Trunks or no trunks? That was the question when it came to David Corenswet suiting up as the Man of Steel in James Gunn’s Superman movie. The suit — designed by Oscar-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky, who worked on Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, The Suicide Squad, and Avengers: Endgame — features an Alex Ross-inspired Superman symbol, a raised collar and piping similar to DC’s 2011 relaunch The New 52, and the classic red trunks, which have been an element of nearly every suit Big Blue has worn since Action Comics #1 in 1938.
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DC Comics stripped Superman of his circus strongman-style trunks in 2011, opting for a red belt look (the “red underwear” returned for the milestone Action Comics #1000 in 2018). For 2013’s Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder had Henry Cavill don a super-suit sans trunks, a look that would stick through 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017’s Justice League. (Tyler Hoechlin’s Dad of Steel wore a similar suit in television’s Superman & Lois.)
The last live-action big-screen interpretation of Superman to wear the trunks was Brandon Routh’s in 2006’s Superman Returns, which paid homage to Christopher Reeve’s Man of Steel and the Richard Donner-directed Superman: The Movie from 1978. It took nearly two decades, but the trunks have returned on Corenswet’s comics-accurate suit in Superman — with input from Snyder and Corenswet himself.
“The only thing I knew is that I didn’t want [the suit] to look too much like a wet T-shirt. I didn’t want to have muscles built into the suit,” Gunn told Fandango about the classic red-and-blue suit. “I wanted to create a world where metahumans actually existed, but also, that they wore these [suits] for various reasons, and that it was, in a way, a uniform.”
That includes the LordTech-branded “Justice Gang” uniforms worn by superheroes Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), and Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion).
Once Gunn determined that his Superman wouldn’t be a body-hugging muscle suit, “I just kind of went from there working with Judianna, who did all my costumes from Guardians of the Galaxy, and just taking it bit by bit by bit until we ended up with the beautiful suit that we ended up with,” Gunn said. “And getting David’s input, frankly, as we sort of built it up around him, getting his ideas.”
“One of the biggest questions was, ‘Were we gonna have trunks, or were we gonna not have trunks?’” Gunn continued. “I talked to Zack Snyder, who was like, ‘I tried a billion different versions with the trunks, and at the end of the day, I tried it, but I just couldn’t get there.’ And I was feeling exactly the same way.”
As Gunn and Makovsky tested out versions of the suit — one with trunks, and one without — Gunn was leaning towards the no-trunks look. And then Corenswet had a suggestion.
“You wanted trunks, in theory,” Corenswet told Gunn. “You liked the idea of trunks.”
“Theoretically, I liked the idea of trunks,” Gunn replied, “because it’s the Superman I grew up with.” The problem, Corenswet noted, “They look kind of silly. You were looking for a way to make them look cool, or you were looking for a function, an explanation to justify having them, and my thing was, ‘Maybe they’re supposed to look a little silly?’ Maybe the reason he wears them is to look a little silly. Basically, to undermine how powerful he really is.”
Because the citizens of the DC Universe have known about the existence of metahumans for 300 years, Gunn said, “Everyone knows he’s an alien. He shoots beam out of his eyes, he can blow things down with his breath. He’s sort of this terrifying creature. And David saying, ‘But he really likes kids, and human beings, and people. He wants kids to not be afraid of him.’ And so that was the thing that made me decide to keep the trunks.”
DC Studios’ Superman is written and directed by Gunn and stars David Corenswet as Clark Kent/Superman alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor.
The cast includes Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, with Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen, Sara Sampaio as Eve Teschmacher, María Gabriela de Faría as the Engineer, Wendell Pierce as Perry White, Alan Tudyk as Superman Robot #4, Neva Howell as Ma Kent, Pruitt Taylor Vince as Pa Kent, with Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord and Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr.
Tickets are now on sale for Superman, which soars into theaters July 11.
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