The man of steel is back—almost, at least. The latest trailer for James Gunn’s upcoming film, Superman, has been released ahead of its July launch, and it's brimming with excitement. From David Corenswet’s compelling performance as the titular hero to the dynamic action scenes featuring Superman's beloved dog, Krypto, there's plenty to unpack. However, the trailer has sparked a major conversation among fans about the film's ambitious scope and how it will manage to weave a coherent narrative with such a vast ensemble of characters.
"Strong start to the trailer," one Redditor commented on an r/Superman post shortly after its release. "But then practically every shot introduced another new character, and I started worrying how the movie was going to tell a coherent story." Another fan echoed this sentiment, saying, "I’m gonna love it; he looks great as Superman, he looks great as Clark Kent, but the movie looks like it might be a bit busy, there's a lot going on here."
"Now this, I love this trailer. As someone who never really liked the dark DC vibe, I’m excited to experience a true comic superhero movie. But am I the only one who is worried about all the cameos in the trailer?" another fan expressed in the comments. "Like, I swear I was counting like 8 friends and foes in this movie. I know they want to set up James Gunn’s DCU with this, but I would prefer it to be less heavy on cameo fodder and take more time to develop the characters needed to tell the story."
To be fair, the trailer does feature a whole host of characters, including Clark Kent’s Earth parents, love interest Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and several sets of formidable villains, including the central antagonist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). Despite concerns about the film being potentially bloated, many fans are thrilled at the prospect of these character introductions.
All the characters revealed so far in Superman:
-----------------------------------------------Superman
Lois Lane
Lex Luthor
Mister Terrific
Guy Gardner
Hawkgirl
Metamorpho
The Engineer
The Hammer of Boravia
Ultraman
Rick Flag Sr.
Supergirl
Maxwell Lord
Kryptonian robots, including Kelex
Krypto
Jonathan Kent
Martha Kent
Perry White
Jimmy Olsen
Steve Lombard
Cat Grant
Ron Troupe
Eve Teschmacher
Otis
"I'm glad there's a lot going on. We've seen him fight Lex & Zod countless times at this point; I want to see him completely overwhelmed and emerge as a symbol of hope," one user responded to the concerns, while another added, "It’s side characters, less cameos. Like Iron Man had several side characters."
A third fan noted that this is typical for superhero films. "I don't feel like it's such a big deal honestly. Movies usually need secondary/side characters," the person commented. "Gunn here is just filling in those spots with rather big names, but I doubt he'll give them more than what they need."
Superman: Behind the Scenes Cast and Character Images
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Despite the concerns about the film being overstuffed, fans are still eager to see how it all comes together. "It looks good, but wondering how they’re going to shoehorn so many different characters into one movie," one user wrote, to which another fan replied, "It's not any more characters than the average comic book movie. It's fine." A third user even quipped: "Kinda like Guardians of the Galaxy…?" Honestly? Touché.
Ultimately, Gunn has emphasized that the film is not an ensemble piece. "At the middle of everything is Clark, Lois, and Lex," he stated at the beginning of 2025 during an Instagram Live session. "It’s about these three characters." It remains to be seen how he will manage to keep the focus on these core characters amidst the bustling cast.
Superman flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.
