James Gunn has teased that he was hard at work on the next Superman movie — which would not be Superman 2, but something else. And now we know: it’s Man of Tomorrow, and it’s scheduled to premiere on July 9, 2027.
The news, as usual, comes direct from James Gunn’s BlueSky account, where he revealed the news alongside art by DC CEO Jim Lee featuring David Corenswet’s Superman, and Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor. And it’s not just any Luthor… It’s Luthor in the classic green and purple battle armor from the comics.
Previously, Gunn has been cagey as to what was next for Superman, noting that while he was working on a script, it was not directly a Superman sequel. And later, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav teased that Gunn was working on the next “Super-Family” movie, which also set the speculation engines going. Would the new movie include Supergirl (Milly Alcock), who is getting her own feature in 2026? Would more Superman characters be on the way, like Conner Kent, the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor? Or perhaps Zaslav, as usual, just doesn’t know what he’s talking about?
As is, really, all we know about the movie is what Gunn posted, and it looks like, at the very least, it’s a Superman/Lex Luthor team-up movie. And doubling down on that idea, two more pieces of art were shared, teasing the team-up. David Corenswet shared one by current Batman artist Jorge Jiménez:
Meanwhile, Nicholas Hoult shared one by Mister Miracle artist Mitch Gerads:
As for what we can tell from the title? Superman: Man of Tomorrow is the name of the animated DC feature that adapted Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu — though that was more of an origin story for the Man of Steel, and was appropriately used liberally in sections of, you guessed it, Man of Steel. There’s also the classic Alan Moore/Curt Swan story, “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” That was set as the “final” Superman story, with Lois Lane recalling his last adventure, 10 years later… And given this is the second Superman movie in a new universe seems unlikely to be the direct inspiration, either.
Far more likely, given the potential team-up aspect, is something along the lines of All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, a story that Gunn has already said was an inspiration for the first Superman movie. There, Superman finds out he’s dying, Lex Luthor is in prison, and so the former ends up engaging in labors (a la Hercules) to wrap things up before he goes. Similarly, we wouldn’t expect this to be the last movie with Corenswet in the title role. But perhaps some of those elements will make their way into Man of Tomorrow.
Or, to throw out wild speculation based only on the title… How about Superman and Lex Luthor are fighting, they get accidentally thrown into the future, and encounter the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team inspired by Superman? This would make Lex have to reckon with the fact that he is not the man of tomorrow he thinks he is, while he and Superman are forced to team up to get to their home time period. Plus, the Legion is exactly the sort of weirdo team of superheroes James Gunn loves. You can practically hear him champing at the bit to get to introduce Matter-Eater Lad to a worldwide audience of moviegoers.
Whatever happens, we’ll know more in two short years.
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