Giant eyeball in the sky! I can fly twice as high! Well, maybe not, but chances are good that David Corenswet’s Superman in the upcoming James Gunn-directed feature, Superman: Legacy, can.
Gunn went to Threads today and shared a first-look image of Corenswet as the Man of Steel, which you can take a gander of above. In it, we see Clark Kent’s alter ego casually pulling up his red, calf-high boots. Superman’s chill demeanor here is curious because behind him, a giant pink eyeball-looking thing appears to be wreaking havoc on Metropolis. Why is he so mellow? And why does his suit have a baggy, pajama-like look to it?
Those questions are intriguing, but perhaps the most burning question evoked by this image revolves around that giant orb floating above the city. What the hell is that thing?
One possible answer is that, even though it’s mostly giving off a pink hue, it’s the Emerald Eye of Ekron. In DC comics, the Eye used to be part of a gigantic mystical entity unsurprisingly called Ekron. The being lost one of their eyeballs at some point in time, however, and since then it’s been used as a weapon of vast power by villains up to no good.
This, of course, is just a guess—there’s only a wee bit of green in that image, and the Eye is part of the Green Lantern lore rather than Superman’s. One big reason why it might be the Eye, however, is that it is vulnerable to Kryptonite, the one substance that also hinders the Man of Steel. That fact tees up a situation where Clark could have to take on great personal risk and sacrifice to save humanity, which is something that Gunn likes to do to characters in his movies.
We likely won’t have the full answer until Superman: Legacy comes out, of course. Gunn isn’t sharing more details at this point—his only comment on the photo beyond the release date of the film was to credit Jess Miglio for taking the photo on set “entirely in-camera,” which means this is likely using the LED Volume technology that The Mandalorian made popular.
We’ll get to see more of Corenswet’s Man of Steel when Superman: Legacy flies its way into theaters on July 11, 2025.
