Superman Fans Think James Gunn Teased A Key DC Comics Location With New BTS Photo
"Superman: Legacy" writer-director James Gunn has dropped a (frozen) solid lead on one of the locations he's looking at for the film that will kick off his reboot of the DC Universe.
Gunn posted the photo of an unnamed location on his Instagram page with a comment that simply said, "Brrr." The behind-the-scenes photo and comment effectively imply that a famed setting in Superman lore — the Fortress of Solitude — will be featured in "Superman: Legacy," which is due for a July 11, 2025, release.
In June of 2023, DC Studios found its Clark Kent and Lois Lane in David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan for the superhero adventure, and the cast has since expanded to include the likes of Nicholas Hoult as the villainous Lex Luthor, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern Guy Gardner.
Clark Kent, of course, is the human name of Kal-El, aka Superman, who was sent to Earth as an infant as his birth parents, Jor-El and Lara, remained on Krypton as the planet met its inevitable destruction. After being raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville, KS, Clark, as a young adult, eventually seeks out the Fortress, which is located in the frozen tundra of the unnamed northern environs of the planet. It's there where Clark communes with the computerized incarnation of his birth father to learn his Kryptonian history while making his life-altering transformation into Superman.
Will the Fortress of Solitude serve as the home base of the Superman Family?
The Fortress of Solitude is traditionally a key setting in both comics and the live-action Superman films. Christopher Reeve's Superman meets the digitized "ghost" of Jor-El (Marlon Brando) in the 1978 film, while Brandon Routh's version of the character communed with Brando's Kryptonian patriarch in 2006's "Superman Returns." In 2013's "Man of Steel," Henry Cavill's Clark Kent-Superman traversed the northern landscape before meeting the DCEU's Jor-El (Russell Crowe), who appears to his son in human form.
While the fortress serves as a place of change for Clark-Superman in the Man of Steel's feature film appearances, it serves an even greater purpose in DC Comics lore. The Fortress is not only a base of operations for the Superman Family of superheroes, but it also stores an arsenal of Kryptonian weaponry. In addition, various versions of the Fortress include rooms set aside for the likes of Batman and Lois Lane, a zoo inhabited by endangered species from across the galaxy, and more.
Of course, fans won't truly know whether the rich history of the Fortress will play any part in James Gunn's "Superman: Legacy" until the film is released. But since Gunn's DC co-CEO Peter Safran said at the January 2023 event that revealed their DC slate that "Legacy" will not be a film that examines Superman's origin, it's possible fans will see more of the Fortress than in previous live-action stories. The Superman Family is set expand with Gunn and Safran's upcoming "Supergirl: World of Tomorrow," and if Gunn gets his wish to bring Krypto the Superdog to life in live-action, the growing superfamily is going to need a place they can call home.