About a week or so ago, we made a simple request of writer/director James Gunn: Maybe you should follow up the success of Superman with a little movie we like to call Superman 2. However, in a shocking twist, Gunn didn’t seem to read the article??? Instead, he’s barreling ahead with a movie that “Superman has a major role in” but is not Superman 2. So… What is it?
Before we get into pure speculation here, just to lay some groundwork, Gunn has repeatedly said he’s got a movie in the works that he’s writing that, as above, will include David Corenswet’s Superman/Clark Kent, but is not “necessarily” a “straight-up Superman sequel.”
Frankly? That’s weird! The movie just passed $300 million at the domestic box office, flying past the entire domestic box office of 2013’s Man of Steel, and will likely pass the domestic box office of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which was $330.4 million) this weekend, or in the next week. While the movie is struggling a bit internationally, it seems like a no-brainer to follow up a success with a direct sequel.
Instead, while Gunn is laudably letting DC Studios follow his artistic muse, he’s going in another direction. How much of a direction is TBD, but this certainly seems to be a movie heavily featuring Superman, rather than something titled Superman 2. To get back to the point of this article though let’s speculate about what that Superman non-sequel might be.
Justice League/Justice Gang
Probably the most obvious follow-up to Superman that might heavily include the Man of Steel is a movie focusing on the Justice Gang (or more likely, Justice League). We’ve already got the setup with Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) in the new DCU movie, as well as a brief tease of Maxwell Lord (Sean Gunn), the guy who is funding them. Green Lantern will pop up again in Lanterns, while Hawkgirl, Green Lantern and Maxwell Lord — and Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo) — will be on your screens even sooner in Peacemaker Season 2.
Plus, while not a member of the team, Superman is already friends with these guys, who operate in Metropolis. Flipping the focus to be on them with Supes in the background is an easy move that would explain this not being Superman 2, but still including Superman. Plus, let’s be honest: a team of weirdos who only sort of like each other finding a way to work together is Gunn’s sweet spot as a writer/director.
Superman And The Authority
…Alternately, what about Superman and the Authority? The darker-skewing superhero team The Authority was on the initial roster for the announcement of DC Studios, and in the comics, includes The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), who was introduced in Superman (and last seen lying unconscious in a sewer).
The 2021 comic Superman and the Authority by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janín had a different lineup than the initial Wildstorm comic, but found Superman leading a sort of black ops team and trying to keep them on the straight and narrow.
And while Gunn hasn’t fast-tracked an Authority movie, it’s still in the mix. During the press for Superman, he noted that, “Yeah, it could happen. It’s not something that’s going especially quickly right now, but it could happen for sure.”
So perhaps a straight Authority movie has morphed into something continuing Superman’s mission to bring good to the world, by aiming to reform some baddies.
Superman & Supergirl
The most popular theory for a Superman sequel seems to be a team-up film between Kryptonians. Specifically, Superman and his cousin Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who is getting her own movie next year.
Sure! Makes sense. I have nothing really to add here other than this seems totally fine as an idea, and could be a fun buddy comedy given the clash of personalities set up in the films. But also seems somewhat like the least interesting possibility, in my opinion? It’s just a lot of people with a big “S” on their chest.
…Unless of course they follow the Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) cloning storyline set up in Superman, and we get Connor Kent, a clone made of Superman and Lex Luthor DNA. In that case, I’m all in on Superfam The Movie.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice 2 – DCU Style
It is, frankly, weird that the DCU is finding it so hard to crack Batman (maybe they need to hire Bane for this? He’s good at breaking Batmans). We’ve got The Batman Part II, which finally has a script, but the DCU Batman movie Brave and the Bold seems to be in development limbo, despite the nerd-ternet freaking out about fake casting notices (sorry, Gunn has been very clear they’re not casting anyone until a script is done, so calm down, dumbos).
But look, we know Warner Bros. tends to panic and throw a Batman in there if they can. So could we once again get a semi-successful Superman movie feeding directly into a Batman/Superman mash-up? Sure, why not? Seems a little ridiculous, but Batman is the real moneymaker of DC movies, so if there’s any concern about the international grosses of Superman, they throw a pointy-eared Gotham City vigilante in the sequel, and that’s a license to print money. They probably won’t call it Batman v Superman, Again — World’s Finest, perhaps? — but as long as the characters clarify that both their mothers are named Martha, the movie should work out just great. Now to take a BIG sip of Granny’s Peach tea, and–
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