‘Superman: Legacy’ Casts David Corenswet as Superman and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane
It’s official: James Gunn has cast David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Superman (also known as Kal-El or Clark Kent) and Lois Lane for the upcoming Warner Brothers Discovery and DC Studios film Superman: Legacy.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Corenswet and Brosnahan won the roles as the lead characters in the Superman franchise reboot, which is set to launch the DC Universe initiative, which introduces a new era of DC Comics adaptations across film, television, animation, and video games. The news follows reports of recent chemistry tests between Corenswet and Emma Mackey, Nicholas Hoult and Brosnahan, and Tom Brittney and Phoebe Dynevor. While many expected Corenswet to get the part out of the finalists after weeks of him rumored to be the front-runner, Brosnahan’s casting is a bit of an upset, considering that Mackey was apparently the only actress who auditioned with all three Superman actors. James Gunn confirmed the news on his Twitter page:
Accurate! (They are not only both incredible actors, but also wonderful people). https://t.co/1FtwYIDeYj
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 27, 2023
Yet to be cast for Superman: Legacy are other mainstays from the Man of Tomorrow’s franchise, such as the staff of The Daily Planet and presumably Superman’s biological and adoptive parents. The role of Lex Luthor in particular seems to be a buzzy race, as not only has Hoult also auditioned for that role to good results, but brothers Alexander and Bill Skarsgård are also said to be in the running. Even though Lex is set to have a role in this story, Brainiac is rumored to be the main antagonist of the film. Reports indicate that other superheroes, such as some members of the authoritarian anti-hero team The Authority, are set to have supporting roles in the film, which is set in a continuity where superheroes have existed for years and Superman has been active as a superhero for a little while. Gunn has also implied that Krypto the Super-Dog may appear in the movie.
The DC Universe almost completely reboots the continuity previously established by the DC Extended Universe, made up of a almost every single film released between Man of Steel and the forthcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (the only two major exceptions are Joker and The Batman, which are Elseworlds stories and thus are not canon with that continuity). Despite this, some characters are being grandfathered into the setting, such as characters from The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker Season 1 carrying over into the new continuity in projects like Creature Commandos, Waller, and Peacemaker Season 2. The upcoming Blue Beetle is also said to be adjacent to the DCU, even though it was filmed as a DCEU movie.
The Superman film franchise has had a controversial history. Initially, Richard Donner was set to direct two films back-to-back with plans for more, but issues behind the scenes led to him being removed from the second installment, replaced by another director. While the first two movies were well-received and successful, the third and fourth films, along with the Supergirl spin-off, were box office poison. Other attempts to make Superman movies, such as Tim Burton’s Superman Lives or McG’s Superman: Flyby, never flew off the page, and Superman Returns, a sequel to the first two Superman movies, wasn’t quite the soaring hit that it needed to be, and so franchise plans (including a possible crossover with Christian Bale’s Batman) were shelved.
The DC Extended Universe take on Superman came with its own issues. Initially planned as a Superman-only trilogy, Man of Steel was retrofit into being the start of a shared universe that director Zack Snyder repositioned into being the start of a finite five-movie arc involving DC’s biggest characters, which contrasted with WB’s plans to have a franchise that could theoretically go on forever like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Man of Steel and its follow-up Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice were hits despite bad reviews and hostile word-of-mouth, the third chapter in the trilogy, Justice League, lost tens of millions of dollars, and so future plans were discontinued. Henry Cavill unsuccessfully tried to negotiate for another film, but the studio pivoted away from those plans by instead working on an Elseworlds Superman story reframing the character’s origin around African American history in a period piece film, while a Supergirl franchise was planned for the DCEU. Neither of those things got off the ground, and while Cavill was able to eventually settle for a cameo in last year’s box office dud Black Adam along with this year’s The Flash (which was cut from the finished film), he was never able to secure a contract for a conventional Superman sequel, which entered early development but was never formally greenlit. Barring a multiverse cameo appearance in a future movie, his time as Superman has sadly ended, though he has since positioned himself as the architect of a Warhammer 40,000 series at Amazon.
James Gunn was initially courted to work on Superman: Legacy in 2018, after WB successfully poached him after his brief firing from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and though he opted to do The Suicide Squad instead, he revisited the concept years later after he realized that he had a story that he wanted to tell. Upon getting the co-CEO position at DC Studios alongside producer Peter Safran, Gunn began work on a screenplay, and is now in the process of casting for the film and a creative team does as much work as it can while the WGA strike happens. Production is set to begin early next year, should all go well.
Superman: Legacy is set to release on July 11, 2025.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
