In a new post online, James Gunn addressed one major complaint about his recently released Superman movie. Gunn's 2025 Superman reboot has proven to be a massive hit for DC Studios and Warner Bros. The super-powered spectacular has raked in over $500 million at the global box office and earned near-universal acclaim as it reintroduced the Man of Steel to moviegoing audiences around the globe. However, the film has not been without its critics.
Some have called out aspects of the movie they do not necessarily jive with, including David Corenswet's boyishly sweet portrayal of the Last Son of Krypton, some lackluster CGI (especially when it comes to one particularly effects-heavy anti-proton river sequence), and how/why Superman would talk the way he does with the parents he has. Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell bring to life Ma and Pa Kent in the new 2025 blockbuster, coming with an appropriately thick Kansas accent, something some fans have thought Superman should have as well if they raised him.
James Gunn has addressed this particular accent not on his personal Threads page, responding to fans wondering why Corenswet's Man of Steel doesn't have the same southern drawl as his Earthly parents.
Responding to a now-deleted post from an inquiring fan, the Superman director pulled the curtain back on his thinking about Superman/Clark Kent losing his Kansas accent, remarking, "It's the same reason I don't have the same accent my parents do."
Gunn posited that when people grow up and "go to college in a different city," they often begin to "train [themselves] out of it little by little:"
"Although I resent the term redneck it's the same reason I don't have the same accent my parents do. You go to college in a different city, you get mocked for it, and you train yourself out of it little by little."
This meant that Corenswet's version of Clark Kent likely had the Kansas accent at one point; however, when he left Smallville to go away for college and eventually head to Metropolis to work at the Daily Planet, he slowly lost it.
Superman is now playing in theaters worldwide, debuting Gunn's new DCU on the big screen. The Superman reboot stars Hollywood and Twisters actor David Corenswet in the titular role as he goes up against the dastardly Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) for the first time. The new film from the fan-favorite filmmaker also stars Rachel Brosnahan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, and Edi Gathegi.
Superman's Accent Problem Solved
One of the biggest sticking points those who did not like Superman have kept coming back to has been the question, 'Why doesn't Superman have an accent?'
This complaint largely stems from the fact that, often in Superman media to this point, Ma and Pa Kent, despite almost always being depicted as small-town Kansas farmers, have not sported the Kansan accent.
For example, in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane's take on Ma and Pa Kent simply talked as the actors do, with no drawl to be heard. Most of the Smallville residents depicted in Snyder's 2012 Superman film didn't have any accent.
Gunn changed that for the new film, giving Superman's earthly parents an authentic Kansan twang that small-town farmers from that part of the United States would have.
And for those wondering why that did not result in a country-fried version of the Man of Steel appearing on-screen, as Gunn said, Clark likely lost it when he left for college.
In fact, Gunn himself likely has some experience with this exact experience, having grown up in Kansas City, Missouri, and attending college (for a time) at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and Columbia University School of Fine Arts in New York City.
