Superman Movie: Handling Side Characters Amid High Expectations

The Man of Steel is set to make a thrilling return in James Gunn's upcoming film, *Superman*, with its latest trailer sparking excitement ahead of its July launch. The trailer showcases David Corenswet's captivating performance as Superman and highlights the action-packed prowess of his beloved dog, Krypto. However, fans are buzzing about the sheer volume of characters and plot elements packed into the film, questioning how it will manage to weave a coherent narrative.

"Strong start to the trailer," commented one Redditor on an r/Superman post shortly after the trailer's release. "But then practically every shot introduced another new character and I started worrying how the movie was going to tell a coherent story." Another fan echoed this sentiment, saying, "I’m gonna love it, he looks great as Superman, he looks great as Clark Kent, but the movie looks like it might be a bit busy, there's a lot going on here."

Expressing enthusiasm for the lighter, more comic-faithful tone, a third fan noted, "Now this, I love this trailer. From someone who never really liked the dark DC vibe, I’m excited to experience a true comic superhero movie. But am I the only one who is worried for all the cameos that are in the trailer? Like I swear I was counting like 8 friends and foes in this movie. I know they want to set up James Gunn’s DCU with this but I would prefer it to be less heavy on cameo fodder and take more time to develop the characters that are needed to tell the story that they’re trying to tell."

The trailer indeed introduces a plethora of characters, including Clark Kent’s Earth parents, love interest Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and various villains led by the central antagonist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). While some fans worry about the film being overly ambitious, many are thrilled by the prospect of these character introductions.

All the characters revealed so far in *Superman*:

Superman
Lois Lane
Lex Luthor
Mister Terrific
Guy Gardner
Hawkgirl
Metamorpho
The Engineer
The Hammer of Boravia
Ultraman
Rick Flag Sr.
Supergirl
Maxwell Lord
Kryptonian robots, including Kelex
Krypto
Jonathan Kent
Martha Kent
Perry White
Jimmy Olsen
Steve Lombard
Cat Grant
Ron Troupe
Eve Teschmacher
Otis

Defending the film's approach, one fan remarked, "I'm glad there's a lot going on. We've seen him fight Lex & Zod countless times at this point, I want to see him completely overwhelmed and emerge as a symbol of hope," while another clarified, "It’s side characters, less cameos. Like Iron Man had several side characters."

A third fan added perspective, stating, "I don't feel like it's such a big deal honestly. Movies usually need secondary/side characters. Gunn here is just filling in those spots with rather big names, but I doubt he'll give them more than what they need."

Superman: Behind the Scenes Cast and Character Images

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The concern over the film being potentially overstuffed hasn't deterred fans entirely. "It looks good but wondering how they’re going to shoehorn so many different characters into one movie," one user pondered, while another reassured, "It's not any more characters than the average comic book movie. It's fine." A witty response came from a third fan, "Kinda like Guardians of the Galaxy…?" A fair comparison, considering Gunn's history with ensemble casts.

James Gunn has emphasized that *Superman* is not an ensemble piece but centers around Clark, Lois, and Lex. "At the middle of everything is Clark, Lois, and Lex," he stated in an Instagram Live session at the beginning of 2025. How he plans to balance this focus with the numerous other characters remains to be seen.

*Superman* soars into theaters on July 11, 2025.