The replacement of Henry Cavill’s Superman with David Corenswet was a blow to some fans who wanted to see a sequel to Man of Steel and Black Adam in the DCEU. Now, a new quote from 2025’s Superman cast member, Nathan Fillion, has some fans believing that the plans for a reboot were in play as early as 2021, after The Suicide Squad’s premier. This has led to backlash directed towards James Gunn, which the director has addressed in a recent comment.
James Gunn addresses the latest Superman conspiracy theory
Actor Nathan Fillion revealed how his casting as Guy Gardner in Superman came to be. He stated that Gunn told him about his Green Lantern casting at the premiere party of The Suicide Squad.
Speaking with Collider about his conversation with Gunn, Fillion said:
“We were actually at the premiere party after Suicide Squad and he [Gunn] was in a huge crowd of people. He goes, ‘Hey, did Peter [Safran] tell you what we’ve got for you next?’ I said, ‘No, he hasn’t said.’ He looked around like someone was gonna be listening. We were in a throng of people, but he leaned over and said, ‘You’re gonna be Guy Gardner.’”
This began a conspiracy theory among fans. The theory postulates that Gunn was already working towards a reboot of the DCEU more than a year before he and Safran were officially appointed as co-presidents of DC Studios in October 2022.
This theory provoked some fans of Henry Cavill’s Superman to speak out in support. These fans blamed Gunn for always planning to replace the former Superman and lying about it.
Looking at the backlash, James Gunn took to Threads to clarify that Fillion misspoke. Per Gunn, the actor was referring to the conversation at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s premier party in 2023, not The Suicide Squad.
Gunn further added on Threads:
“I don’t quite understand how that fits. Aside from the fact I had no interest in running DC until Peter decided to do it with me so he could do the exec stuff & I could focus on creative, when I was hired to write Superman it was always intended as & pitched as a new Superman story, so why would I lie about not planning that at the Squad premiere which would have amounted to the same thing at the end of the day? How does this particular conspiracy theory make sense?”
