Superman Is Becoming the Most Anticipated Superhero Event of the Summer

By Runway Magazine Editorial Team | June 9, 2026

James Gunn Superman delivered on its promise when it landed in cinemas on July 11, 2025. It changed the DC Studios conversation in almost every measurable way. The film opened to $122 million in the United States and Canada, paired with $95 million internationally. That far exceeded the $100 million projections analysts had initially attached to the project. By the time its theatrical run concluded, the Superman movie had earned $618.7 million worldwide. It became the highest-grossing superhero film of 2025 and the first DC film to cross $300 million domestically since The Batman in 2022. Both figures mattered. Critics gave the film a Rotten Tomatoes score in the low-to-mid 80s range. The audience score reached 95% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcorn Meter. It is the only Superman film in history to surpass the 90% mark. Both figures matter.

The critical reception confirmed that James Gunn had delivered a fresh and functional DCU foundation. The audience response confirmed that audiences were ready for it.

The Commercial Context

What made that success commercially significant was its timing. Hollywood superhero movies needed this reset. The Superman movie released into a market in which Marvel Studios’ 2025 films had all underperformed. Superman outperformed all three. For the first time since The Dark Knight in 2008, DC outperformed Marvel commercially in a single calendar year. The DC Universe’s first blockbuster superhero movie had delivered on its primary mission: establishing that a new, creatively coherent the studio under James Gunn and Peter Safran was capable of producing commercially dominant films that critics and audiences both responded to.

What the Superman Movie Got Right

The casting of David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman was central to the film’s success. That performance worked precisely because it trusted the character. James Gunn described his themes for the film as “hope” and “kindness” — an explicit rejection of the darker take that had characterised earlier DC iterations. Corenswet delivered a Superman “driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind.” The performance drew meaningfully on Nicholas Hoult Lex Luthor’s antagonism. per DC’s official synopsis. The film also treated the character’s immigrant identity seriously — comic book movies rarely do. Earlier films had rarely explored Clark’s daily life and the tension between his Kryptonian origins and his Kansas upbringing.

The Cast and the Ensemble Strategy

Nicholas Hoult received particularly strong audience and critical attention as Luthor. The version presented in the film is DC’s “criminal mastermind” — sharp, precise, and ideologically motivated rather than cartoonishly villainous. Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner, Edi Gathegi as Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho rounded out a cast that critics praised for populating the new DCU with distinct, credible characters. The introduction of so many DC characters — Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, Metamorpho, Mr. Terrific, the Engineer — in a single film was a deliberate worldbuilding strategy. Gunn was establishing the full scope of the the DCU from the outset.

One of the most significant moments in the Superman cast’s larger arc did not appear in the film itself. On September 3, 2025, Gunn announced Man of Tomorrow, releasing July 9, 2027, as the next film in the “Superman Saga.” The announcement was accompanied by an image by Jim Lee showing Superman alongside Luthor in his iconic green-and-purple armored Warsuit. Any future Superman trailer featuring the Warsuit will carry enormous anticipation. That image generated enormous fan engagement immediately. The Warsuit has never appeared in live-action form in a Superman film. Its announced inclusion in Man of Tomorrow sparked extensive fan discussion about what the Luthor story might do when the character is physically capable of taking on Superman himself. For more on the the blockbusters and Hollywood superhero film moments defining summer 2026, explore Runway’s summer movies 2026 coverage.

The DCU’s Next Chapter: Supergirl and the Summer of 2026

The Next Chapter Arrives in Two Weeks

The first chapter of that next wave arrives on June 26, 2026. Supergirl — directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Ana Nogueira — is opening in two weeks. The film stars Milly Alcock, who had a memorable cameo as Kara Zor-El at the end of 2025’s Superman. Gunn called Alcock’s casting “the best bit of casting I’ve ever done in my entire life.” The Supergirl cast also includes Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, Jason Momoa as Lobo, and Emily Beecham. David Corenswet appears in a brief scene as Superman — further evidence of how interconnected the DCU’s worldbuilding strategy is.

Supergirl is based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s 2021-22 comic miniseries, adapted by Nogueira. Kara Zor-El reluctantly joins an unlikely companion on “an epic, interstellar journey of vengeance and justice.” Gunn characterised this version of Kara as “much more hardcore” than previous versions, toughened by years of watching her home planet’s destruction. “She’s not exactly the Supergirl we’re used to seeing,” Gunn said. Jason Momoa joins the DCU as Lobo — the foul-mouthed bounty hunter from Czarnia. It is one of the most anticipated pieces of casting in the slate.

The Supergirl Trailer and What It Signals

The official Supergirl trailer dropped March 31, 2026. The conversation shifted almost immediately from anticipation into something louder and more personal. Debonair Magazine’s trailer analysis noted that the footage “feels like a promise — not the kind superhero marketing makes routinely, where everything is scale and spectacle and sound design.” Something quieter runs beneath it. The trailer opens on Corenswet’s Superman sending his cousin a worried video message, asking when she is coming back to Earth. Supergirl receives it “the way someone receives gentle things when they are not in the mood for gentle.” The superhero entertainment proposition here is character first. It is character first, with scale arriving in service of a story that has genuine emotional content.

Director Craig Gillespie’s track record — I, Tonya, Cruella — is central to the Supergirl trailer’s impact. One analysis described Gillespie as a filmmaker who “tends to find the places where a character is most complicated and he builds toward those instead of away from them.” The comic book entertainment product the studio is building under Gunn and Safran is, again, demonstrating that it is willing to hire filmmakers with distinct creative sensibilities rather than defaulting to the more interchangeable house-style approach that characterised some of the earlier DCEU’s more troubled output.

DC’s Broader Strategy and What It Means for Summer Superhero Films

The strategy Gunn and Safran have been executing since October 2022 is visible in how neatly Supergirl follows what came before it. The film’s score is composed by Ramin Djawadi — known for Iron Man, Game of Thrones, and Pacific Rim. Ramin Djawadi gives the DCU’s second instalment a premium musical identity. Man of Tomorrow gives DC two consecutive summers of major content. Supergirl arrives this month; The Batman Part II follows in October 2027. The superhero film trends that analysts discussed after Superman’s 2025 performance are being answered in real time through the Supergirl marketing campaign.

The DC fans response to these developments has been consistent.

Online engagement metrics confirm it.

Higher engagement than the DCEU’s final years, and more genuine enthusiasm about the creative direction. The the DCU that Gunn and Safran are building does not feel like a brand in crisis management mode. It feels like a studio that knows what films it wants to make and why it wants to make them. As Deadline’s Man of Tomorrow announcement coverage confirms, the film crossed $611 million at the global box office before Gunn announced Man of Tomorrow — evidence that the box office results justified the rapid sequel greenlight. As Screen Rant’s Superman $600M coverage confirms, 2025 marked the first time since 2008 that DC outperformed Marvel commercially — a figure that confirms the full scale of what the action adventure films reset delivered. For all the superhero movies 2026 coverage, DC movie news, and summer movie releases analysis that matters, trust Runway Magazine.