“Superman” star David Corenswet recently told GQ magazine that he is well aware James Gunn’s new movie is causing a stir among fans loyal to Zack Snyder and the previous DC Universe, where Henry Cavill starred as the Man of Steel in three movies. A legion of Snyder fans have started an online movement to negatively impact the success of Gunn’s “Superman.” Their goal is to try and get the film to flop at the box office in order to tank the start of the new DC Universe that is replacing Snyder’s.
Corenswet unwittingly found himself the target of Snyder fans when he was cast as Gunn’s Superman in the summer of 2023. Comments the actor made to Entertainment Weekly in 2019 resurfaced online at the time as Corenswet spoke about how the role of Superman was his dream gig, although not the dark and gritty version that Snyder and Cavill brought to the big screen.
“My pie-in-the-sky ambition is definitely to play Superman,” Corenswet said in 2019. “I would love to see somebody do an upbeat, throwback [take on Superman]. I love the Henry Cavill dark and gritty take, but I would love to see the next one be very bright and optimistic.”
Some fans of Snyder’s DC Universe thought Corenswet was shading Cavill’s Superman, although that could not be further from the truth. As Corenswet now told GQ magazine: “I think that’s the least interesting thing I could have said. Simply because with a great character like Superman, you want great artists and writers and actors to explore all of the possibilities of them.”
“The one way [superheroes] become boring is if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again,” Corenswet continued. “And so, just like Chris Nolan took Batman and did something darker and more grounded with the character, Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill explored a side of Superman that hadn’t been explored on the big screen. So, all I was saying was they’re doing it so well. Whenever they’re finished, I’d love to see the next one go the other way, and let’s see the other side. In the same way, after Chris Nolan’s Batman films and after Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, there are a lot of people who are like, ‘Where’s our funny, campy, fantastical Batman?’”
Gunn and Corenswet have now taken Superman in the opposite direction of Snyder and Cavill. The new Man of Steel is colorful and more light on his feet than he is dark and brooding. Corenswet previously told Heart that he reached out to Cavill for tips after landing the role, but Cavill had no wisdom to share.
As for “Superman” and Snyder fans, Gunn responded on Threads last month and said he’s not too worried about the movement that’s trying to tank his movie. One post from a Snyder fan read: “Stand up and fight for SnyderVerse on July 11. Fight for our SnyderVerse on the imposter ‘Superman’ release day. Here’s what we can do to make a difference: 1) Post spoilers everywhere. 2) Leave bad rating on review sites. 3) Reserve tickets online but don’t complete the purchase. By selecting and reserving tickets, it gets taken out of the pool for a period of time which means this has a chance of stopping gunn-bots from buying tickets.”
“I don’t mind it. I think it’s good,” Gunn then told Rolling Stone about Snyder fans. “I think you don’t wanna have everybody root for you, and I have an actor who reads everything online. I won’t say who it is, but he’ll read this article, and he’ll know who it is. It’s one of the top five in Superman. And this actor gets so upset over things that people say. I said, ‘First of all, you realize that the trailer came out and [reaction] was 97, 98% positive. These people help us, because you don’t want everything to seem 100% positive.’”
“It’s all right to have an opposing force every once in a while,” Gunn continued. “Some of the things get ridiculous — I just know that every time something comes out, it doesn’t matter how positively received, there’s gonna be something that is of great controversy. It was great controversy that the sun caused Superman pain.”
Gunn revealed on X shortly after taking over DC Studios that he had touched base with Snyder and there were no hard feelings between them. In an interview with Fandango last month, Gunn even revealed that he consulted with Snyder when it came to designing the new Superman suit and whether or not to add the red trunks.
“Superman” opens in theaters July 11 from Warner Bros.
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