4 days ago
Thank God James Gunn Changed His Mind About Giving Superman Red Trunks
By this point, it's safe to say that Superman has been an enormous success, both at the box office and among audiences and critics, for director James Gunn and the team at DC Studios. In the wake of the film's meteoric rise, we finally got a look at some concept art of what it would've looked like if David Corenswet's caped hero didn't have his iconic red trunks.
Yesterday, graphic and surface designer Maybelle Pineda shared a post that gives DC fans a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Superman's suit. Her post included an early concept design of Superman's suit, which notably lacks his iconic red trunks. If you've ever played with a knock-off Superman toy that had off-model colors, you'll understand the strange feeling of viewing this early concept. For whatever reason, Supes not having red underwear worn over his all-blue suit and slacks makes him look naked.
View this post on InstagramFamously, the production crew behind Superman had a back-and-forth over whether or not the Man of Steel would don his underwear on the outside or not. Back in the day, Zack Snyder plunged us into such a bizarro world with Henry Cavill's Superman not wearing red trunks, which nearly broke the internet when it was first revealed. While Gunn, in all his infinite wisdom guiding DC Studios into a new era, was initially in camp 'no trunks,' we have Corenswet's gift of persuasion to thank for championing Superman in red trunks.
'We were trying on all these different versions, and we screened tested with trunks and no trunks,' Gunn explained to io9 on the set of the film last year. 'And one of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He's an alien. He's got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes… He's this incredibly powerful, could be considered 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 hope that shows that positivity. And 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.'
Thankfully, Corenswet, knowing ball about the aesthetic and thematic benefits of Superman's red trunks, swayed Gunn out of making the bold decision to give us another fashion faux pas Superman.
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