Warning.
Today's episode candad spoilers for the Superman trailer and maybe some other stuff from related movies, but not really, there's nothing. Yeah, you've seen the Superman trailer. If you haven't seen it, go watch it because it's great.
It's really great.
Hello.
My name is Jason Concepcion and I'm roseay Night, and welcome back to X Reviews of the podcast, where we dive deep to your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Coming to you from iHeart Podcast, where we're bringing you three episodes a week every Tuesday Thursday, with an extra episode every Wednesday.
And in today's special episode, we're doing Trailer Watch. Is it Bud? Is it aplane? No? It's the highly anticipated trailer for James Gunn's twenty twenty five Superman movie, which we are gonna dig into right here.
Let's go.
Okay, the Superman trailer is out. We are recording this Friday morning. It dropped twenty four hours ago. James Gunn posted it to the interwells and it has spread out from there.
I think it's fucking great.
Your thoughts, I mean, yeah, I loved it. I was actually lucky enough to go and see it on the Warner Brothers lot. I wrote some articles about it for Then of Geek got to hear him and David corn Sweat and Rachel Brasnan Brosnahan, who is playing Lewis Lane talk about it, and yeah, I mean, what a great trailer. I didn't know what to expect because my mileage can
vary with gun but I was really blown away. I think I love the way it opens with this almost like fake out, where you start with this bloodied, brutally beaten up Superman and you think, oh, this is a bit this is a bit dark, this is a bit gritty, but then you immediately get him calling, you know, Crypto to come and take him home from the snowy wilds where the Fortress of Solitude clearly is. I thought that was great. I loved how much Lewis and Clark there
is in the trailer. I think we really need that.
Yeah.
I loved seeing Crypto the super Dog. I think James Gunn was very smart to lead with that. I love the kind of reimagine John Williams theme with the heavy guitar riff. What about you, What were like the standout moments for you?
Well?
I think first and foremost the important thing for me with Superman, I will maintain that Superman two. The Christopher Ue Superman two is still one of the greatest comic book movies of fucking all times agreed, It's incredible and a person who like as a kid, I love those Superman movies as a kid. For me, coming off of the Snyder verse and the everything we've seen before, it's about like how it made me feel, and it just made me feel really good and good, like really good
about Superman. I think the opening we're Superman crashes to Earth somewhere around the Fortress of Solitude, it seems I think that was really I think that was really smart on several levels. One, we get to see Crypto and it's great to be like, it's very James gunn to be like, we're leaning into that everything that is super weird about Yes, the character, any given character is important.
To the character. We're not going to ignore any of that. So like we're not exactly.
We're not gonna like be like, Okay, well that's stupid to have like a superpowered dog.
And then he wasn't yes, yes, no, put it in.
You're actually you're actually like so on a level with what Gum was going for at the event. He said, we're embracing all of super He was like, there's you know, in the past, there's been these characters and it's been like, okay, yeah, it's Batman but not any of the other stuff, or it's Superman but not any of the other stuff. And he was like, this is an alternative history, fantasy world where superheroes exist and people have real lives, which is
how we ground it. But Superman has a flying dog, he has a fortress that springs from the ground, he has you know, friends who are superheroes who wear capes, and he has enemies who dress up. And I'm like, yes, yes, yes.
So it's important on that level.
And I think that is that's the thing that Marvel figured out, that like, stop trying to make them cool.
Stop stop it with like C suite.
Level entertainment execs going well, why don't we put them in black leather because the costumes are too colorful they look like pro wrestlers or something. Marvel figured that out, and Gun just understands that. And I think that so
it's important from that perspective. And I think it's also important from the perspective of you know, what's the the criticism of Superman, despite the fact that in the eighties and the late seventies to the eighties there was five hit movies based on the Superman the criticism.
And multiple like biggest selling comics of all yeah.
And then up till now, like numerous television shows. I think the criticism that you always hear and there's something I think there's something to it, is well.
Superman's perfect. He's the perfect guy. You can't kill him.
He's you know, fasterest beating, bullet, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. He has no weaknesses, and how do you make a compelling character out of that? So it was important to show Superman at his lowest that like, yeah, you can hurt Superman. Supering can get hurt.
You can you know.
Lex Luthor has been the main foil, one of the main foils for Superman for a long time and he's had Superman on the ropes many times, and I think so it's important to one show that we're going to embrace all the weirdness of this character, and two it's.
Not what you think.
And beyond that, it just it just felt great. I thought just in the snippets that we saw, Cord Sweat.
Gave you that that man is Clauw Kent.
The kind of bumbling oh excuse me, sorry, oh we're over here. Yeah sorry, like oh so probably like that.
Kind of Superman, and that is so key.
Yeah, I agree.
And I think the other thing that was interesting is how you could kind of feel that guy in joorrel in Superman in Cow and so I thought it was great. It made me feel great. I loved seeing that this is not like that the world is ongoing, like Guy Gardner is there active.
It exists, Yes, it exists.
The Hawk girl is there flying around like they're fighting monsters in the city. You know, mister Terrific is out there being fucking h Street where read Richard's like, it's uh And I love that part of it, like you're getting dropped into a living world that's on. There's no need to like we're not going to just get you up to speed on it here.
It's great and it just made me feel good.
And I think that's the number one thing that has been missing in no shots, but the Snyder era Superman stuff, which some of us, you know, I liked some of Man of Steel. But there's like a darkness and a heaviness and a rage to Superman that is not anywhere in this trailer. And I think that's super super important because Superman cannot ever be scary on any level. He's he's a god. You know, he could fly around the globe, he could do amazing things. You can't kill him, and you can.
But you know what I mean.
And so what he's important is that he project I'm a good guy all the time. And I think they accomplished that with this trip.
Yeah, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back. And actually that was something really interesting that Gunn said at the event was he said he was there in the room and it took a long long time to get the suit right, and then he saw the suit and he was like, oh no, it's too colorful, like the pants are there, it's red, it's blue, it's yellow. I don't know. I
don't think it's going to work. And apparently corn Sweat just looked at him and went, he's an alien from out of space who's super powerful, who doesn't want small children to be afraid of him. And James was like, Yep, that's it, Like there real questions.
Yeah, And I love.
That it's this kind of idea that he has beams coming out of his eyes, but he needs kids to know that he can kind of save them if they need him, and we get to see that in moments here where he's saving a little girl from an explosion and we see a young kid who's holding like a Superman banner in what looks like the midst of a war zone, and I definitely am very interested to see that.
We also get a little bit of the classic kind of superhero conflict that I feel like you need to have in everyone's first superhero movie, which is at some point the public turn against you. We see him getting like beaned in the head with like a disposable cup or something, and then we get this really interesting moment where he's in this kind of what looks like maybe an abandoned tower building, but anyway, it's a Stag Industries building.
Simon Stagg is an industrialist who was the original guy who hired Rex Mason aka Metamorphos, so there's obviously a connection there, and also that Gardener is there is Gaigaraby shows up and we get the first look at the the lantern skills, which look great. Then we get this great moment of hawk Girl flying through the sky, and like you said, Eddie Geftheggi as mister Terrific, I'm very excited about that because you are so right. He's just
street where read Richards. He's got his badass jacket on. It's interesting that here the tea on his face is actually a mask. It's usually chain it on. It looks it makes sense. He looks so good, and it looks like he is going to be a very primary part of the storyline. I think mister Terrific's going to be a big player. It's gonna be interesting because one of the things Gun said is like, there are all these superheroes who already exist, who already fight crime and put
on costumes, but for very different reasons. And I think we'll likely see Superman battling between his kind of Kryptonian legacy, his legacy as a human, and his legacy as a hero in the face of multiple different kind of outcomes.
It looks it's like to me, this version of what we're seeing here is like a version of the Justice League International, and that is probably going to be a government type of superhero team is what I think from the way we saw a guy come in and the way we see mister Terrific at some kind of military base under a red force field, and then you'll have Superman,
who's more of your homegrown Metropolis hero as always. And then my gut from this trailer, because there is a very big absence here is the Authority who we know certain members of the cast are playing Authority members, we haven't seen them yet. I think my theory that I'm putting out there is I think Lex is going to be the one originally behind the Authority. He's going to try and prove that there's a more militant way to
fight crime. Nicholas Holt at the event, I have to say I was actually most star struck to see him because I just seen Los Ferao and he was so good in it, and I was like, oh, I was like, Nicholas Holt, nice to see you. I love Skins. So he was basically like talking about how he feels that his version of Lex, who does already hate Superman, that
is already established. He has a belief that what he is doing is right, and a big part of the conflict is going to be that him, Lois, and Clark all have different visions for what is right for Metropolis and how to get there, And he said he feels like, even if you don't agree with him, maybe you'll be able to understand that what he is suggesting for Metropolis, his ideology for it, could actually be better for humanity.
So that sounds to me like some kind of like more militant, almost the Kingdom come esque, Like there's a big alien threat, so we need something more definitive, more willing to kill. So I think that will be an
interesting wrinkle to solve. Also, James actually referred to how hard it was to balance the grounding in this because he said, this is something that's more akin to maybe a Game of Thrones than your average superhero show, which I think is interesting but makes sense because we do get that giant like fire breathing monster, which was also very cool to see what kind of kaiju element.
Well, let's go to a break, and then when we come back, let's do some you know, quick questions predictions. We'll have you unpack who some of these characters are, and then we'll talk about, you know, what we think this movie is gonna be abound back after this, and we're back. Okay, we're back. Let's talk about the characters that we see in here. Let's start with Gardner. They got the bull cut, right, he looks like an asshole, his little fuck ass, little fucking bull cut.
Tell us about Gardner.
Yeah, okay, So Guy Gardner's generally known as like the most annoying Green Lantern, which of course makes him one of my favorites. We first met him in nineteen sixty eighth Greenland and fifty nine. Lots of late sixties characters in this are created by John Bruman Gilkine like two Legends. He has the classic Green Lantern powers given to him by the Ring Fight Flight Imagination, hard like constructs, you know,
real life translation of all languages. I think we could be seeing a very cosmic movie here from these heroes we have seen like him adapted a lot in animation by like really big names Deedrich Bader, Troy Baker, stuff like that. And essentially the version that we know of him is really the eighties version, which is Steve Engelhart. He has reimagined from it book legend. They're kind of reimagining as this almost like He's like a patriotic dickhead
who just like nobody likes. He's always bothering people. He's trying to be how, but he's never how and he basically throughout life has just been like he's had a bad life. He is. He's from an abusive childhood. He was a juvenile delinquent and essentially like a really big trend that I want to bring back. He ended up becoming like a social worker and then he ended up getting his his ring and joining the Green Lantern Corpse.
And yeah, I think this is really going to take from the late eighties stuff where the JLA disbands and you have Justice League International. So it's going to be interesting to know if there was ever a Justice League of America in this. I don't know, but yeah, it expect him to be very sassy. I had originally thought they cast a little bit old with him with Nathan Fillion, but from this, I just love it. And obviously I love a uniform, so it's great to see them all in their jackets.
Prediction he dies next.
Jason said, he dies so quickly.
Mister terrific.
Uh yeah, mister Terrific. One of the coolest characters from DC originally John Alstranded Tim Mandreat character. I mean, those are two legends spect volume three, issue fifty four, and basically he is Michael Holt, and he is this very cool, super intelligent He was an incredible reader as a young kid. That's what it always is. He's like understanding theoretical physics.
He's very much in that read Richard's space for DC. Sadly, like many superheroes, as he grew older, his family died, his wife, a numberne child died, and he was basically saved by this Specter who introduced him to the original Golden Age here known as mister Terrific. And then Holt was inspired by that to use his intense intelligence to
create these nanites. I actually I guess that there is a version in the comics where the nanites make up the mask on his face, so that's probably what we're seeing. And he has this really rad jacket, which if you like the CW stuff, you probably saw Echo Kellam play him as the fair play on the side, and he can essentially make the nanites kind of do what he wants, and he turns them into these cool balls and throws them at people. His kind of biggest rivalry, hilariously is
with Batman. We'll talk about Batman and the lack of Batman in this universe in a minute. Also has storylines with like the brother I and stuff, So maybe that is what we're seeing big part of Kingdom Come, which I do think James Gunn is probably working up to. Yeah, really badass character. I think this could become the fan fave kind of dark horse character going into this universe.
Uh, hot girl.
If you love a romance, then this is the character for you. You may remember seeing Old Hodge as hawk Man in the already forgotten Black Adam movie, but he was great. I would be fine with him to bring him back. We are getting Isabelle McCard here. Fantastic young actress and basically hawk Girl is a golden age character who's been reimagined throughout the years. She was originally in Flashcomics number one from nineteen forty, so this is really
going back. She is depending on the cannon, but this is the general vibe of it. She is a woman who was killed in the past and was cursed, and every time she comes back and is reincarnated, she has to find her husband, who is Hawkman. She has an metal morning Star, which is totally badass. She can fly, and yeah, she's basically like a time traveling kind of the Mummy esque adventurer. And then in the Silver Age version they kind of became these like space alien cops,
kind of akin to Green Lantern Thanagarian police officers. And basically throughout that kind of idea of them constantly being reincarnated and coming back again and again and finding each other has been a key part of their law. It was even introduced within the Black Adam Law for hawk Man. I'll be interested to see how they do it here because James Gunn has talked extensively about this being grounded but also about wanting to bring in all the law,
so it'll be interesting to see. Very excited to see how. I think she's a super popular character, very iconic from the animated series, so if they can get this right, this could be a ten year plan MCU style big.
Character uh Metamorpho.
Chemical period is one of the weirdos and also one of the best bits of casting that has come out. I mean, the David Corn sweat casting is obviously weird, seeing iconic, it's like a home run, looks like a home run, but this one was the one that everyone
got really really excited about. Noha Hank himself. Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, one of the most famous Bold characters, another late sixties character in nineteen sixty five, originally from Brave in the Bald fifty seven by Ramona fre Don, one of the legendary female comic creators who we sadly lost earlier this year, luckily at the ripe old age of her late nineties. She's an aquaman legend, a nay More legend, a submariner legend. She is just a legend and always
love Ramona forre Don and basically Metamorpho. He was a member of the Outsiders. He's been in the Justice League. He was a guy called Rect Mason who worked for an industrial organization called Stag Enterprises. He had to retrieve a rare Egyptian artist. Never do that, as you will see lots of Egyptian style mummy s adventure characters being included here. He essentially ended up dating his boss's daughter.
Also never do that. So Simon Stagg didn't like that, decided he was going to try and kill him, and eventually the Egyptian artifact called the orb of Ra kind of like transformed him into Metamorpho. Was it a radioactive meteorite?
Was it something magical? Depends on your cannon. But his powers are very interesting because he is not someone who can have a secret identity, which I think is like a he looks like that all the time, and in he looks jacked up, and in the glimpse that we get of him here he looks real jacked up.
Now, can I make a prediction really quickly? Please, Metamorpho?
Can you know, change his body into various chemical compounds?
I think that's how. I think that's how Lex gets Kryptonite. I think he forces Metamorpho to turn into Cryptonize.
And I was gonna say, I wouldn't be surprised if because of the fact that Clark can live a completely normal life by just putting on glasses, I wouldn't be surprised if Metamorpho is at first an antagonist who is maybe easily emotionally manipulated bilex into being like, look at this man who can have everything he wants that you
can't have. And then yeah, that's how because we do get in this trailer as well, we get a momentary glimpse of Nicholas Holt's Lex looks great with an old school pistol, like a silver pistol, and I think it's obviously going to have cryptical bullet in the Kryptonite bullet,
of course. So yeah, I think this is going to be very interesting and I'm very excited to see Metamorpho is one of the most interesting weird characters, and I think with James Gunn at the Helm, we will likely get a very interesting, intense kind of exploration of what it is like to be a freak in the world where superheroes are kind of accepted. So yeah, I'm I'm really really excited about that, Jason, Which character are you most excited to see more of after the train?
I mean, probably Crypto, but also yeah, you know, but also the Babe.
Did you know guy? And mister Terrific.
I think like together.
Are ones that, oh we forgot one Kelex we should talk about.
So there is a moment at the end of the trailer where you see Superman and he's kind of hugging this blue robot and it looks like very tender that we can probably assume is Kelex, who's like the robot
who helps run the Fortress of Solitude. This is not a visual representation that immediately calls to mind Kelex, but if you imagine that you are like an orphaned child mentioned to your home planet, exactly is this fortress of solitude, and the one person who has been helping you in there is this sweet robot with all the information like your parents, home planet, your parents, they worked with them also alongside probably like a I'm guessing a hologram of
your dad is because that's the classics Portress of Solitude situation, and it looks like the big guest here. I think from kelex Is appearance is that we are probably gonna be in a situation also. This is I would say Kelex being involved is like a big hint at what they're taking from here, because we've talked about the sixties stuff but also the eighties stuff. Kelex is a John Byrne creation from Man of Steel number one, so I think we can look heavily to that for what kind
of tome we're going to get here. The thing that's very interesting about Kelex is he did no jaw Ol and he essentially like is there when the Fortress of solid is redesigned as a way for people to get to know about it. And in those comics, Kelex is destroyed by Lex Luthor. I don't think we're gonna see, you know, Lex in the super suit that he has, like his kind of mech suit, though I would love that in the comics because I think that's very cool.
But I do think that we will see Lex unleash whatever being or monster it is that manages the punch Superman into the ground and destroy the Fortress of Solitude. Okay, Jason, big final theory before we wrap up our trailer watch.
Big final theory. Here's my final theory.
I think Superman uh intercedes in whatever in that the conflict in Brovia.
Uh.
He can't help himself. He's been doing just local crime fighting stuff and saving kids from burning buildings, et cetera.
Uh.
That really pisses Lex off because he's got his own superhero team that he is that is being held out of it because whatever other countries will be threatened if we start using our superheroes internationally. This upsets the balance. Lex is like, this is fucked up. We have to take out Superman because he's destabilizing things then and you go from there. I think that's basically what the shape of it is going to be.
That's my guess. Your guess.
Yeah, I think that sounds very similar. I think that we'll probably get like whatever conflict is going on, where we will see Lois interceding in it too in her own way, putting ourselves in danger. I will also say, this is my out there timfoil Hat theory. We've recently just got a comic book at DC that is a
Superwoman comic book with Lois Lane as Superwoman. I don't think they're going to go that far, but there was some very interesting eggshell treading by the three people who were up on stage talking about I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Lois get a power, some power something by the end, So I would be interested to say that that's my I would like to see it. But also Lois is powerful enough by just being a journalist
with integrity, so I will be excited either way. And I just honestly am surprised by how much I want to see this movie.
I'm really twenty.
Twenty five could could be the year of Superman. I think Marvel's going to have to work really hard for it to not be after seeing that.
Trailer and I meant for a TV.
Dude. I couldn't read it either. It's very hard. You can read it on the TV soon passed it, so you've got to pause it well.
On the next episode of X ray Vision, we're diving into the best movies of twenty twenty four and on Christmas we'll be talking about the most happy and merry and seasonal movie of them all. Thus fair to Oh, I'll gather around the fire for that one.
First ever, n for that one maybe and.
More Skeleton Crew on Year's Eve, in which we will covering episode one oh five of the Disney Plus series.
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Bye.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Ken, Supsion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi on Discolled Moderata