Meet the Casting Director James Gunn Hired to Cast ‘Superman: Legacy’

According to an insider, and it is actually a no brainer, Gunn will be working with legendary casting director John Papsidera whose impressive credits and track record include huge movies like The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, Memento, Final Destination, Zombieland, Venom, Jurassic World and Oppenheimer.

Gunn and Papsidera worked recently on 2021’s The Suicide Squad. On the television front, Papsidera cast the mega hit Yellowstone and Gunn’s Peacemaker HBO Max series. DC Studios Co-Chief Peter Safran is also a big fan of Papsidera’s work.

Papsidera has been nominated sixteen times for the Artios Awards for excellence in casting, and won four times.

The movie was officially announced during the recent DC Studios slate reveal, with details about it being kept under wraps, though Gunn has now opened up about his passion for the character.

“He’s a big old galoot. He is a farm boy from Kansas who is very idealistic,” Gunn said during the DC Studios presentation . “His greatest weakness is that he’ll never kill anybody and doesn’t want to hurt a living soul. And I like that sort of innate goodness about Superman as his defining characteristic.”

The DC Studios co-head added that Superman: Legacy is not an adaptation of the popular DC Comics arc All-Star Superman, but takes inspiration from the Grant Morrison run. His movie adapts the parts of the comic book that see Superman balancing his strength with his morality.

James Gunn is writing Superman: Legacy and will direct the movie. The film is currently slated to hit theaters on July 11, 2025. The movie sees Superman balancing “his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing” and his “embodiment of truth, justice and the American way and kindness in a world that thinks of kindness as old fashioned.”

DC Studios is casting a new Kal-El for Superman: Legacy, as the DC Universe movie explores the early years of the Last Son of Krypton, around the time he first stats working at the Daily Planet in Metropolis. As such, Henry Cavill is not returning as the DC Comics hero.