Superman has one of the most iconic, easily recognized costumes ever: blue bodysuit, a flowing red cape, matching red boots and the legendary S-emblem on his chest.
Oh, and red trunks too.
Well, not always the red trunks. Not in the movies anyway, most noticeably and glaringly with fan-favorite Henry Cavill’s Superman, whose 8-year-tenure as the character, starting with 2013’s Man of Steel and ending with Zack Snyder’s Justice League in 2021 featured him in a costume that was purposely without trunks. According to director Zack Snyder, the look was an antiquated one — the trunks just didn’t fit the Man of Steel in the modern age.
“I tried, but I couldn’t make them cool” Snyder told Yahoo Movies back in 2013. “I did fight to keep them, but lets not forget that the red trunks are left over from Victorian-era strong men, who had to wear flesh colored leotards and trunks over it so they didn’t look naked. So I feel we’ve moved on a little bit.”
Now that it’s 2024 and James Gunn is co-heading the DC Universe, the trunks are back. But that almost wasn’t the case; much like Snyder, the decision for Superman to wear the red trunks was one born from much debate and deliberation.
“I was on the ‘no trunks’ team for a long time. For a longgggg time,” James Gunn told media on the set of Superman. “And Zack [Snyder] said that when he was doing it, he tried a billion different trunk versions as we did. And I kept going back to no trunks, no trunks, no trunks. And I’m like, well,’ let’s just grind it out.”
That was of course, until new Superman actor David Corenswet said something that changed Gunn’s mind and sealed his decision on the topic of trunks or no trunks.
Gunn continued, “And David [Corenswet] said something to me that really affected me, because we’re trying on all these different versions, and we screen tested with trunks and no trunks. And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him.”
Gunn added, “He’s an alien. He’s got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, can blow a truck over. He’s this incredibly powerful, could be considered a scary individual, and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity. So he dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him, that shows that positivity. That really clicked in for me. And I think trying to pretend that Superman’s costume doesn’t have some frivolity to it at its base, trying to make it look serious is silly because he is a superhero. He’s the first one, brightly colored and that’s who he is. And so that’s where we landed and eventually we all came to a place where almost all of us agreed on the trunks.”
And that’s how Superman actor David Corenswet convinced James Gunn to go with trunks on the Man of Steel’s costume for the new movie. Are you on team trunks or no trunks? Do you think David Corenswet’s viewpoint of Superman wearing a less-threatening costume that hearkens back to circus strongmen and professional wrestlers of the past is because he’s so immensely powerful and wants to be a beacon of hope and justice? Let us know in the comments.
