James Gunn Reveals Key Scene in SUPERMAN Was Almost Much Darker

Superman was a film about hope. It was about the human experience, and navigating life under super circumstances.

Director James Gunn put his signature style into the film, bringing us humor and heart, and even a pretty dark scene to portray the level of evil Clark was dealing with in his nemesis, Lex Luthor. But as it turns out, the scene was almost much darker. {Spoilers ahead, if you haven’t seen the film.}

The scene takes place in the pocket universe created by the villainous Luthor, in the prison he is keeping all who ever wronged him. He puts the captured superhero into a cell with Metamorpho, who is meant to conjure Kryptonite to break Superman down if he doesn’t reveal the answers to Luthor’s questions.

Lex then brings in Malik Ali, a falafel vendor who appears earlier in the film when he helps Superman during a kaiju’s attack on Metropolis, who he uses as a ploy to get Superman to talk.

Luthor ends up shooting Malik, which is shocking and sad, but Gunn revealed that in his original plan, the scene then took a grim turn.

In a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gunn said that he toned down the aftermath of Malik’s death, which leaves an anguished Superman wailing after watching Luthor shoot the friendly civilian in the head.

“There’s a really dark thing in there. There was a really dark thing. Once I saw the movie, I’m like, ‘This is [too dark].’ So Lex shoots the guy in the head, that was always done in this extreme wide [shot] so it’s not too graphic. But the guy fell on the ground, and blood is pouring out onto the platform, and Lex looks down and sees the blood is about to get on his shoes.”

At that point, Luthor would have Ghurkos get on the ground to soak up Malik’s blood from seeping into his shoes.

“Ghurkos goes, ‘What? No!’ And Nic looks at him, and his delivery is great, because he looks at him straight and [says], ‘No?’ And then Ghurkos, sheepishly, sadly, trudges forward and lays down on his back. And [Burić], he’s so funny. He lays down on his back and starts soaking up the blood. Then Nic looks over at Superman and says, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’”

Gunn noted the scene was shot but was “cut pretty early,” adding, “I don’t think that was even ever in a test screening.” Before the film’s release, Gunn revealed that Drew Goddard, writer of Marvel’s Daredevil and the films The Martian, The Cabin in the Woods, and Project Hail Mary, recommended he trim the scene.

Gunn told Collider:

“Drew Goddard was really helpful. I think that there were a couple of little things in the movie, three or four things that we really argued about in the film, and all of them had to do with things that were a little bit darker or a little bit lighter. In discussing one of them, Drew Goddard was like, ‘You know what? It’s just not that film. It’s not that film with this little dark ending bit.’ And I thought, ‘He’s right. It’s not that film. It is not that film.’ And so that line that he said stuck with me for the rest of editing.”

Gunn’s Superman is now playing everywhere in theaters.