James Gunn Says ‘Superman’ Is Not About “Hope”, But Rather “Being Loving, Being Kind, And How That Compassion Is Really The Answer To Everything”
Rather than the specific message of ‘hope’ that fans have taken from the Man of Steel’s latest cinematic adventure, James Gunn says Superman is less about the ‘waiting on a hero to save the day’ and more about doing what little one can to treat their fellow man with kindness and compassion.
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The DC Studios co-head provided this insight into the DCU’s kick-off film themes during a recent post-release interview given to Rolling Stone‘s Brian Hiatt, being first turned to the topic thanks to a question regarding the film’s soundtrack.
Asked about the choice to the use the Teddybears’ Punkrocker (feat. Iggy Pop) as the the title hero’s de facto theme song, itself meant to echo the Man of Steel’s belief that caring about others is “the real punk rock,” Gunn recalled, “It just came up on my Spotify through my algorithm. I didn’t know the song. And it just stuck with me.”
“It’s funny because one of my director friends, who I showed the movie to in an earlier cut for notes, was [Ghostbusters: Afterlife director] Jason Reitman,” he said. ‘And Jason is like, “Oh, that’s one of my favorite songs in the world. I’ve always wanted to use that in a movie.’ And so when I wrote that line, I think I thought back to that song and knew that would really work well. And I just liked how the ending juggled all these different pieces of the movie in a way where we showed that the real punk rock was him, his dad, all the way to the shot of the dad making the baby fly. I’m getting touched now, just bringing it up. He flies because of his parents.”
From there, he was next pressed as to the film’s “hopecore” reputation and whether or not he went into Superman with the intent of making “something positive”, Gunn resoundingly confirmed, “One thousand percent.”
“Like, I had a dinner with the cast the night before we started shooting, and that’s exactly what I said,” recalled the director. “That’s what’s driven me with this movie the whole time, is making something about kindness. It is about kindness and goodness more than hope to me. It’s about being loved more than about hope. Hope is something outside of ourselves. We have this belief that maybe something will change in our lives. It almost denigrates the present moment, hope. And it’s not about that. It’s about being loving, being kind, and how that compassion is really the answer to everything. That’s a basic human need.”
Gunn then revealed that despite the protestations of some test audiences, he chose to keep the shot of Superman saving a squirrel during his battle with the Lex Luthor-unleashed Kaiju in the streets of Metropolois because he felt it helped sell this message of kindness.
“Yeah [it’s important to the film’s message], although it was probably the second- or third-most hotly debated moment in the movie,” he recalled. “Because we showed it to test audiences and some people did not like the squirrel. They’re like, ‘Why the f–k is he saving a squirrel? Why is he taking time out, saving a squirrel?’ There was a cut where I cut it out and I’m like, ‘I really miss the squirrel. He’s gotta save the squirrel.’ In addition, there were also some geographic problems with where he ended up if I didn’t have him fly over with the squirrel. So I put the squirrel back in despite the protestations of some of my people on my crew.”
