A Sense of Doubt blog post #3804 - I Went to the Superman Movie!

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3804 - I Went to the Superman Movie!


My quick take: best Superman movie EVER.

Quite possibly the best superhero movie ever, but I have to think about that some more.

I cried through the whole thing (and laughed and cheered some, too).



I loved it.


I may write more later, but today is a tough day. I am doing a difficult thing.

Thanks for tuning in.


PS - MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!!

https://ew.com/superman-cameos-surprise-guests-11769123

All the big Superman cameos and surprise guests

From the obvious to the obscure.

By 

Nick Romano

 

 

Updated on July 12, 2025 09:58AM EDT

Warning: This article contains major spoilers from Superman.

Superman writer/director James Gunn, who's also the co-head of DC Studios, previously teased in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that, yes, there are other characters appearing in the movie who have not been announced yet.

As the press cycle commenced, Gunn disclosed some of those roles in various interviews, but most were left for audiences to discover in theaters. (If you wish to be one of those fresh-eyed viewers, turn away from this article now and come back later!) Some were obvious; others were only confirmed once the end credits started to roll.

Superman (now playing in theaters) stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Kal-El. The planet's strongest metahuman (super-powered being) becomes the target of tech billionaire Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who's hellbent on taking down the Man of Steel at all costs. Rachel Brosnahan also arrives as Lois Lane, ace reporter for The Daily Planet newspaper.

The film isn't an origin story. Instead, the story picks up three years into Clark's tenure as Superman and presents a fully realized world teeming with superheroes and other DC comics characters. That's where a lot of these cameos and guest appearances come in.

Here's a list of ones you caught and ones you might not have.

01of 12

Bradley Cooper as Jor-El

Bradley Cooper plays Jor-El in 'Superman'.

Michael Kovac/Getty; DC Comics

Gunn confirmed Bradley Cooper's role in Superman prior to the film's opening in theaters. The director cast the Oscar nominee, who previously voiced Rocket Raccoon in his Guardians of the Galaxy films, as Jor-El, the Man of Steel's biological father from Krypton.

Cooper's Jor-El appears as a hologram, speaking to his son in the native Kryptonian. Superman's parents left him a message when he was sent to Earth as an infant before their home planet, Krypton, was destroyed. However, the crash landing damaged pieces of that message.

"Really, Bradley's just doing me a favor," Gunn told Jake Hamilton of Jake's Takes. "He's a friend. We've stayed in close contact since the Guardians movies, and I admire him greatly as an actor and as a director. I just said, 'Hey, will you do me a favor? Come down, go to England, we're going to shoot you in a 3D environment, make a hologram of you, and you can play Jor-El.'"

02of 12

Angela Sarafyan as Lara

Angela Sarafyan plays Kal-El's mother in 'Superman'.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; DC Comics

Angela Sarafyan, known more prominently for playing the android Clementine in HBO's Westworld, appears opposite Cooper's Jor-El in the hologram message as Lara, Superman's biological mother. Sarafyan was seen more recently in Amazon's action-thriller G20.

03of 12

Tinashe Kajese as Florence "Flo" Crawley

Tinashe Kajese as Florence "Flo" Crawley in 'Peacemaker' season 1.

MAX

Tinashe Kajese reprises her role from previous DC projects as Florence "Flo" Crawley. During the events of 2021's The Suicide Squad, also written/directed by Gunn, Flo worked for A.R.G.U.S. as a mission coordinator for Task Force X and personal aid to Amanda Waller (Viola Davis).

She ultimately betrayed Waller to help the Suicide Squad take down the gargantuan Starro monster during the events of the film, hence why she didn't return to the A.R.G.U.S. camp in Peacemaker season 1.

She now reemerges as "Secretary Crawley" in Superman. Lex Luthor attempts to persuade the U.S. government to allow his own personal army of Raptors (a squadron of soldiers in mechanized flight suits) and his two cohorts, the Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) and Ultraman, to take Superman in for interrogation. Secretary Crawley is one of the three officials he speaks with.

04of 12

John Cena as Peacemaker

John Cena in 'Peacemaker' season 2.

Jessica Miglio/Max

The more obvious Peacemaker connection is Peacemaker himself.

John Cena reprises his role from the HBO series, which is another project created by Gunn. He pops in as a guest on a news talk-show program for The Sphere, a fictionalized news network that airs in Metropolis.

When Peacemaker season 2 premieres this August, characters from Superman will similarly pop over: Isabela Merced's Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders, Nathan Fillion's Guy Gardner, and one other individual (listed below).

05of 12

Will Reeve as GBS News reporter

Will Reeve, son of the late Christopher Reeve, has a cameo in 'Superman'.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Will Reeve, son of the late Christopher Reeve, one of the more famous Hollywood Men of Steel, makes a brief appearance in Superman.

In an art-imitating-life moment, Reeve appears as a TV reporter for the fictional news network GBS News. Lois Lane watches one of his segments on a screen in the Daily Planet offices.

In real life, Reeve works as a contributing reporter for ABC News and Good Morning America. "Will is great," Corenswet previously told Entertainment Weekly. "He is the Superman type for obvious reasons. He's tall, he's handsome, and he's got a great smile. Having him show up and give his support in that moment was very heartwarming."

06of 12

Michael Ian Black as 'The Sphere' news host

Michael Ian Black attends the 2025 Tribeca Festival.

Jason Mendez/Getty

Comedian Michael Ian Black plays a host of a news talk-show program on The Sphere. One of his guests is Cena's Peacemaker. Giving off Fox News and Bill Maher vibes, Black's character is one of the more prominently critical voices in the media skewering Superman's good name.

07of 12

Zlatko Burić as Vasil Glarkos

Zlatko Burić plays President of Boravia, Vasil Glarkos, in 'Superman'.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty

In a role not disclosed prominently ahead of the movie's release, Croatian-Danish actor Zlatko Burić, who appeared in Triangle of Sadness and the George Clooney-, Brad Pitt-led Wolfs, plays Boravian dictator Vasil Glarkos.

Glarkos is in cahoots with Luthor to do away with Superman so that he can invade and conquer the neighboring nation of Jarhanpur. If successful, he'd give Luthor dominion over half of the newly acquired land to start the tech billionaire's own nation.

08of 12

Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord

Sean Gunn plays Maxwell Lord in 'Superman'.

Vivien Killilea/Getty; DC Comics

Sean Gunn, the brother of the Superman director, appears briefly towards the end of the movie as Maxwell Lord, the head of LordTech. He's also the billionaire backer of the Justice Gang, a corporate-sponsored super-trio comprised of Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, and Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi). Lord is interviewed on the news for comment on Luthor's treasonous acts.

Sean previously served as the physical performance-capture actor behind Rocket Raccoon in Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He then took on a more physical role as Kraglin, a former Ravager.

Sean's Lord will appear next in Peacemaker season 2 alongside Merced's Hawkgirl, Fillion's Guy Gardner, and Cena's titular antihero.

09of 12

Milly Alcock as Supergirl

Milly Alcock plays Kara Zor-El/Supergirl.

Dominik Bindl/Getty; DC Comics

Early reports (including from EW) signaled the arrival of Milly Alcock's Kara Zor-El in Superman before headlining 2026's Supergirl, a film inspired by the Woman of Tomorrow comic book storyline.

She appears for one scene at the end of the movie, barreling into the Fortress of Solitude after partying on other planets that orbit Red Suns. As opposed to Earth's Yellow Sun, which strengthens Superman, a Red Sun weakens Kryptonians enough so that they can feel the effects of alcohol and other adult substances.

Alcock's Supergirl movie will premiere in theaters next year on June 26.

10of 12

Michael Rosenbaum as one of Lex Luthor's Raptors

Michael Rosenbaum at the LA premiere of 'Becoming Led Zeppelin'.

Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

In one of the more obscure cameos, Michael Rosenbaum, who previously starred as Lex Luthor on the Smallville TV series, has a minor voice role. He can be heard as one of the Raptors of Luthor's private army.

As revealed during a panel at Fan Expo Dallas in June that was moderated by ScreenRant, Rosenbaum said, "James asked me to do something fun, so I have a couple of lines that I voice."

11of 12

Pom Klementieff as a Superman robot

Pom Klementieff at Filming Italy 2025.

Daniele Venturelli/Getty

Pom Klementieff, another veteran of Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies, occupied another voice role in Superman, playing one of the robots in the Fortress of Solitude alongside Alan Tudyk as the main Supe bot.

The filmmaker confirmed the casting prior to the movie's release to Buzzfeed Australia.

Klementieff, most recently seen in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, played Mantis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

12of 12

Michael Rooker as a Super robot

Michael Rooker at the 'Superman' premiere in Los Angeles.

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Another one of those Superman robots is voiced by Michael Rooker, who played Yondu in the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Rooker has worked with Gunn since 2006's Slither and continues to be one of the recurring actors across the director's projects.

After voicing Sam Fitzgibbon in Gunn's animated Creature Commandos series for DC Studios, Rooker will reconnect with Gunn for Peacemaker season 2, playing Red St. Wild, the world's foremost eagle hunter who is on a mission to kill the eagle companion of Cena's character.

"In that same scene, it’s Bradley [Cooper], it’s also Pom [Klementieff], and Michael Rooker is another one of the robots. We’ve got two Guardians right there," Gunn told Buzzfeed Australia of the voice roles in Superman.

https://ew.com/superman-ending-explained-dcu-peacemaker-season-2-11769328

Superman ending, explained: How James Gunn sets up the new DCU and Peacemaker season 2

Let's talk about where the first film in the newly rebooted franchise leaves the DCU.

By 

Nick Romano

 

 

Updated on July 11, 2025 01:46PM EDT

• What that Superman ending means for the DC universe it created.
• Writer/director/studio head James Gunn previously explained how Superman and Peacemaker connect in a particular way.
• All the future DCU projects that directly connect to the events of Superman.

This article contains spoilers from Superman. 

Superman, the first film in a new rebooted era for the DC superhero franchise, flew into theaters this weekend. And, as writer/director/studio head James Gunn promised, it proved to be "pretty important in terms of getting to the bigger story" told across the franchise.

The movie establishes a world in which humanity has known about the existence of metahumans (super-powered beings) for 300 years. For three of those, they've known about Superman (David Corenswet). The film serves as a fairly self-contained story that doesn't require much homework or forward thinking on the part of the audience. But between the main narrative engine and all the special guests that pop up, Gunn subtly (and not-so subtly) points to this larger DC universe (DCU) that he's building with studio co-head Peter Safran that will play out across a series of interconnected movies and shows.

With the Superman ending, he specifically sets up something that will heavily play into the events of the next project, Peacemaker season 2 (on HBO Max this Aug. 21).

Peacemaker and pocket universes

Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) and Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) in 'Superman'.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), the tech billionaire archvillain, used Big Bang science to create a dimension that exists outside of our own. He uses it largely for two purposes: to travel near-instantaneously around the globe through various portals, and to shield his more nefarious activities from the public eye.

This pocket universe notably contains his band of genetically engineered, super-intelligent monkeys that flood the internet with misinformation and hate speech about Superman, as well as his prison for all those who personally wronged him. It then serves a third function as Luthor's weapon of mass destruction.

'Superman' review: David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan soar, but the script is kryptonite

David Corenswet shares the 'Superman' advice he got from Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin

To distract the Man of Steel from stopping the conflict between Boravia and Jarhanpur, Luthor creates a rift from one of his portals that quickly begins to tear through Metropolis like an unstoppable earthquake.

Gunn previously confirmed the pocket universe is directly linked to something already introduced in Peacemaker, starring John Cena as the titular antihero. Season 1, which ran from January to February 2022, included the Quantum Unfolding Chamber, or QUC for short. It was created by Auggie Smith (Robert Patrick), Peacemaker's father, as storage space that exists outside of our dimension.

John Cena and Danielle Brooks in 'Peacemaker' season 2.

Jessica Miglio/Max

Aside from the fact that Cena himself cameos in Superman, Gunn told Entertainment Weekly the QUC is similar to the technology explored in the movie. "The QUC is the center of the story in Peacemaker season 2," he said in a May interview, adding, "We see a lot of different characters from Superman in the [season]."

He specifically mentioned two members of the Justice Gang, a super-trio introduced in Superman. Isabela Merced will return as Hawkgirl/Kendra Saunders alongside Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner and Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord, the team's billionaire backer. "And then we see a bunch of other characters later on in the [Peacemaker] season from other parts of the DCU and from Superman," Gunn continued. "There might even be one really, really, really big cameo near the end of the show."

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The first teaser trailer for Peacemaker season 2 included one major clue as to how the QUC and this pocket universe technology will be important. One scene shows Cena's Peacemaker encountering another identical-looking Peacemaker, which suggests a parallel-dimension counterpart. Dare we say...a multiverse?

Other DCU connections

Frank Grillo in 'Peacemaker' season 2.

Jessica Miglio/Max

There are a number of other ways that Superman, at the very least, sets up this fictional world.

The most obvious are the cameos, like Cena's Peacemaker. Frank Grillo's Rick Flag, Sr., first appearing in animated form in last year's Creature Commandos, arrived in Superman as the Secretary of Defense. He'll then have a bigger part to play in Peacemaker season 2.

House of the Dragon and Sirens star Milly Alcock has a smaller cameo when she debuts for the first time as Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin known as Supergirl. She crashes into the Fortress of Solitude at the end of the movie, after partying on other planets with Red Suns, which emit the kind of solar radiation that weakens Kryptonians enough so they can experience the effects of alcohol and other substances.

The next DCU project that will release after Superman and Peacemaker season 2 is, yes, Supergirl, a film headlining Alcock and inspired by the Tom King-penned, Bilquis Evely-drawn comic book Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. In that story, Kara is approached by galactic warrior Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridley), who asks for help hunting down those who killed her father and destroyed her world.

Milly Alcock will play Supergirl in the DCU.

Dominik Bindl/Getty; DC Comics

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

While the events of Superman are not directly connected to Supergirl, it's a signal (a Bat-signal?) that there's more on the horizon. The same goes for those random shoutouts in the movie, like how Luthor is carted off to Belle Reve in the Superman ending, the prison facility that houses some of the most dangerous supervillains and metahumans. And who runs Belle Reve? Amanda Waller.

Viola Davis is already set to reprise her role as Belle Reve's warden in a standalone TV series for HBO Max, which Gunn announced back in January 2023.

Other projects also in the works include Lanterns, an HBO Max series that will return Fillion's Guy Gardner alongside other members of the Green Lantern Corps, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). Then there's a movie coming down the line about the Authority, a super-team described as the anti-Justice League, a group of metahumans who are willing to bend the rules a bit.

María Gabriela de Faría as the Engineer in 'Superman'.

DC Studios/Warner Bros.

A member of the Authority team is Angela Spica/the Engineer, played by María Garbiela de Faría in Superman. The character was left unconscious but alive at the end of the movie, thanks to a near-fatal death dive out of the sky.

"We did have a bit of that conversation about the future of the Engineer," De Faría teased to EW in a cover story published in June, referring to Gunn. "And the motherf---er [she whispers the expletive] was very secretive. He was like, 'I have a great idea,' and then [texted] a little emoji. Okay, so what is it?! And then he didn't reply. He's keeping me in the dark, but apparently he has a great idea of what to do with this character."

By the time the credits roll on Superman, it's also clear that Justice League is very much on the brain, some kind of team-up of this world's mightiest heroes. We see it in the eyes of Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) and the Justice Gang after saving the people of Jarhanpur from Boravian soldiers. It also can't be a coincidence that the Justice Gang's home base is the Hall of Justice, which is the headquarters for the Justice League on Earth in the comics.

Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) in 'Superman'.

Warner Bros.

EW previously questioned Gunn on the state of a Justice League movie. When asked if he's already thinking about one, he replied, coyly, "Of course, of course. But there is no Justice League in this world…not yet."

As fans continue to ponder the future of the DCU, we leave you with one last deep-cut theory to think about...

When the Superman ending reveals how everyone in Luthor's pocket universe was rescued and released back into the real world, including those smart monkeys...will that become the low-key origin story for the DCU's Gorilla Grodd?

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2507.18 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3669 days ago & DAD = 323 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.