The Superman Trailer Isn’t Just Selling A Movie – It’s Selling A Universe

The trailer for 2025’s “Superman” dropped today, and it’s one helluva holiday gift. Not only does it drum up even more anticipation for the already hotly-anticipated film by presenting the adventures of Kal-El in a fashion that feels both nostalgic and unique, but it also happens to be one of the best-edited trailers of the past year. One of the trailer’s most surprising choices is to leave off the title card for the movie at the end, a decision that acknowledges Superman’s power within pop culture, as well as builds more hype for the film.

That’s not to say the trailer doesn’t end with any form of title card, however. Right before a card announcing that the movie is “Filmed For IMAX” and that it will be released in July of next year, the trailer ends with the DC Studios logo, a reminder that “Superman” is the theatrical debut of Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ new shared cinematic universe venture (the animated series “Creature Commandos” marks the universe’s beginning on television). The placement of the logo card seems to serve a dual purpose, however — by delaying it from the beginning (where logo cards usually turn up) and putting it at the end, where a title card would typically go in a trailer, it feels like this teaser for “Superman” also doubles as an announcement trailer for the DC Studios Universe proper. It’s another bold choice by writer/director James Gunn, who’s overseeing the DCSU (maybe that acronym will stick?) with Peter Safran, and presents “Superman” as a new make-or-break moment for the DC Comics characters on screen.

To be fair, there’s a bit of a “putting the cart before the horse” feeling to the trailer, if you take the late DC Studios card drop as an indication of the clip as an announcement for the DCSU. WB and DC have been here before, of course, as the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), which ran from 2013-2023, struggled to reach the heights (shared universe and otherwise) that the Marvel Studios Cinematic Universe has. As anyone from a geek pundit to a professional critic will tell you, one of the biggest issues the DCEU had was trying to do too much too soon, making a major team-up film with “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” before Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Ben Affleck’s Batman had been fully established on-screen. The film, and many of those that followed in the DCEU, had their own issues aside from building a cinematic universe, but it didn’t help that the studio seemed a little too eager to have its cake before it was fully baked.

That goes double for Universal’s proposed “Dark Universe,” which, unlike the DCEU, was over after the release of a single film, 2017’s “The Mummy.” While the film itself didn’t contain too much in the way of teases for future films (only introducing Russell Crowe’s Dr. Henry Jekyll as the Dark Universe’s answer to Nick Fury), there was an infamous photoshoot with the proposed stars of the future Dark Universe films which stands as the only other bit of media from the shared universe, as no further films were ever made. Even more than “Batman v Superman,” the proposed and abandoned Dark Universe plans exist as Hollywood’s biggest cautionary tale when it comes to kickstarting a shared universe.

Yet “Superman” and its status as the origin point of DC Studios looks to be avoiding this problem in a fairly simple way: while other projects in the shared universe have been discussed publicly, Gunn and Safran are not announcing a massive multi-year release plan for future films a la Marvel or the DCEU. In this way, “Superman” could be a bit of the best of both worlds, promising future characters to come without insisting on any set plans.

Unlike the literal non-starter that was the Dark Universe, the DCEU plodded along for a decade, helped by a few films that act as bright spots within its cinematic universe. Despite these highs, the DCEU never really coalesced in a fashion similar to the MCU, and that’s partially because WB and the people behind the DCEU never really seemed to have a clear vision of where the DCEU should be going. Retroactively starting with Zach Snyder’s “Man of Steel” immediately put the universe on uneven footing, as Snyder’s 2013 film was intended as a deconstructionist take on Superman, akin to Christopher Nolan’s out-of-continuity “Dark Knight” trilogy. Thus, “Batman v Superman” and “Justice League,” the immediate follow-ups to “Man of Steel,” found themselves trying to honor that gritty, warts-and-all take while trying to establish a more traditional foundation for the DC heroes going forward. It made for an uncomfortable mash-up and left many of the other spin-off films feeling either too akin to these “flagship” movies or awkwardly detached from them.

Things only got worse as the DCEU attempted to follow the MCU into a “multiverse” era. “Zach Snyder’s Justice League,” while coming into being thanks to fan demand and the behind-the-scenes issues surrounding the theatrical version of “Justice League,” only further confused proceedings when it came to continuity, seemingly splitting the DCEU into two branches of canon that might have tried co-existing. Last year’s “The Flash” tried to tie everything into a neat, Crisis- or Flashpoint-like bow by having Barry Allen break into the multiverse. Once again, however, the film seemed far too desperate to get to the cameos and cheer moments rather than let things develop naturally. It’s likely due to all of this confusion over tone, direction, and continuity that Gunn and Safran are eager to hit the reset button with “Superman,” and hopefully the film is the fresh start that the trailer seems to promise.

Of course, it’s not possible to tell what the total effect of a movie is going to be just from a teaser trailer. Yet Gunn is saying a lot of awful good things about his film as well as his ethos when it comes to DC Studios, and this combined with the trailer makes it feel like his comments are well-founded. At a launch event for the “Superman” trailer that I attended on Monday, Gunn was asked about the DC Studios logo drop at the end of the trailer, and admitted it was as much of an instinctual decision as it was a calculated one:

“But it’s also like you have to go with your gut and what feels right. And I had some people around me, including Peter Safran, who’s guts I could trust, and my own, who seems to be the, I have the narrowest of guts, meaning I’m the one who likes the least amount of things when they’re put together. So it seems like it worked.”

Even more encouraging is Gunn’s attitude toward further films in the DCSU past “Superman.” During a visit to the set of Superman, Germain Lussier of Gizmodo asked Gunn about plans beyond this first film, and the filmmaker was refreshingly honest:

“A lot [is riding on ‘Superman’]. I mean, we’re not going to just keep making movies.”

Already, this first teaser trailer promises a more gregarious approach to the shared universe than “BvS” did, with characters like Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific having their moments while the clip makes it clear that the protagonists of the film are Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor, and not a bunch of other heroes vying for the spotlight early. Hopefully, the final film proves this to be true. One thing’s for sure: for the movie itself as well as for DC Studios, the “Superman” trailer gives us a ton of hope.