One of the most highly anticipated films on the 2025 movie schedule is James Gunn’s Superman. The newest adventure for the Man of Steel will be the first big screen outing for the new DCU, and Gunn seeks to provide a fresh (but faithful) take on the beloved character. Right now, there are a lot of very concerned fans out there, as some of them were likely worried by a recent report of reshoots taking place for the movie. Now, James Gunn is calling everybody down from the ledge.
Reshoots are common, especially for high-profile blockbuster movies, but sometimes those reshoots can mean drastic changes to the film. In a response to a question about additional filming on Threads, James Gunn confirmed that some new work is currently scheduled but, based on his comments, it doesn't sound like much needs to be done. Gunn stated…
Sort of. Not a few days. We’re doing a day and a half of pickup shots. No scenes. No reshoots. Just a handful of individual shots to enhance the film.
Pick-up shots can cover a variety of different moments but generally refer to a class of shots like inserts or transitions. These are small shots needed to fit everything together -- which may have been missed during principal photography. There may also be a case in which a new version of a shot is needed because the one that was taken has been deemed unusable for any number of reasons.
These are usually pretty simple moments, maybe two shots of a character have been placed together and, in the second shot, a character is holding an object, but there’s no shot of picking the object up. To avoid a glaring continuity error, a shot in between of the character picking up the thing needs to be added.
Frequently, these pick-up shots don’t even require the actors to be on set, as a double can be used for a close-up of a hand picking something up. James Gunn doesn’t say whether his Superman cast will even be needed for the day and a half of shots that need to be taken care of. Unless he specifically needs shots that include people's faces, they likely won't be brought in.
The last time Superman was in a movie, the ill-fated Justice League, reshoots were handled by a different director, which led to massive changes in the story. The changes in turn led to a fan campaign that resulted in the Snyder Cut being released, and that cut was essentially an entirely different version of the film. With that, it's perhaps understandable why fans are apprehensive about reshoots on the new Superman film. Some may now find comfort in Gunn's comments.
The first entry in James Gunn’s new DCU, Creature Commandos, recently started its run on Max, but Superman will be the real first test of just what we’re going to get with the relaunched franchise. There’s certainly a lot riding on the movie’s success and getting everything right. We'll find out when Superman hits theaters on July 11, 2025.
