A few days ago, news broke that Milly Alcock’s Supergirl would be appearing in the upcoming Superman adaptation. In addition, we got some casting news on her family. More specifically, we were told veterans David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham would be playing her parents. Most fans seemed pretty pleased with the new developments, but there was a very vocal minority on social media who all seemed to have the same complaint: how many freakin’ characters are going to be in James Gunn’s Superman movie?
I get. Believe me. I get it. There are a lot of characters confirmed for this movie, or at least heavily rumored to be a part of it. In addition to Clark Kent and Lois Lane, we also have Lex Luthor, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific and Metamorpho. Then we have Clark Kent’s parents and Kara’s newly cast parents. Plus, even though Jason Momoa’s Lobo is reportedly making his debut in the Supergirl movie, there are, of course, some who are convinced he might show up here too. In short, it’s a lot that we already know about, and given Gunn’s history of world-building and love for cameos, it’s likely there’s a lot more we don’t know about yet.
So, on the one hand, I get some of the fans complaining on social about this movie feeling overstuffed, or the movie feeling like it’s a new version of Justice League. People are hyped to see a new take on Superman, and if there are too many things going on or there’s too much active work being put into the larger universe, it could come at the expense of the Superman movie itself. After all, the most important thing here is for all of us to leave the theater wanting more Superman. If the movie itself isn’t good, this new take on the DC Universe is going to have a massive uphill battle, whether seeds were planted for other stories and additional characters or not.
But on the other hand, we all need to chill out. My colleague Adam Holmes wrote up a piece the other day about the casting and talked about how we don’t even know if Krumholtz and Beecham are going to be playing Kara’s Kryptonian parents or her adoptive Earth parents. Either way, we have no idea if they’re going to be seen in a brief flashback or they’re going to be a very present part of the narrative, and the same goes for Kara herself. Gunn has said he’s not making new origin story movies, but there’s a difference between giving glimpses of a character’s backstory and telling the entire journey from baby to adult.
I don’t want a Superman movie that’s filled with incessant cameos and little hints of what’s to come down the line. I don’t want a revolving door of and here’s this guy and here’s this lady. That’s not going to be helpful to telling Superman’s story, but if the goal here is to launch a universe, there’s no reason why there can’t be little moments and hints that nod to the very specific universe they’re living in. I bet Kevin Feige would have made a few changes to some of the early Marvel movies if he knew he was creating a large universe with all the MCU characters explored over dozens of movies.
James Gunn has earned my confidence, especially after that fantastic Superman trailer. Yes, many of his movies like Guardians Of The Galaxy and Suicide Squad have a ton of characters in them, but his track record shows that he has a good sense for keeping the story he wants to tell at the center. So, personally, no matter how many casting announcements we get, I’m going to remain optimistic while we wait for Superman to fly off the upcoming movie schedule and into theaters.
