Superman Movie: Handling Side Characters Amid High Expectations

The man of steel is back — almost, at least. The latest trailer for James Gunn's upcoming film, *Superman*, has been released ahead of its July launch and it's packed with excitement. Lead actor David Corenswet's performance and the impressive action scenes featuring Superman's beloved dog Krypto have fans buzzing. However, the trailer's extensive cast of characters has sparked some concern among viewers about the film's ability to maintain a coherent narrative.

"Strong start to the trailer," one Redditor commented on an r/Superman post shortly after the trailer's release. "But then practically every shot was another new character and I started worrying how the movie was going to tell a coherent story." Another fan expressed similar sentiments: "I’m gonna love it, he looks great as Superman, he looks great as Clark Kent, but the movie looks like it might be a bit busy, there's a lot going on here."

"Now this, I love this trailer. From someone who never really liked the dark DC vibe, I’m excited to experience a true comic superhero movie. But am I the only one who is worried for all the cameos that are in the trailer?" another fan wrote in the comments. "Like I swear I was counting like 8 friends and foes in this movie. I know they want to set up James Gunn’s DCU with this, but I would prefer it to be less heavy on cameo fodder and take more time to develop the characters that are needed to tell the story that they’re trying to tell."

To be fair, the trailer does feature a whole host of characters, including Clark Kent’s Earth parents, love interest Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), and several different sets of lofty villains, including the central antagonist Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult). While some fans are concerned that the film might be a bit bloated, many others are thrilled at the prospect of these character introductions.

All the characters revealed so far in *Superman*:

• Superman
• Lois Lane
• Lex Luthor
• Mister Terrific
• Guy Gardner
• Hawkgirl
• Metamorpho
• The Engineer
• The Hammer of Boravia
• Ultraman
• Rick Flag Sr.
• Supergirl
• Maxwell Lord
• Kryptonian robots, including Kelex
• Krypto
• Jonathan Kent
• Martha Kent
• Perry White
• Jimmy Olsen
• Steve Lombard
• Cat Grant
• Ron Troupe
• Eve Teschmacher
• Otis

"I'm glad there's a lot going on. We've seen him fight Lex & Zod countless times at this point, I want to see him completely overwhelmed and emerge as a symbol of hope," one user wrote in response to the gripes, while another added, "It’s side characters, less cameos. Like Iron Man had several side characters."

A third fan also noted that this is pretty standard for superhero films. "I don't feel like it's such a big deal honestly. Movies usually need secondary/side characters," the person commented. "Gunn here is just filling in those spots with rather big names, but I doubt he'll give them more than what they need."

Superman: Behind the Scenes Cast and Character Images

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The concern that the movie might be a little overstuffed hasn't deterred fans at first glance. "It looks good but wondering how they’re going to shoehorn so many different characters into one movie," one user wrote, to which another fan replied, "It's not any more characters than the average comic book movie. It's fine." A third user even quipped: "Kinda like Guardians of the Galaxy…?" Honestly? Touché.

Ultimately, Gunn has spoken multiple times about the fact that the film is not an ensemble piece. "At the middle of everything is Clark, Lois, and Lex," he said at the beginning of 2025 during an Instagram Live session. "It’s about these three characters." It remains to be seen how, exactly, he pulls that off.

*Superman* flies into theaters on July 11, 2025.