The first Superman trailer may be here faster than a speeding bullet. The James Gunn written and directed film isn’t due in theaters until next summer, but fan anticipation has reached a fever pitch: the first movie-based merchandise bearing the new Man of Steel’s symbol quickly sold out over San Diego Comic-Con weekend, and excitement has been up and away ever since DC Studios co-chiefs Gunn and Peter Safran announced that their Superman movie will be connected to Creature Commandos and Peacemaker season 2 at the center of the new DC cinematic universe.
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Gunn announced the start of principal photography in February with a glimpse at the upcoming reboot, which stars David Corenswet as Kal-El/Clark Kent alongside Rachel Brosnahan as reporter Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as the villainous Lex Luthor. In May, the first full look at Corenswet in costume arrived online, and filming had wrapped by July.
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Aside from leaked set photos and an officially-released sneak peek at Krypto the Superdog, fans don’t yet know what Gunn’s Superman movie might look like. Will it be glib and gritty like The Suicide Squad? A high-octane, charmingly crude action-comedy like Peacemaker? An epic and emotional space opera like Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies? The earliest opportunity to find out is Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving
The first Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer released on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2014, and one year later, Disney dropped a second teaser on Thanksgiving Day. Trailers for Jurassic World and The Lion King remake debuted during Thanksgiving football, with the latter generating 224.6 million global views in 24 hours to become the second most-viewed trailer ever at the time (behind Avengers: Infinity War).
While it’s not unheard of for studios to offer up tastes of their upcoming summer movies on the actual holiday, trailers typically screen in front of big blockbusters — like Gladiator II, Wicked, and Moana 2. Those movies put eyes on new trailers for 2025 releases Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, A Minecraft Movie, and Captain America: Brave New World, but no Superman.
CCXP Brazil 2024
Gunn has hinted — but not confirmed — that the first Superman footage could debut at the 2024 edition of CCXP Brazil, the annual convention where Warner Bros. showed off The Suicide Squad in 2020 (albeit virtually due to the pandemic).
Last year, Warner Bros. returned to São Paolo to tease its slate with trailers and talent from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Dune: Part Two, and DC’s Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, James Wan, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Denis Villeneuve were all in attendance for the convention that typically draws crowds of 100,000 fans each year. (Gunn and Safran won’t be in attendance at this year’s event due to scheduling conflicts.) CCXP 2024 runs Dec. 5—8.
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
The next opportunity would be running the Superman trailer before The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, the theatrical anime movie that Warner Bros. will release on Dec. 13 as their final film of the year. In November 2012, the first full-length trailer for DC Films and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was attached to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first installment in Warners’ Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy. The trailer arrived on Dec. 14, 2012 — 182 days before Man of Steel‘s summer 2013 release date. Because Superman swooshes into theaters 210 days after War of the Rohirrim, might history repeat itself?
December Movies
If not War of the Rohirrim, the final opportunity for a theatrical Superman trailer before the end of the year is the crop of films still to release in December: Sony’s R-rated Spider-Man spinoff Kraven the Hunter (Dec. 13) is less likely than Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King (Dec. 20) or Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Dec. 20), which are both tracking for opening weekends in the $50 million — $55 million range over the pre-Christmas corridor. Should the year end without us getting to shout “Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Superman,” then a likely landing is the 2025 Super Bowl on Feb. 9.
Produced by Gunn and Safran, DC Studios’ Superman “tells the story of Superman’s journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas,” per the official synopsis. “He is the embodiment of truth, justice and the American way, guided by human kindness in a world that sees kindness as old-fashioned.”
The cast also includes Edi Gathegi (For All Mankind) as Mister Terrific, Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) as the Guy Gardner Green Lantern, Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho, María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as Angela Spica / The Engineer, Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) as Jimmy Olsen, Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Perry White, and Frank Grillo (Creature Commandos) as Rick Flag Sr. Superman soars into theaters July 11, 2025.
