For the first time since Man of Steel launched the DC Extended Universe in 2013, the Last Son of Krypton will fly in solo Superman: Legacy. Written and produced by James Gunn for DC Studios, the reboot will hit theaters July 11, 2025 as the official start of the DC Universe. “It’s not an origin story,” Gunn’s DC Studios co-chief Peter Safran said during a slate presentation. Like The batter — an Elseworlds story separate from the new DCU that introduced Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne in his second year as a costumed crime fighter — legacy will focus on a younger version of Superman. The role will be recast and Henry Cavill will not be the DCU’s Superman.

“Superman: Legacy is the true foundation of our creative vision for the DC Universe,” said Gunn. . I can’t wait to introduce our version of Superman, which audiences will be able to follow and get to know in films, movies, animation and games.”

Gunn’s Superman is about 25 years old, making him more established than Tom Welling’s high school-aged Clark Kent in Smallville, but younger than Cavill’s 33-year-old rookie superhero Man of Steel.

A greener, more youthful Clark Kent typically appears in retellings of Superman’s oft-told origin – John Byrne’s seminal 1986 origin story Superman: the man of steeland more modern versions in 2004 Superman: Birthright and that of 2009 Superman: Secret Origin — but legacy is not Superman: Year One (yet another Superman origin story with a younger skew).

Instead, legacy draws inspiration from the 12-part series by writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely All Star Superman. Morrison envisioned his alternate universe as a “timeless” take on the Super mythos featuring such classic characters as Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White from The Daily Planet, Ma and Pa Kent, Krypto the Superdog, the Fortress of Solitude, and Lex Luthor.

While legacy is not an adjustment All Star Supermansaid Gunn, “I’m a big fan of it All Star Supermanand it is very inspired by All Star Superman.”

In All Star Superman, a trip to the sun exposes Superman to critical levels of stellar radiation: Superman dies at the source of his superpowers. It’s a world where Lois Lane describes her bumbling colleague, a bumbling Clark Kent, as a “big country lummox,” while Superman has had a storied career saving the world. Like that alien farm boy turned idealistic superhero, the DCU Superman will be “the epitome of truth, justice and the American way,” Safran said, revealing legacy “focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.”

Gunn added, “I really like the idea of ​​Superman. He’s a big old galoot. He’s a farm boy from Kansas who’s very idealistic. His biggest weakness is that he’ll never kill anyone, doesn’t want to harm a soul. And I love that kind of innate goodness about Superman as his defining characteristic.”

Superman: Legacy will be in theaters from July 11, 2025.

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