James Gunn’s Superman Did Have Cultural Impact, Thank You Very Much

The news that James Gunn and Peter Safran were out as heads of DC Studios came as a shock to many fans. Apart from the stumble of Supergirl, a majority of the projects under Gunn and Safran’s tenure were well-received in terms of critical acclaim and box office hauls. Apparently that wasn’t enough for Skydance heads David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, as a new report from The Hollywood Reporter claims that part of the reason Gunn and Safran were ousted is due to the fact that the Gunn-directed Superman apparently “did not net out, or have the kind of pop culture impact, in the way that kind of movie should” per Skydance’s thinking.

Anyone who’s seen Superman or been on the internet during and after its release knows that this is patently untrue. For starters, let’s look at the competition. 2025’s Superman arrived in what was a packed year for superhero movies, as Marvel Studios dropped Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The first two of those Marvel films fell short at the box office, despite the latter receiving rave reviews; First Steps managed to make its budget back, perhaps owing to the fact that it premiered shortly after Superman and had similar vibes. Yet David Corenswet’s Man of Steel soared to the top of the pack, earning over $600 million worldwide.

There’s also Gunn’s previous pedigree. Most fans know him from his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, which took a lesser-known group of Marvel’s spacefaring heroes and turned them into household names. The conventional wisdom at the time was that a movie about a talking tree and a gun-toting raccoon in space would be a massive failure, and yet Gunn’s unique vision proved the opposite – namely, that if you put in the work with characters, they’ll resonate with audiences. Superman’s rehabilitation was no different, as after nearly a decade of movies, comics, and video games trying to stuff him in the same “grim and gritty” box as Batman, Gunn’s movie brought Clark Kent back to wholesome basics…and viewers undeniably responded to that. 

Perhaps the best example of this is the ending of Superman (2025). Following the thwarting of Lex Luthor’s plot to invade Jarhanpur and stopping Metropolis from being ripped apart by a black hole, Superman sits in the Fortress of Solitude as the band Teddybears’ song “Punkrocker” featuring Iggy Pop’s vocals blasts at full volume. It’s a moment that pays off a key line where Superman tells Lois Lane that kindness is “the real punk rock,” and it’s a moment that resonated deeply with fans. “Punkrocker” remixes quickly found their way across social media, with fans even drawing comparisons to Spider-Man in the wake of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (it also didn’t hurt that two Spider-Man/Superman crossover comics were released earlier this year.)

Another prime example of Superman’s cultural impact lies in the presence of Krypto the Superdog. While the canine was a point of contention for fandom – some believing that a dog with Superman’s powers was a bridge too far while others loved that Gunn embraced the more comic booky aspects of Superman’s mythos – Krypto’s appearance led to a noticableincrease in people wanting to adopt a dog. Not only is this fitting, given that Gunn partially based Krypto’s appearance on his own adopted dog Ozu, but it shows that Superman made an impact. That’s truly a mark of success, no matter how much Skydance tries to spin things.