s usual mustache-twirling villainy and business-suited corporate machinations with gusto. He’s also not the only new face in the villain’s lair, with Sara Sampaio playing Eve Teschmacher and Terence Rosemore playing Otis, both of whom work as Luthor’s loyal henchmen, if not quite partners in crime.

Dog Days Are Over

If one character in the trailer has me 100% sold on watching Superman, it’s the hero’s dog. Superman’s superpowered white dog, Krypto, was first introduced in the official teaser trailer released in December, where the pup heroically drags a presumably dying Clark Kent to the safety of the Fortress of Solitude. The full trailer revels in the dog’s heroics, even going as far as to show Krypto fighting Lex Luthor toe-to-paw in one scene, and showing off his impressive durability in another when he battles the seemingly unstoppable, nanotech-armed villain Angela Spica, also known as The Engineer and played by Maria Gabriela de Faria.

The trailer also cements expectations that this new Superman will be packed with the kind of enormous-scale fights and big-budget special effects sequences that fans have come to expect from superhero films. The inclusion of classic DC hero and villain characters is just one more way Gunn is rapidly expanding his vision of a DC cinematic universe. Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner, a Green Lantern with a bowl-cut to rival Flash’s; Anthony Carrigan plays Rex Mason/Metamorpho, a DC hero with the ability to turn his entire body into different elements; Isabela Merced is the winged warrior Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi is Michael Holt/Mister Terrific, a scientific genius who turns his hand to crimefighting in a colorful mask and costume; and Milly Alcock is Clark’s cousin, Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl.

Notable new additions to the superhero family include Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as Jonathan and Martha Kent, Superman’s adoptive Kansas farmer parents, who will no doubt ground the more kaiju-inspired portions of the film with their realistic and lived-in performances.

Fans may also spot a familiar face from another DC superhero team-up when Frank Grillo returns as Rick Flag Sr. Frank will be no stranger to anyone who saw or enjoyed the animated series Creature Commandos. Sean Gunn, James Gunn’s brother, also shows up as Maxwell Lord.

Who Do You Trust?

The trailer for Superman doesn’t skimp on action, blowing up entire cities, leaping from rooftops, and offering flash-forwards to epic superhero team-ups that bring in kaiju from another universe. But the most interesting parts of the trailer may be the smaller details that feel like flashbacks to a conflicted past of sorts, where Clark Kent’s moral conviction is challenged when Lois Lane questions how “nice” he was in a high-stakes situation by referencing a private conversation between Superman and the United States Secretary of Defense.

Clark, distraught, explains that he had no choice in the matter because people were going to die if he didn’t take action. Lois interjects to point out that that wasn’t the perception. His conviction could have changed the way his act of heroism was viewed.

Flirting with Fan Service

The whole thing is played a little straight in the trailer, but it also makes room for some levity at the same time, teasing in-jokes for hardcore Superman fans when Lois chides Superman, as Clark, with “Maybe one day your costume will fit your mouth.” It’s a riff on an infamous line from the 1978 Superman film, where fans of the comic book series grew upset that the villain didn’t have a big armored breastplate over his chest like his comic book counterpart.

Not every moment is heavy, or about Superman brawling his way through the galaxy, though. The closing seconds of the trailer find Superman lying in bed, having found peace for the first time in a minute. He is also, notably, exhausted. The mostly quiet shot is a stark contrast to the trailer as a whole and shows Superman, for once, looking almost at peace in this brave new world he finds himself in. Krypto, the faithful dog, is lying atop him, eyes closed, the ideal image of a superhero and his dog.