When Superman hit theaters last month, the DCU finally got a much-needed win. The film has earned strong reviews (it holds an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has already crossed the $600 million mark at the global box office, making it the top-grossing superhero flick of 2025 so far.
While it didn’t hit the elusive billion-dollar milestone, it’s a major victory for DC Studios, especially after the critical and financial failures of The Flash and Joker: Folie à Deux.
With that kind of success, Superman director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn is finally feeling a sense of relief. In a recent interview, Gunn got candid about the pressure that came with launching the first film in the new DC Universe.
“That’s all it is, it’s just an enormous sense of relief. It’s relief, and then followed very quickly by excitement because Superman in some ways was the proof of concept.
“It was so, so hard, in the same way that Guardians [of the Galaxy] was so, so hard. Once you’re in the groove, you realise, ‘Oh, this is what works, this is what doesn’t, this is where we can go with this.'”
He went on to say:
“It means now we have the freedom to tell these other stories in a way that’s really exciting. Now, I can just be creative and I don’t have to be as concerned with the life and death of the DC brand as I was a month and a half ago.”
The positive reception from fans has only reinforced his confidence moving forward.
“I feel really embraced by the audience. My feeling is that the movie spoke to people, but it also spoke to people because there was a reason for its existence. There was this message of kindness that spoke to people.”
But Gunn also made it clear he doesn’t intend to repeat the same formula in future DCU stories.
“That doesn’t mean every story I’m going to tell is a message of kindness; it just means there needs to be a reason for the story to be told. You can’t just be piling on stuff because it’s the characters people liked.”
Looking ahead, Supergirl is next in line, continuing the “Super-Family” narrative. With Clayface also in the pipeline, the pressure is on to maintain this new momentum.
There are rumblings of a major crossover that might see Supergirl teaming up with the Man of Steel, and long-term fans are still hoping that Brainiac will finally make his big-screen debut.
Gunn’s ultimate vision remains tightly under wraps, but speculation points toward something big and exciting.
