As anticipation builds for his take on Superman to hit the big screen for the first time, Superman actor David Corenswet revealed the one reason he likes former Man of Steel star Henry Cavill's take on the character. In a matter of days, Corenswet will join a long line of leading men who donned the Superman dungarees at one time or another, following in the footsteps of actors like Cavill, Christopher Reeve, and Brandon Routh.
While Corenswet's Superman has been confirmed to sport some significant differences from other past versions of the iconic DC Comics hero, the DCU actor has said he really enjoys some things from former iterations of the character. This comes as James Gunn's vision for DC's Boy in Blue will do its best to leave audiences with a more modern impression of what Superman can and should be, doing away with several mainstays of the hero's big-screen appearances.
Speaking as a part of a recent profile with GQ, Corenswet took some time to look back at Superman's long on-screen history, addressing the differences between his version of the hero and Henry Cavill's (as seen in Zack Snyder's DCEU).
He said that one of the best things about a character like Superman is getting to see "great artists and writers and actors to explore all of the possibilities of them:"
"Simply because with a great character like Superman, you want great artists and writers and actors to explore all of the possibilities of them. The one way they become boring is if you just keep doing the same thing over and over again."
That is when he pointed to the darker direction of Cavill's version of the costumed hero, saying he loved that Cavill and Snyder's Superman efforts "explored a side of [the character] that hadn't been explored on the big screen:"
"And so, just like [Christopher] Nolan took Batman and did something darker and more grounded with the character, Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill explored a side of Superman that hadn't been explored on the big screen."
Superman marks director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn's first big-screen entry into his newly minted DCU, the latest attempt at an interconnected on-screen universe based on the characters and world of DC Comics. The new film is led by Corenswet alongside Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane), Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor), and Nathan Fillion (Guy Gardner).
Gunn's new Superman reboot comes to theaters on Friday, July 11. It sets audiences in the Man of Steel's early years as the hero (without tackling his origins) as he squares off with the superhero-hating supergenius Lex Luthor in a world already dominated by Metahumans.
How Will David Corenswet's Superman Differ From Others?
In a world where superhero recasts have become plentiful, each new actor/director pairing has to come in and put their own unique stamp on the character just to win fans over.
Thankfully, James Gunn and David Corenswet's latest attempt at the Man of Steel seems to be doing just that. A big part of Gunn's Superman promotion of his idea for the film has been dispelling preconceptions about the character that have turned people off of Supes in the past.
This has come to fruition in a few ways. While not expressly saying as such, the director seems to be moving away from the dark and grounded feeling/tone of Zack Snyder's DCEU, bringing back the hyper-saturated comic book world of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies of the 1970s and '80s.
But Superman 2025 is not just a facsimile of those superhero movie classics. Gunn and Corenswet have changed things even further, taking heavy inspiration from modern-day Superman comic stories, by turning down his power level a bit while retaining the bright, hope-filled world for which the character is typically known.
"I wanted Superman to be vulnerable," Gunn shared in a recent post on Threads (read more about James Gunn's weaker Superman here). This was likely done to dispel the notion that Superman is this invincible boy scout and his superhero stories have no stakes because of it.
The combination of this sunny disposition and weaker Superman overall creates a unique tonal combination that takes pieces from every iteration of the character to this point (yes, including Zack Snyder and Henry Cavill's).
