James Gunn explains how Top Gun: Maverick was one of the influences on Superman

As fans wait with bated breath for the Superman trailer, which is due to drop online tomorrow, James Gunn is teasing a little bit about what influenced him during the making of this movie. A lot is riding on this first official entry in the DCU as the movie will set the tone for the rebooted universe after Zack Snyder’s take with Man of Steel similarly kicked off the DCEU with a more divisive perception than Marvel Studios’ beginning. Deadline now reports on Gunn’s report from ComicBook.com.

The director explained, “I wrote up this big document on action and what our philosophy is of action and how we shoot it and what it is, and keeping it alive in the air, as well as on the ground. And to be able to shoot stuff in the sky as if we were shooting it … Because everything was rougher, like, it’s in Guardians [of the Galaxy], like it’s in The Suicide Squad. And being able to shoot stuff in the sky like that is really hard.”

He continues, “So we took a lot from films like Top Gun: Maverick, which, we are shooting flying things. We shoot a lot of our action with actual drones flying in and around Superman and the people that he’s flying with, The Engineer, whoever else, that he’s fighting up in the air, and we did that on sound stages. We got these really small, crazy drones now. We’ve got some of the best flyers in the world here who are working with it. And so we use those guys a lot and everything’s planned out with me, as it always is. But at the same time, I’ve gotten even more into finding new stuff on the set and new moments and exploring that stuff, finding magic where it is.”

Gunn said that his Superman film is also influenced by previous DC outputs, including Zack Snyder’s universe. He tells IGN, “I think that all previous DC media influenced me. I think that obviously the original Donner movie influenced me, but there’s also a lot of things that this isn’t, like I’m just making a Donner-type movie. It’s very different from that. Zack [Snyder] did some excellent stuff. So there’s a lot of ways that influenced me. There’s a lot of ways in which the DC animated universe [influenced me], and then there’s a lot of stuff from the comic books – above and beyond anything else, All-Star Superman – that influenced me more than anything. To take that sort of Silver Age feel, that sort of science-fiction approach to it with gadgets, Lex [Luthor] is really a sort of sorcerer in a way. He’s a scientist, but he’s so good at science and I think of him as like a sorcerer.”

Superman stars David Corenswet (Pearl) as Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Ms. Maisel) as Lois Lane. The cast also includes Nathan Fillion (The Rookie) as Guy Gardner, a charismatic and slightly obnoxious member of the Green Lantern Corps; Isabela Merced (Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Hawkgirl; Edi Gathegi (X-Men: First Class) as Mister Terrific; Anthony Carrigan (Barry) as Metamorpho; María Gabriela de Faría (Deadly Class) as The Engineer, a member of The Authority; Sara Sampaio (At Midnight) as Eve Teschmacher; Skyler Gisondo (The Righteous Gemstones) as Jimmy Olsen; Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Perry White; Neva Howell (Logan Lucky) as Martha Kent; Pruitt Taylor-Vince (The Walking Dead) as Jonathan Kent; and Nicholas Hoult (The Great) as Lex Luthor. 

Superman is slated to hit theaters on July 11, 2025.