Regardless of where he ranks among your favorite superheroes, there’s just something about Superman that brings out the feels. Whether it’s his genuine, full-throated decency, his ability to inspire hope at a time when we all need it or the loneliness he often feels at being one of his planet’s last survivors, Superman has a remarkable ability to make people cry.

Sometimes all it takes is a trailer.

The first teaser for James Gunn’s upcoming Superman is now out, and it’s a stirring glimpse of what promises to be a blockbuster that’s as packed full of emotion as it is superpowers.

“I knew that I wanted to have a Superman that stayed true to his origins of being the ultimate good guy,” shares Gunn. “It’s a movie about kindness. It’s a movie about being good. When we had our cast dinner the night before we started shooting, I was like, ‘At the end of the day, the world doesn’t always seem to have so much good in it, and this movie has to truly be that.’ And that means that we had to be good to each other, we had to be good to the crew, and it had to be that authentically.”

It’s a theme that resonates deeply with the writer and director, who believes people are ultimately good at their core, even if it often doesn’t feel that way.

“I think that’s what ‘Take me home’ is all about,” he says, referring to one of the teaser’s few lines of dialog. “We do have a sort of battered version of Superman in the beginning [of the teaser], and I think that is our country. I believe in the goodness of human beings. I believe that most people in this country, despite their ideological beliefs or their politics, are doing their best to get by and trying to be good people, despite what it may seem like to the other side, no matter what that other side might be. That’s what happens when we let the internet seem like it’s the world, when it’s not the world. The world is us.”

It's a surprisingly wholesome outlook for a superhero after decades of grittiness, deconstruction and anti-heroes—plenty of which Gunn brought to the screen himself. But in many ways, it’s a return to character and genre’s roots, which are steeped in the ideals of fairness, justice and humankind’s eagerness to do better.

“I think a lot of people consider Superman to be a naïve character or at least have a naivete about him,” suggests David Corenswet, who plays Superman and Clark Kent in the film. “I think there’s an element of that, but I think it really is just sort of a blindness to the little imperfections and the little conflicts—the silly little things that we get caught up with as people. I tend to miss those, and I think Superman misses those, and that’s what keeps him steadfastly and determinedly looking at the good, the hopeful and the future, and grounded in the fun and playfulness of the present. That was something that ties back to the culture on set, which was very much, ‘We’re here to make something great, but most importantly, we’re here to take care of each other and to honor each other’s work.’”

Admittedly, it’s pretty easy to do that when the work involves bringing a character as beloved as Superman to life.

“I walked on set and I had other people who saw me in the suit for the first time, so I got to see other people see Superman,” recalls Corenswet. “The moments when they saw Superman fly for the first time. Not getting to be a part of that, particularly, but getting to witness them witness it. And then the best thing is seeing kids see it, when crew people would bring their kids to set. Getting to see a five or six-year-old kid see Superman, there’s nothing like it. It’s just amazing.”

Though it was hardly just kids, as Corenswet’s costars will happily attest.

“I just remember walking through a field and following [David] with the suit on,” shares Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Lois Lane. “I think I ran up to him and was like, ‘You’re f*cking Superman!’ There were definitely moments, sometimes when you’d least expect it, like at the end of a really long, otherwise mundane day, where Superman walks out of a trailer and you’re just like, ‘This is nuts! Is anyone else seeing this?’

Even Superman’s iconic nemesis, Lex Luthor, wasn’t immune, as actor Nicholas Hoult—who plays the follicly challenged billionaire—reveals in a surprisingly sweet story.

“When I saw David in the costume, I was in awe,” he shares. “And I hate to admit it made me feel all warm and fuzzy. It made me feel like a kid again. There was one scene where he flies into this set, and as I was watching, I had this little private grin on my face and I thought, ‘This is amazing.’ And I turned around and I saw everyone else in the room with the same look on their face watching him, and that’s the effect that he has on everyone. It’s really special.”

With a legacy that spans generations, Superman is one of the most recognizable and widely known fictional characters in the world. Even people who don’t know Kal-El’s expansive history and lore still recognize the suit. It’s distinct, iconic…and in Gunn’s Superman, colorful. But there’s a good reason for that, as the director and lead actor made clear.

“When we were designing the costume, I knew certain things were going to be different,” explains Gunn. “It was freaking colorful and had the underwear and the whole thing. I was like, ‘Uh, I don’t know. It’s so colorful.’ And David goes, ‘Yeah, he’s an alien from outer space who’s super powerful, who doesn’t want children to be afraid of him.’

“It touched me in the moment, and it touches me now as I say it—that’s who Superman is. He has a reason for why his costume is so colorful. It’s because he doesn’t want to scare children. He’s got red beams that come out of his eyes and can blow over things with his breath, but he wants to not be scary to children.”

That may be who Superman is, but for the foreseeable future, Superman is also David Corenswet. A relative unknown when he was first announced in the role, Corenswet’s profile has only grown after he played a sizeable part in last summer’s Twisters. It should be clear to anyone who’s seen the teaser that the actor looks like he was born to play the role physically, but his director suggests he shares much with the character outside of that as well.

“The thing that connects him so much in some ways to Christopher Reeve is he has a lot of deep training,” reveals Gunn. “I’ve never worked with such a rigorous actor. He challenged me on a daily basis to really get the most out this character and this story. Everything he does in the movie is utterly true. We don’t ever have a moment when we’ve been watching dailies where we go, ‘David did something that feels stupid—that doesn’t feel real.’ Never. He’s always completely present.”

“James suggested [I read] All-Star Superman, which I did,” says Corenswet. “I drew a lot from that specifically for Clark. I also loosely stole some stuff from my brother-in-law, who’s 6’ 8” and 270 pounds and has the deepest voice and is always in the way and always trying not to be.”

Beyond that, Corenswet—much like Superman himself—seems to find inspiration among the people he surrounds himself with.

“Mostly I drew inspiration from the other actors and from James,” he continues. “It was when I started working with Rachel that I got clear about who Clark and who Superman was. And especially for Superman, a hero is only as interesting or cool as the nemesis that they’re up against. So, standing eye-to-eye with Nic for the first time, that’s where I started to get clear about who I am because I see so clearly who they are.”

Of course, for a movie with such an eye towards humanity, it’s a bit ironic that the character who steals the first trailer isn’t technically human.

“His relationship with Krypto is complicated,” teases Gunn with a laugh. “He’s not nearly the best dog as he may seem. There’s a lot more to Krypto. But I also thought that it was a way to say we’re embracing all of the Superman mythology.”

Considering that mythology would ultimately birth the shared DC comic book universe, that’s no small thing. And while Gunn promises a personal film centered on the relationships between its characters, he’s also keenly aware that his movie is designed to do much of the same thing for the new DC Studios.

“This is an alternative history fantasy world where superheroes exist, but it’s also incredibly grounded,” he makes clear. “Real people have real lives, there just happens to be metahumans there. Superman exists. He has friends who are other superheroes. He has people he doesn’t get along as well with who are other superheroes. He’s got a flying dog. He’s got a giant fortress that springs from the ground. He fights giant monsters. He has a lot of things that we love from the Superman comics and mythology that we haven’t been able to see as much of in filmed media and definitely haven’t been able to see in a grounded way, which is what I hope we’ve created.”

Fans will have to wait until next year to experience that world for themselves. But with Superman now only half a year away, we all have plenty of reasons to look up.

Superman, written and directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan and Nicholas Hoult, arrives in theaters July 11, 2025.