How James Gunn's SUPERMAN Channels the Spirit of The Original 1978 Classic
James Gunn isn’t trying to reinvent Superman. He’s trying to remind us why he mattered in the first place.
In a recent episode of Grave Conversations hosted by The Suicide Squad's David Dastmalchian , Gunn opened up about how his upcoming Superman movie echoes the 1978 Richard Donner film that first made audiences believe a man could fly.
“There’s some similarities between the original Superman and this Superman. The world was going through an upheaval in the early ’70s, and Superman was a return to this bright hope and cheerfulness amidst all of that. I don’t think that’s any different than today.”
The 1978 film debuted during a time of national instability with recession, energy crises, and Cold War unease, and still managed to shine a light of warmth and optimism.
Gunn sees today’s world as being in a similar emotional place and wants his Superman (David Corenswet) to feel like the same kind of antidote.
Gunn’s version isn’t a cynical update or a deconstruction. It’s a return to the basics of truth, kindness, and unapologetic decency.
“Sometimes people think that Superman is Pollyanna or old-fashioned, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, he is. And that’s okay.’
“He’s just this basically good guy that believes in those old-fashioned values of love and saving human lives, and being good to each other, being kind, being polite.
“All of those things are made fun of today, just as they were sort of in the ’70s. And yet, that’s what he stands for. So in a way, he’s edgy because he does go against the grain.”
Gunn also emphasized that while hope has always been a big part of Superman’s mythos, his film aims to ground the character’s appeal in something even more immediate.
“I think ‘loving’ and ‘good’ is better than ‘hope,’ because hope is a certain thing about the future. There’s hopefulness there, for sure, but I really think it’s much more about Superman being kind and that being okay. Because a lot of people aren’t.”
Asked what he ultimately wants audiences to walk away with, Gunn didn’t give a grand speech about legacy or lore. Instead, he described something small, simple, and incredibly human:
“You know that feeling, and I’m sure people out there know, that magical feeling you feel when you get out of a good movie.
“That high that you feel, and you love the person you’re next to a little bit more than how much you loved them when you walked into it.
“Whether it’s your buddy or your mom, or wife, or husband, or kid. So that’s what I want. I want people to walk out feeling like that.”
So no, Superman won’t be grim, gritty, or “darkly reimagined.” It’s aiming to be something far more radical… hopeful, heartfelt, and… maybe even healing.
And in a world that could really use a friend, maybe that’s exactly the Superman we need.