Inside the ‘Superman: Legacy’ Screen Tests as Decision 2023 Drags Into Second Week
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With The Flash not proving to be the box office savior Warner Bros. was anticipating, the pressure on new DC Studios’ heads James Gunn and Peter Safran has increased exponentially.
And that, in turn, means increased weight on Superman: Legacy, the inaugural movie from Gunn and Safran. And it may not get any weightier than casting the right actor to play Clark Kent/Superman and his romantic and professional foil, Lois Lane.
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Gunn, who is writing and directing the feature, held screen tests the weekend of June 17 on the Warners lot in Burbank, and the process has been kept in a lead-lined box as Gunn shows the assembled cuts to a deciding committee of executives, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav among them. Despite the secrecy, some details have emerged, even as the final choice has not.
Gunn, according to sources, assembled three actors and three actresses for Superman and Lane, respectively, and on Saturday, the first day of the testing, the actors were seen in predetermined pairs: Nicholas Hoult and Rachel Brosnahan; Tom Brittney and Phoebe Dynevor; and David Corenswet and Emma Mackey. They were given several scenes to film, in which the males were in makeup and wardrobe as Daily Planet reporter Kent while the females were plucky journalist Lane.
Then on Sunday, Hoult, Brittney and Corenswet did another series of screen tests, this time in costume as Superman. Interestingly, only Mackey was brought in that day to portray Lane opposite the actors.
Sources caution that just because Mackey segued into the second day does not mean she is the front-runner for Lane, although it may be hard not to draw that conclusion.
The search for Superman is a complex one. In Gunn’s back-to-basics version, any choice has to be able to play the part of someone who is credibly a farmboy from Kansas, a reporter at a big city media outlet, and the Man of Steel, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
The search brings back memories of the testing for the lead in 2011’s infamous Green Lantern, in which actors had to play cocky pilot Hal Jordan and a mask-wearing space cop from the Green Lantern Corps. The casting came down to Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper, but the lynchpin was the mask. Some inside the studio preferred Cooper, but he fared poorly in the superhero costume tests. The same situation is very likely playing out on Legacy.
Gunn had an assembled cut of the screen tests by Wednesday to show to Warners brass. A decision could come this week.
And once the decisions on Kent and Lane are made, Gunn will quickly pull the trigger on the next wave. Sources say there is also a shortlist for villain Lex Luthor (siblings Alexander and Bill Skarsgard have been mentioned as being on it, and it’s not clear whether Hoult, who was initially wanted for the part before deciding to try for Kent/Superman, would put himself in the running again.) There are also other heroes to cast, such as members of a supergroup named the Authority (part of the new storyline is Superman joining a world in which superheroes already exist).
Gunn hopes to have Superman: Legacy before cameras in early 2024, in time for a July 11, 2025, release. The movie will attempt to kickstart a whole new slate based on the DC characters after two attempts in the last dozen years have fizzled due to various factors, box office failure and changes in studio ownership, among them. Warners is in the process of releasing the last three movies made by the previous regime. Flash, which was internally considered the best of the bunch (and, backed by high test screening scores, pre-ordained a success), unexpectedly cratered theatrically. Box office expectations are not sky-high for Blue Beetle, which opens in August and stars Xolo Maridueña, who will carry on in the new Universe. Meanwhile, observers are wondering if Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which opens in December, can match the $1.1 billion high from the original, released five years ago, an achingly long time to wait for a sequel in the superhero movie world.
Superman will have a year-and-a-half theatrical break between the previous regime’s movies, but Gunn and Safran know not only do they have to nail it as a blockbuster on its own terms, they have to put their best foot forward to generate enthusiasm for the movies and shows that come after.
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