James Gunn is joining DC at what appears to be the perfect time. He's fresh off the high of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, showing the MCU how it's done as he departs, and the current iteration of DC is falling apart. Remember when we were sold the line that we'd all just have to overlook everything Ezra Miller did because they were just too damn good in The Flash? Turns out that wasn't true, and Miller was only like the fourth most problematic thing in that movie anyway. Superman Legacy is going to kickstart Gunn's version of DC, but there are already signs that he's either not being listened to, or hasn't learned his lesson.
The first concrete information we got about the movie was the central casting of David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Both seem pretty well cast, even if I'm not all that familiar with Brosnahan's work (and it's a painful reminder that DC thoroughly wasted having Amy Adams), and the fact they're not A-list names suggests a fresh start. No stunt casting, just the best people for the job with an eye on them being able to do that job for years to come. It's hard not to feel for Nicholas Hoult, a finalist for both Batman and Superman who fell at the final hurdle both times, but all in all, it's full speed ahead. Or at least it was.
Recently, three more names have been added to the cast: Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, and Edi Gathegi. On the face of it, that's a pretty good mix. Fillion is an established actor and long-time collaborator of Gunn's, Merced is an emerging talent best known for her role as the live-action Dora the Explorer, and Gathegi is a solid career actor with roles in the likes of Twilight and House, and probably most recognisable as the time he played an unkillable man in X-Men... who was killed 30 minutes into the movie. Those scripts really weren't very good, were they?
It's not the people who have been cast, but the roles they're playing that bothers me. Fillion will be a Green Lantern, although this is Guy Gardner of the Green Lantern Corps rather than Hal Jordan. As with Guardians of the Galaxy, Fillion's role will be a nice cameo - something of a James Gunn tradition. Merced and Gathegi though are Hawkgirl and Mister Terrific, and the movie is now starting to sound very messy.
When Iron Man changed everything about superhero cinema, it was followed by solo movies for Captain America, Thor, and a sequel for itself which introduced Black Widow, and then the Avengers team-up happened. The characters had each been firmly established in their own adventure, so we knew the stakes and dynamics. DC rushed into this with Justice League arriving before audiences had even met Aquaman, The Flash, or Cyborg, and so the whole thing felt convoluted and hollow. The Snyder Cut offers more depth, but it’s four hours long and even then, it’s still a poor way to introduce new heroes - the Snyderverse was never going to work.
Mister Terrific and Hawkgirl are not the makings of the Justice League, and introducing characters who weren't in the last version of DC first makes a lot of sense. But still, this movie is supposed to introduce us to Superman, and as My Adventures with Superman is proving, there's a lot of mileage in focusing on Clark and Lois. Adding in Mister Terrific (think of him as Batman 2 and you're halfway there), and Hawkgirl (who is a major hero in her own right and whose partner Hawkman appeared in Black Adam), will only complicate matters.
These characters not only need to be introduced alongside Supes himself and Lois, but also need to play a real role in the story. We know Superman Legacy is not an origin tale, so he may already know both characters (or all three with Gardner), but the audience will not. And since neither of them have ever been in a major movie, they won't even be able to fill in the gaps the way we could when Captain America: Civil War dropped Spider-Man on us.
I have faith that Gunn knows what he's doing, but I was hoping we'd get something different than we're used to. Cramming in a bunch of heroes before we've seen even a single frame does not suggest that is the case, and after so many false starts, DC can't afford to get this one wrong.