Superman and Lois Lane Rebooted in James Gunn’s First Trailer

DC Studios is embarking on a new era. We know that. Superman, a rebooted origin story of the Man of Steel from writer-director James Gunn, has been building months of anticipation for its July release. But now, with a first full trailer officially in the books, there is no shortage of buzz material for fans of the new age of DC Comics onscreen.

A new Clark Kent. A feisty Lois Lane. An entire pantheon of DC heroes and villains. And one superdog who steals the show. In an emotional, intimate, and character-driven reboot, Gunn’s Superman is as clear as it is crowded about what it is for: a journey, not an origin.

Gunn has been specific about one thing that this reboot won’t be: your typical Superman origin story. The central thrust of the film is Clark Kent’s internal struggle as he seeks to reconcile the intangible memories of his Kryptonian royal upbringing with his down-to-earth childhood in rural Kansas. As Clark searches for the sense of belonging that he feels his Kryptonian identity never granted him, the movie is given a throughline of emotional gravity.

The role goes to Pearl and Hollywood’s David Corenswet, who plays the titular hero as a 25-year-old “Superman.” That is, less the naive, wide-eyed hero of traditional Superman lore and more a character worn down by life, by all of his supposed privilege, and by the world. We see this more acutely in his Clark Kent/Superman duality, especially through his interactions with Lois Lane.

Lane is played by Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). But instead of opening with the standard exposition for Lois’ character—her Pulitzer Prize-winning work as a journalist for The Daily Planet—the trailer opens with a playfully elaborate version of what it is Lois does: she interviews “Superman,” or as we see in her conversation with Lois, Clark Kent in Superman’s armor.

The scene is about what we can’t see: whether Lois already knows Clark’s secret. It seems she’s on to him, based on the way the two flirt, cajole, argue, and bicker. But others have argued that Lois already knows. I’m on the other side: I don’t think she knows, and if you read people’s faces, as I often am prone to do, the entire scene—especially the two actors’ body language and minute shifts in facial expression—leans into Lois not knowing. (Sorry, fans.) But either way, it’s hot, and it positions the Lois/Clark dynamic at the center of the film.

Another high-profile newcomer to the DC films universe is Nicholas Hoult, who’s been in the thick of filming his Luthor reboot for a few months. The trailer lives up to its moments of the usual blend of evil science and corporate greed, and Lex Luthor doesn’t have to do it alone. Sarah Sampaio portrays Lex Luthor’s first and loyal henchperson, Eve Teschmacher, and Terence Rosemore is Otis, a Luthor loyalist in his own right.

Krypto, Kaiju, and all that DC is Kosher with

One character we didn’t necessarily see coming to steal the spotlight from the film’s gargantuan star? Superman’s eponymous white dog, Krypto. We first got a glimpse of the canine companion of the Man of Steel in the teaser trailer released last December, where we see him pulling the gravely injured Superman into the Fortress of Solitude. We double down on the dog power in this extended trailer, with more than a few shots of Krypto matching superpowers paw-to-toe with Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) and the high-tech military leader Angela Spica, AKA The Engineer, played by Maria Gabriela de Faria.

The black spandex-clad villain is decked out in her usual upper-body mobile suit and wields a pair of deadly rotating blades as a weapon (courtesy of nanotechnology). As the leader of a full-on assault on the Fortress, she’s every bit the evil onscreen as Luthor is; if not more so.

If you blinked through the fights and the kaiju, and flashes of team-ups galore, the trailer is not skimpy on establishing a compelling who’s who of some lesser-known DC characters either. Nathan Fillion steps into the role of the Green Lantern Guy Gardner, who’s a bit less epic hero, and a lot more Midwestern nerd, as we see in his bowl-cut-topped costume. Anthony Carrigan plays Rex Mason, aka Metamorpho, whose power is shifting elements in and around his body to reshape the world around him at will. Isabela Merced plays the winged warrior Hawkgirl. And Edi Gathegi plays the mysterious Michael Holt/Mister Terrific, a scientist-genius turned masked hero.

Fans of Supergirl have been salivating at the prospect of seeing more of Milly Alcock, who also appears in the Superman trailer as Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin. But between the Kent parents that make up Superman’s adopted family (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell as Jonathan and Martha Kent, respectively) and Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El (Superman’s cousin), the film hints at an even larger-than-life, Kryptonian family narrative.

Frank Grillo and Sean Gunn also appear in crossover cameos, with the former reprise of Rick Flag Sr. from his role in the animated series Creature Commandos, and the latter Maxwell Lord, reprising from Gunn’s own The Suicide Squad from last year.

One for the Books

Action-packed set pieces of the normal rooftop jumping variety to full-on cosmically nuclear action-packed scenes aside, what does stand out is how central the back and forth of heroism with humanity is in the trailer.

Clark is put on the spot by Lois Lane about the public perception of his heroism, quizzed on how he thinks something like the U.S. Secretary of Defense might view his superhero work, and his emotional response is a stammering, “People were going to die!” The tension between playing for the crowd and making the right call looms large in this scene, and likely is a vein in which the greater thematic parts of this film will play out.

But amid all of the action (as well as the thoughtful and quiet emotion that trails it) are quiet little moments of levity peppered throughout. The comic book dust of this world might not settle for too long, but before the credits roll in the Superman trailer, there’s a last shot of the titular hero that lands as more than a little satisfying: Superman, at rest on his bed, with a loving and complacent Krypto curled up on his chest, at peace in a pocket of rare quiet in a world full of chaos.

A stacked cast. A decidedly modern touch. A lot to juggle. But if the heart of Superman is about that at-home, human moment with Krypto that closes the trailer, it’s a different take on what we expect from a reboot and looks to be the turning point in the DC cinematic universe that we’ve all been waiting for.