James Gunn says Superman is his "first superhero movie" because the Guardians of the Galaxy "were space adventurers, they weren't really superheroes"

Superman might not just be the first DCU movie – according to director James Gunn, it's also his first superhero movie full stop.

Gunn of course helmed all three Guardians of the Galaxy movies (and the Holiday Special) for Marvel, and his first foray into DC was in 2021 with The Suicide Squad.

Now, though, Gunn is co-CEO of DC Studios along with Peter Safran, meaning he's essentially both director and Kevin Feige as far as Superman is concerned.

"Yeah, that's true, except Kevin has to do a lot of stuff that Peter does, and Peter takes care of a lot of things for me, my partner," Gunn tells us when we put the comparison to him.

"In one way, though, it's weird, because you say I've made superhero movies with Marvel, but I really didn't," he continues. "Guardians were space adventurers. They really weren't superheroes. They didn't have secret identities or masks or costumes, or they had superpowers, but they weren't really superpowers. They were just the powers of wherever they were from.

"So I think that, really, in a lot of ways, this is my first superhero movie, because even the Suicide Squad were supervillains," he adds. "So that brought in a bunch of challenges in itself. Because superheroes, everything I do comes from a place of, 'Well, what if this was real?' You know, if I started telling the story of Rocket Raccoon, 'What if Rocket Raccoon was real? How would he exist? Where would he come from?' And with this, 'What if Superman was real? What are his beliefs? What is his relationship with his girlfriend like? What is his relationship to the government like?' So it really was coming from that place."

Superman also makes use of the hero's storied comic book history, even including some serious deep cuts like Clark Kent's hypno glasses – which, Gunn explains, originate from the same line of thinking.

"It comes from the place of, what if Superman was real?" he says. "Like for me, even as a little kid, I'm always like, 'What's with the glasses? How is that a disguise?' Now, I know some people are like, 'Well, suspension of disbelief, he's a superhero. He has a cape.' But I'm like, 'I don't know. I think there's a reason for the cape. It's because he looks cool.' How do glasses hide his identity?

"And I said that to Tom King. We have this group of writers who we met with to plan out some of the beginning stages of the DCU," Gunn continues. "I was saying I'm upset about the glasses. And Tom's like, 'There's a reason, canonically, for the glasses.' I'm like, 'There is?' And he's like, 'Yes, they're hypno glasses. It's Kryptonian glass, and they make his face look different.' I'm like, 'Really? Well, now that makes sense to me.' Hypno glasses, now it's silly, but it also makes sense. That just simply comes from giving people a reason to believe he can actually pull that off."

Superman arrives in theaters this July 11. In the meantime, check out our guides to all the upcoming DC movies and TV shows and how to watch the DC movies in order for even more.