It now appears all but confirmed: the first trailer for James Gunn’s Superman, the first live-action movie in the nascent DC Universe, will drop early next week. After years of anticipation, everyone will get a first glimpse at what this new vision of Superman will actually look like. It’s a gigantic moment, as all kick-off trailers for major blockbusters are. These trailers function as a first glimpse of a present (or lump of coal) audiences will get to fully unwrap months down the road. You only get one chance at a first impression, as they say, and these teasers can solidify auras that are hard to subsequently evade.
The pressure’s on then for the Superman teaser. However, this character’s been here before thanks to past projects like Man of Steel. The first teaser trailer for the previous Superman reboot was also released into an era of intense scrutiny as fans prayed for a proper Superman movie after 2006’s Superman Returns. The question now for this first Superman trailer is how its general response will go. Will the Internet react to it more positively or negatively compared to the initial Man of Steel teaser?
Audiences who saw The Dark Knight Rises in theaters in late July 2012 got to see the first Man of Steel teaser on the big screen before it ever went online. This was a marketing maneuver meant to both highlight the momentousness of Man of Steel and echo the marketing patterns of past Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder projects that previously dropped theatrical-exclusive trailers. Fans who couldn’t make it to the big screen didn’t have to wait long to check out Man of Steel’s first teaser on their laptops.
The Man of Steel teaser’s reputation was undoubtedly informed by the superhero movie landscape of July 2012. Though DC didn’t have any major hit non-Batman superhero movies at that point, Man of Steel was functioning as an extension of The Dark Knight trilogy thanks to Nolan’s participation as producer. This teaser, between debuting on The Dark Knight Rises and its somber tone, promised fans of these movies even more of what they liked was on the way in summer 2013. Playing off those three beloved superhero films ensured that the Man of Steel teaser was entering an innately warm atmosphere.
The Superman teaser meanwhile has its work cut out for it in drumming up anticipation for further live-action DC Comics movies. The last two years of Black Adam, The Flash, and Joker: Folie a Deux have not been kind to brand. Occupying a brand-new timeline, Superman can’t just coast on offering people what they already like, meaning Superman may have to work overtime to garner the same positive reputation as Man of Steel’s teaser.
Something also undoubtedly propelling Man of Steel’s teaser trailer to glorious heights of positive reception was debuting theatrically. Many people first got their glimpse of Henry Cavill’s Superman on a massive IMAX screen, not just on their phones. Rather than having every frame instantly, endlessly dissected for background Easter eggs, the Man of Steel teaser initially existed exclusively in movie theaters. That lent an extra air of mystique and excitement to this marketing kick-off, especially since two different versions of the teaser (one with Jor-El narration, the other with Pa Kent narration) were sent to theaters. That only enhanced the specialness of this promo!
Superman’s teaser, meanwhile, will most likely debut first online in an age of TikTok and folks watching trailers while multitasking. That’s bound to dilute some of the hype surrounding the teaser and its specialness. There’s just a tremendous difference between experiencing a piece of art in its natural habitat and through second-hand means. Just imagine the gulf between witnessing an original Monet in a museum and seeing a grainy jpeg of that same painting on a Bing search results page. That chasm is bound to influence a slightly more reserved initial reception to the Superman teaser.
There is one element in Superman’s favor when it comes to teaser trailers: the element of surprise. Nobody really knows what to expect from this first glimpse of Gunn’s 2025 blockbuster, right down to even what Superman footage is going to look like. That could inspire a backlash if the teaser rankles DC fans the wrong way, but it also means this could provoke a deeply unexpected euphoric reaction from that same demographic. Given the tremendously positive response to past Gunn DC Comics adaptations like The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, that’s not one iota out of the question. Superman’s teaser trailer will have to face far more challenges than the Man of Steel teaser did in 2012, but there’s a good chance it takes everyone by surprise and becomes just as beloved, if not more so, than that first glimpse of Cavill’s Superman.
It now appears all but confirmed: the first trailer for James Gunn’s Superman, the first live-action movie in the nascent DC Universe, will drop early next week. After years of anticipation, everyone will get a first glimpse at what this new vision of Superman will actually look like. It’s a gigantic moment, as all kick-off Read More