Yes, the New Superman Is a Pro-Immigration and Anti-Trump Blockbuster
Superman inserted himself into a conflict in the fictional country of Boravia, a US ally, stopping its military from invading a poorer neighbor called Jarhanpur. 'People on social media are suspicious because you are an alien,' Lois says to Superman, who becomes visibly frustrated, explaining how his parents sent him to Earth to save his life.
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Kieron Moore Relishes Taking on Complex Characters, From ‘Code of Silence' to Queer Camboy
If you don't know rising British actor Kieron Moore yet from his roles in Vampire Academy, Masters of the Air, The Corps and ITV hit crime series Code of Silence, opposite Rose Ayling-Ellis, you can now catch him in the latter on BritBox in the U.S. and Canada, where it premiered on July 24. In the show, Moore portrays Liam, a complex and, shall we say, ambiguous character, who meets protagonist Alison (Ayling-Ellis), a determined deaf woman working in a police canteen who gets recruited to use her lip-reading skills in a covert operation. As the story of Code of Silence unfolds, Moore hints at and slowly reveals all sorts of layers to Liam. More from The Hollywood Reporter The Exiles of Tehrangeles Stellan Skarsgard to Receive Honorary Heart of Sarajevo at Sarajevo Film Fest Nigeria's C.J. "Fiery" Obasi Created This Spot, and Two More, for Locarno Pro's Open Doors (Exclusive) The 28-year-old from Manchester didn't have a chemistry test with Ayling-Ellis, but playing multi-layered characters seems natural to him. After all, he is not only enjoying the challenges of acting, but also used to be a boxer and writes poetry, among other interests. Next up, fans can see him as queer fetish camboy Aaron in Elliot Tuttle's drama Blue Film, in which he stars opposite Reed Birney, which has been selected for the competition program of this year's 78th edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which unspools next month. Below, Moore chats with The Hollywood Reporter via Zoom about his varied interests and how they help him when it comes to acting, Code of Silence, which has been renewed for season two, Blue Film, his experience on Sex Education and why he enjoys continuously challenging himself. Your character, Liam, is difficult to get a handle on early. Can you talk a bit about how you developed this role, which is your first leading part on TV? There are levels to him. The first thing is you must trust in yourself. You have to have an opinion. As limited as I am in my acting experience, I have to know that character more than all of you. Lead director Diarmuid Goggins (Kin, Black Cab) and I got along like a house on fire. We had great chemistry, just because I trusted him. He was looking out for my character, but he also appreciated when I was saying to him: 'You have a million pots on the stove right now, while I only have one, and that is Liam. I spend more time with him, so you have to trust me.' Something a friend said to me one time has also always stuck with me: You can't be everything in every character; you'll get opportunities to show different things. So who is Liam? Liam is intelligent but has a difficult past, and when you've got his level of intelligence, you kind of outthink yourself sometimes. That was constantly on my mind with him. It's like a mask. He puts up all these walls with the gang he works with. But then with Rose's character, Alison, he just lets them crumble a little bit somehow. So you can relate to Liam or recognize some of his characteristics? I think with Liam, it was quite easy to get into this mode of lying to everyone. In my personal life, it's always a bit of a struggle coming back home to Manchester, because I love my family, but there's a certain routine. It's not so much that they stay the same, but that I've changed. So, there's that thing of being what people expect you to be and want you to be. And I have a dad who is the most unreadable person in the world, but you feel him, and I felt him as a kid. My mother is the opposite — she wears everything on her face. With Liam, more than anyone that I've played so far, I was naturally bringing in this self-awareness. And he puts on this kind of mask. But once you get to episodes five and six, hopefully you get to understand that he's burdened, and you may find yourself being upset with him about some things but also rooting or hoping for him. How do you think about viewers' role in making sense of Liam? I guess with every character you play, when you truly feel that you know who they are, you realize that everyone struggles to understand who they are, and that gives all of us an opportunity to learn something about ourselves. I write poetry. That has always been my thing. I love poetry. I would usually write a poem and keep it to myself. But family members or others have stumbled upon my poems or I've shared poetry with my friends, and they often go: 'Oh, you must have meant this!' And I actually didn't, but I'm so glad that you found something else in it. You have developed a reputation for playing complex characters. And you have different sides to you as a person too. You just mentioned poetry, and I heard you also used to be a boxer? How nice to be a contradiction! [Laughs] Boxing is my first love. My dad's Kieron Moore. I'm Kieron Moore Jr. My dad always wanted to be a boxer, but his mum and dad said no. One day, my mum let me take out a videotape to watch on VHS. We had them under the TV. She was thinking I'd pick Tarzan or something, but I saw my name on one tape and said I want to watch that. Mum's like: No, no, no, no. But she puts it on. And it's my dad in his first boxing fight. He only had three. So, I'm five years old and want to be a boxer. I was in a gym at five years old, and I trained three, four times a week up until I was 10. And I got good. It was illegal to box in England until you were 11 at the time. My dad's side of the family is Irish. My mum's side is Welsh. And in Wales, you can box at 10. So we used my grandmother's address in Wales, and I started competing when I was 10 years old. I had six fights, and then I turned 11. But I boxed up until I was 21 because everyone told me I was going to be a boxer. My Dad was my coach. I guess I was good at it. But when you're good at something and it comes naturally, you get complacent. I was also extremely nervous. I never believed anyone when they told me I was good at boxing. I thought maybe they just told me I was good. I had 60, 70 fights, and I traveled too. But when I was 21, I just knew I had to make a choice. I knew I didn't love it enough. And it's a dangerous sport if you don't love it. I just didn't want to be a journeyman. And at 21, when you decide to quit something, what do you do? I thought, let me go into acting. People may think boxing and poetry are a contradiction. I started writing poems very early. I wrote a poem for my grandma's funeral when I was 10, which I couldn't even attend because I was at a boxing camp. But the pastor read it for everyone. And my mum and dad came back and said: 'Everyone loved your poem. People were crying.' I just remember thinking: 'Wow, words affect people.' I think words are so powerful. I love what poetry can do. Could we see you publishing any of your poetry or writing a script? I'm actually writing a script about a bad injury I had at the start of my boxing career. I'll talk about this more when it's time. And yes, I'm typing my poems up. The title that I'm working on for my poetry book is called The Burden of Caring. The positives and negatives of caring are quite burdenous, but in the most beautiful way. If you watch someone in your favorite roles, and if you care about them, they burden you while you watch. If you're anxious and scream, 'Oh my God, please don't get hurt!' Or you watch Rose in Code of Silence and go: 'Oh my God, stop doing that, because I care about you!' Did you ever face frustrations in your move into acting? When I was learning acting, I did a scene with my friend, and I was really frustrated, and when everyone left, I sat down and festered in class for 10 minutes. My coach asked me what was wrong. I said I keep waiting for someone to do something special so that I can respond and be special. And he said: 'Why don't you just do that for them?' And it turns out that it's so much more interesting when you realize it is all about giving. That's where chemistry comes in. With Rose, I would throw her a softball, and she would knock it out of the park. And that comes with trust and being open. And I kind of hope that I do the same for everyone else. I'm desperate for opportunities for them to let me find something else in their characters and in my character that we don't know yet. The most refreshing part about the Liam experience has been hearing people notice the subtleties that I am trying to bring to the role. I can be expressive, but I think real people live with and in their little quirks. What can you tell me about , which will world premiere at Edinburgh? It's from a first-time film director, Elliot Tuttle, and produced by the likes of Adam Kersh, who represents Sean Baker, and also Mark Duplass. All that is really cool. It's a very provocative movie and a very daring role for me, but I wanted to show I'm fearless. Basically, I play a gay American camboy who spends the night with a stranger for $50,000, and when he gets there, the stranger is wearing a ski mask and has a camcorder set up and starts asking him questions. But the questions get deeply personal, and then there's an altercation and a reveal. I don't want to give away too much. It's a conversation between these two people exploring shame and sexuality and identity and a little bit of religion and the question if we're born the way we are. It's a two-hander with Reed Birney, who's done quite a lot of Broadway stuff. It's my first movie, which was really exciting. This sounds like a role that is a real challenge and pushes one outside one's comfort zone. How did you get cast? The Hollywood strike happened, and I was filming the Netflix show [Boots], which was stopped, and I stayed in New Orleans. And when the strike finished, Netflix decided to do some rewrites, which delayed things. I thought: 'Wow, I'm very unemployed right now.' And then Saltburn had just come out, and I thought: 'What a role for an actor!' I briefly met Barry Keoghan once and have been enamored by him, because he is a very interesting actor, and a lot of my friends know that I like his work. That role would have been so good for you, they said. And he does it so well. So, I said if anything dangerous comes up, I want that chance. Five days later, my manager texted me and said, 'Check your emails!' He said that most people would say no to this role, but I might like it. And then I got the script. When I read it the first time, I was like whoa! And I read it again. And I felt I have to do this. When I did an audition, they said: 'We really like what you did, but we're going to go somewhere else.' And Reed, who's now one of my very good friends, was like: 'I'm not doing the movie unless it's with Kieron.' He got me the job really. I think contradictions are really exciting. And this is a movie where power is massively involved. I'm much bigger than Reed, and I'm physically capable, which just added a really interesting dynamic. Hopefully, people will appreciate the art. It's definitely a dangerous and brave film. At the end of the day, all I want to do is look back and be like: 'Wow, the roles I have played were all so different.' How do you think about your future as an actor? There's a letter that I wrote to myself when I was doing Vampire Academy that I just completely forgot about. And it was just so interesting to have it now, and I've been speaking about it with my friends. When you've worked hard at something, you kind of naturally, subconsciously become very defensive of it. In this letter that I wrote to myself, I said: 'It's really sad that I've gotten to where I thought I wanted to be, and I realized that I have to leave behind the Kieron that got me here.' You think you have made all these changes, so you are ready. But you get as far as you do, and you have to change again. That's the thing: you constantly have to be changing. And that's something that I'm starting to get more comfortable with now. I know that I don't have all the answers. Everything has led me to this, but then that next door will hopefully open, people will want to work with me, and I'll have to find that version of me for that. That's terrifying, but also so exciting. There's a line in one of the Night at the Museum films. Ben Stiller goes: 'I don't know what I'm gonna do tomorrow.' And then Robin Williams goes: 'How exciting…' Since you are quoting films, I just noticed that you are wearing a T-shirt. Are you a big fan? I just love that scene where Robert De Niro is at the bar, and then 'Sunshine of Your Love' by Cream kicks in. It's one of my favorite songs. I love that part in the script. It demonstrates that you don't have to say anything to do something [as an actor]. It's not necessarily about stealing moments, but being alive in moments when the script isn't centered around your character. I've worked to hone my craft so that I'm not lazy because no one's ever just doing nothing. So, I think about that moment in Goodfellas all the time, when De Niro smokes that cigarette and his eyebrow flickers and he's just telling us, 'I'm gonna kill you.' You had a small part in as Dylan, too. How was that? That was actually one of my first experiences ever. I did two days on that show, and Connor Swindells was so nice to me. Yeah, it was a great experience. It was beautiful and really insightful. I saw that you have more Netflix stuff coming up? Yes, I have done a show for Netflix that comes out in the fall. It's called Boots. It's based on a book called The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White about a guy who joins the Marines when you still couldn't be gay in the military. I'm not playing a very nice character. His name is Slovacek. He is an ex-con who joins the Marines and is an antagonist who goes on a journey though. I like that because I think everyone has a vulnerability. Again, he's very different from Liam and Aaron. Those three characters would hate each other. So I'm excited that I have a couple of things coming out this year, which I hope will show that I can do different things. Any tips for actors who are even younger than you on developing characters? The most interesting parts of every character I've played, the most interesting parts of their lives, are off camera. Liam has these great moments in Code of Silence, don't get me wrong! He has some fantastic moments. But I do genuinely think the most interesting parts of Liam's day are when he goes home. And as an actor, I think about what he does and feels in those moments we don't see on camera. Who is he then? Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise Solve the daily Crossword
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Tom Basden Wants the Heartwarming Success of ‘The Ballad of Wallis Island' to Give British Indie Filmmakers Hope
Even Tom Basden is surprised by how affecting his new film is. The Brit, who stars in and wrote The Ballad of Wallis Island with comedian Tim Key, is talking to The Hollywood Reporter about finally getting his film out in theaters in his native Britain and, oddly enough, being a little taken aback by its reception. More from The Hollywood Reporter New Just For Laughs Fest Owner Tells Ticket Buyers: Laugh or Get a Refund 'Top Boy' and 'Eddington' Star Micheal Ward Charged With 2 Counts of Rape by London Police Kieron Moore Relishes Taking on Complex Characters, From 'Code of Silence' to Queer Camboy 'We hit a few ideas early on,' he explains, referencing the short film he, Key and director James Griffiths first made about the characters all the way back in 2006. 'Herb's a little bit washed up, pining for his mid-20s, Charles has been obsessed with this band for a very long time and used to watch the gigs with his wife, who's now died. Quite organically, a sadness began to come out on the page, a kind of longing,' Basden recalls. 'It took us by surprise. And even at the point where we were watching a finished film with an audience, I don't think we realized how emotional those threads were. It's very hard to plan for the moments that the audience is going to become emotionally invested.' Basden and Key's comedy-drama debuted earlier this year at Sundance, later earning a limited theatrical release in the U.S. in March before it hit theaters in the U.K. in May through Focus Features. It follows musician Herb McGwyer (Basden), formerly half of folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, who has been contracted to play a private gig on the remote Wallis Island by widowed superfan Charles Heath (Key). But things start to go awry when Herb discovers Charles has also invited ex-bandmate (and actual ex) Nell Mortimer, played by Carey Mulligan, to join. Akemnji Ndifornyen stars as Michael, Nell's American husband, and Sian Clifford as Amanda, the island's sole shopkeeper. What transpires is a film bursting at the seams with heart, adored by laymen and critics alike. 'We drew up a list for who could play the part of Nell and Carey was at the top of that list, but we didn't know her,' says Basden about getting Oscar nominee Mulligan on board. 'Tim had been emailed by her about five years earlier, so he had her email by stealth and basically cold-called her.' According to Basden, Mulligan connected with the material immediately. 'She just really responded to the script — I think she wanted to do a comedy,' he says. 'She'd done quite a lot of, let's say serious, quite dark films in the last few years. She wanted to do something that was more comic and more touching. She really believed in it as it was, and had exactly the same aims for the type of film that we wanted it to be.' After the release of their 2007 short, Basden and Key left Wallis Island well alone until 2018. It was then — and with the help of an industry-shattering pandemic — that the pair returned to their feature-length dreams in earnest. The low-budget movie got everything it needed in just 18 shooting days on location, but even at a cheaper rate, it took some time to find the financing. 'We really believed in the script and we deliberately made it very small,' says Basden. 'We're all in our 40s, or in James's case, 50s. We've made a lot of TV, we understand budgets. We made it a very small film with a very small cast, all shooting in basically two locations and even so, we struggled to get any interest,' he admits. 'We were turned down by all the funding bodies in the U.K.: Film4, the BFI…' 'And Tim is such an idealist that he always believed we'd make it,' continues Basden. 'I'm a bit more defeatist. (Laughs.) Then we sent it to Carey and not only do you suddenly have something quite real to hold onto — a genuine, Oscar-nominated film star attached to your film — but it gives renewed momentum and confidence for us that people, someone like Carey, really likes the script. But it just feels quite arbitrary, the funding system in the U.K… It's a fundamentally British film and it's done best in the U.K., but it took American money to actually get the thing made.' Basden hopes that The Ballad of Wallis Island — a well-received, popular movie written and starring British talent, about British people and shot in Britain — will provide hope to fellow filmmakers. 'I believe that it's possible in cinema to make things that are original and also really popular,' he says. 'There shouldn't be this divide between reboots, sequels, recycled IP and live-action and then the slightly soporific art-house movies. We must be able to make stuff that's original and funny and moving but also can be popular and attract a mainstream audience. I haven't given up on that.' One of the more amusing aspects of releasing the film both in the U.S. and in the U.K. has been seeing different reactions from Americans and British audiences to the adventures of Herb, Charles and Nell. He says that being in the States when The Ballad of Wallis Island debuted reminded him that his project was 'very much an international movie.' 'They'd never seen anything like Tim's character,' he remembers. '[They were like], 'He just makes no sense to me.' And then you show it in the U.K., and we all know people like that. One in four people in the U.K. are like that,' he says of Charles' bumbling awkwardness and quirky personality. 'It's a very different thing [in the U.K.], where people just tap into the very British subtext of it. But American audiences have been really into it. I think they feel like they've discovered something really fresh.' The heartwarming success of The Ballad of Wallis Island has only left fans with one question: what do Basden and Key have planned next? He jokes: 'Carey talks passionately about the sequel and I think, because we made the short and 18 years later released the feature, I think 18 years later we should come back and make the sequel to the feature. Maybe Charles and Amanda will get married, and McGwyer Mortimer are playing at the wedding.' He tells THR that him and Key have a few ideas they're working on — one or two of which they are 'very excited by.' For now, the duo are trying to soak up the fervid fan reaction to this pretty neat indie they've put out into the world. 'There'll come a point where we think about another one, maybe with a slightly bigger budget [and] made with love… But it feels very special to us that we've got here.' 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James Gunn's Superman launches a universe, not a character
The following contains spoilers for Superman. Back in 2013, Zack Snyder ended his divisive Man Of Steel with a scene that teased a brighter future: Henry Cavill's newly debuted Superman slips on some thick-framed glasses, walks into his first day at The Daily Planet, and shakes hands with a Lois Lane who already knows his secret identity. It's a concept the rest of the increasingly convoluted DCEU never really took advantage of (Clark wound up battling Batman and becoming a zombie instead). But it's notable that James Gunn's new Superman reboot starts by picking up that abandoned thread. If you ignore the change in actors, tone, and costuming—and the addition of one ill-trained superdog—Gunn's Superman could almost be a direct follow-up to that Man Of Steel epilogue. As the movie opens, David Corenswet's Clark Kent has been operating as Superman for three years. He's got some prestige at The Daily Planet thanks to his exclusive 'interviews' with his own alter ego. And he's three months into a relationship with a Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) who knows he's a superhero. Finally, a modern Superman movie that explores what it's like to try to live a normal life when you also happen to be the strongest man on Earth! Except, while Gunn's sunny, optimistic take is a breath of fresh air compared to the grim and gritty Snyderverse that preceded it, it doesn't really take advantage of its own setup any more than that Man Of Steel epilogue did. We only see Clark in his bumbling, glasses-wearing reporter persona for about three minutes before that thread is dropped entirely. And for a movie about a guy whose main superpower is being invulnerable, Corenswet's Superman spends a weirdly large amount of the runtime writhing on the floor in pain while others handle the heroism. Though Superman may bear one hero's name, it's clear Gunn is as enthralled with launching a shiny new hero-filled DC Universe as he is telling a Superman story in particular—which, ironically, is the same problem the last DCEU ran into. (Gunn took over as the co-chairman of DC Studios in 2022, and this is the first movie in his relaunched cinematic universe.) The film's opening text informs the audience that we're in a world where 'metahumans' have existed on Earth for 300 years, which makes Superman just one of many powered-people on the hero scene. That's good news for those who have longed to see Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Guy Gardner's Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) on the big screen; less so for those who just want a fresh, clean take on The Last Son Of Krypton. Gunn clearly wants his new DC Universe to feel like stepping into a comic book, which it very much does. Only, it's more like the middle issue of a massive crossover event than a true entry point. In fact, with so many metahumans running around, Superman sometimes feels more like an X-Men movie with an amped-up role for Cyclops. There are outlines of a unique hero's journey here: Superman debates geopolitics with Lois! He gets canceled online! He grapples with his heritage! He makes terrible strategic decisions! He literally fights a cloned version of himself! Yet none of those ideas are strung together in a particularly meaningful or insightful way because the movie keeps getting distracted by interdimensional portals and wacky side players instead of the emotional arc of its leading man. The impulse to pile on comedic characters and sketch them out just enough served Gunn well in ensemble romps like The Suicide Squad and his Guardians Of The Galaxy trilogy, but it winds up hurting him here. To squeeze in as many DC characters as possible, Nicholas Hoult's power-hungry Lex Luthor gets two superpowered henchmen, two vapid girlfriends (both end up incarcerated), an army of robots, a team of both human and monkey hackers, a sky-high command center, a secret pocket dimension prison, a kaiju deployment team, and an Eastern European political ally. But what he doesn't have is a scene that establishes or explores his motivation beyond a simple, spoken aloud obsession with taking down Superman because he's jealous of him. (Hoult tries his best to add some emotional layers, but in a world filled with metahumans, Lex's personal grudge doesn't land as strongly.) Though you'd think skipping the classic Superman origin story would leave the film and its hero with more room to breathe, Gunn fills the extra screentime with more DC world-building instead—like the aforementioned 'Justice Gang' trio and their under-explained assortment of powers. (Hopefully you already know what a Green Lantern ring does.) In fact, there's really only one scene in the whole movie that takes the time to just let its leads meaningfully interact with each other, and that's when Clark agrees to let Lois interview him 'on the record' as Superman. There are some promising ideas at play in the charged exchange that follows. Clark is an earnest do-gooder—he stepped in to stop a brutal invasion in a foreign country—but also woefully naïve when it comes to how that action might be perceived politically. (No wonder he has to keep interviewing himself to keep his journalism job.) The more jaded, cynical Lois is worried that her boyfriend's almost childlike sense of optimism might make them fundamentally incompatible as a couple. But once the movie introduces that dilemma, it doesn't circle back around to resolve it. Though the scene would seem to set up Lois and Clark's relationship as the heart of the film, in the end she's got less to do than Superman's dog Krypto. Instead of dealing with questions of interventionism, Clark gets pulled into a sideplot involving a shapeshifting dad named Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan) and his kidnapped CGI baby. Instead of grappling with the dynamics of her new relationship, Lois winds up briefly teaming up with the Justice Gang before being sidelined with a Daily Planet supporting crew that includes Perry White (Wendell Pierce), Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett), and Cat Grant (Mikaela Hoover). They're characters who each get about a line of dialogue before Lois has to inexplicably fly them all around in a shuttle. And for some reason, Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) is the one who does all the actual reporting for her big story. Comedically, the film does gain something by dropping us right into the comic book deep end. It's funny to watch Clark exasperatedly worry about his dog while the Justice Gang fights a giant monster outside his window. And there's a cocky confidence to having a drunken Supergirl (Milly Alcock) randomly drop in ahead of her own movie debuting next summer. But the goofy nonchalant world-building also robs this story of a bit of its humanity, which is ironic when humanity winds up being so central to the film's climax. Like Man Of Steel before it, Superman is ultimately a movie about Clark's heritage and how it shapes his heroism. Where Cavill's Supes saw himself as an alien living among men, this Superman's arc is about learning to see himself as a human who just happens to have an alien origin story. It's a clever pivot from the last DCEU set-up, although—like so many elements of this overstuffed story—the emotional details are a bit glossed over. Gunn delivers an impressively bold twist to comics canon with the reveal that Clark's Kryptonian parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) sent him to Earth with the intention of conquering and ruling it. That's when Clark realizes that his real parents are the humans who raised him to be a good person, not the biological parents he only knows via hologram. Yet despite their ultimate importance, Gunn introduces Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince) as sitcom-y Southern hicks who pop in for a quick phone call and then disappear for the first two acts of the movie. (They must have gotten their accents from the Alabama side of Kansas.) Pa Kent eventually gets to deliver a big inspirational speech to send Clark into the movie's climax, but why not make his dynamic with his son more central before that? Why not explore the origins of Superman's wholesome optimism rather than just relying on Corenswet's charm to sell it? Why spend more time mocking bumbling blonde Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio) than getting to know Clark outside of his supersuit? A finale in which a superhero literally has to fight another version of himself is the sort of thing that should have some thematic resonance (and it did, back in Superman III). Here it feels like just one more wacky comic book plot twist. In some ways, Gunn's sunnier Superman is a change of pace from what the DCEU offered before, but in others it's just more of the same. (Not to mention a lesser version of The CW's similarly optimistic take on the character played by Tyler Hoechlin in Supergirl and Superman & Lois.) Gunn's goal may not be to literally introduce supporting characters in order to give them solo properties later, like the infamous Batman V Superman. But the result of prioritizing universe-building over character-focused storytelling is the same. Superman successfully launches a new tone and ethos for DC. It just doesn't launch Superman. 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