It was the most important decision James Gunn had to make. OK, maybe not the MOST important. But given the way that comic book and superhero fans love to argue over specific details – especially when it comes to costumes on our favorite characters – the costuming choice of putting trunks on the new Superman outfit was generating headlines. The most recent silver-screen Superman prior to David Corenswet, Man of Steel star Henry Cavill, had no trunks on his costume. Of course, the icon that is Christopher Reeve sported the red undies. And the Superman comic books presented examples of both over the decades.
So I knew, when I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to watch James Gunn and his cast film scenes for Superman, that I had to get to the bottom of the “trunks, or no trunks” debate. Let’s get to the bottom of what I was able to unearth.
James Gunn was anti-trunks for a long time.
As it turns out, the idea generated some heat on set, with creatives taking sides and Gunn admitting that not everyone in every department was completely on board. Judianna Makovsky has been Gunn’s costume designer since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. She followed him to DC for The Suicide Squad, then took on the task of suiting Ka-El (Corenswet) for a new universe. I asked Gunn during a break in filming about the “trunks versus no trunks” argument, and the director admitted to CinemaBlend:
At the end of the day, it wasn't THAT heated. It was heated for a while. I was on the ‘no trunks’ team for a long time. For a long time. And Zack [Snyder] said that when he was doing it, he tried a billion different trunk versions, as we did. And I kept going back to, ‘No trunks, no trunks, no trunks.’ And I'm like, ‘Well, let's just grind it out. Let's just keep trying trunks and see what happens.’
You can look at various Superman suit designs over the years, and notice just how different they look when you remove a simple item like the red shorts. Heck, at one point back in February 2023, Gunn even made a poll on Twitter asking fans which they preferred.
Superman:February 1, 2023
However, when it came time to make the final call, it was the man wearing the suit who brought up a point that James Gunn couldn’t shake.
‘He dresses like a professional wrestler.’
As James Gunn went on to elaborate on the costuming process for Superman, the director spoke with leading man David Corenswet, who brought up a very interesting wrinkle in the superhero-suit conversation. According to Gunn:
David [Corenswet] said something to me that really affected me. We were trying on all these different versions, and we screened tested with trunks and no trunks. And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He's an alien. He's got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, [he] can blow the truck over. He's this incredibly powerful – could be considered scary – individual, and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler. He dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that. That really clicked in for me.
As with so many superheroes in the DC universe, there are two sides that need to be reflected, and often, they are at war with each other. For Batman, there is the tireless vigilante hunting criminals in Gotham. But there’s also the elusive playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, who seems not to have a care in the world. With Superman, every storyteller wrestles with Clark Kent and Kal-El – with the Kansas farm boy, and the alien from another planet.
So, as Gunn concluded to CinemaBlend:
I think trying to pretend that Superman's costume doesn't have some frivolity to it at its base, trying to make it look serious, is silly because he is a superhero. He's the first one, brightly colored, and that's who he is. And so that's where we landed. And eventually, we all came to a place where almost all of us agreed on the trunks.
Personally, I love it. I never viewed trunks as a make or break on a Superman suit, because I liked Henry Cavill’s Superman suit. But I’m willing to roll with a change, if Gunn and Corenswet think it’s the right way forward.
Superman is poised to be a massive blockbuster for Warner Bros. when it opens on July 11, 2025. We plan to have plenty more from the set as we get closer to the release of the movie. And you will be able to see the first Superman trailer when it arrives on Thursday, December 19, so stay tuned.
