Filmmaker James Gunn on Friday shared his emotional on-set debate with David Corenswet over the big speech in ‘Superman.’
The film, kicking off Gunn’s DC Universe, arrived in theatres on July 11 and turned out to be a smash hit.
A month after its release, the filmmaker shared a rare look at his on-set debate with the Hollywood actor over the emotional speech in the film.
James Gunn took to X to share an extended footage from the making-of documentary of ‘Superman.’
The clip shows the two engaged in intense debate over a scene involving Superman’s climactic speech to Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult).
The speech begins after Lex screams at the Man of Steel, “You piece of s–t alien!”
“That’s where you’ve always been wrong about me, Lex,” Superman responds, before beginning his speech about him having human qualities and flaws.
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In the clip, James Gunn revealed that he kept pushing David Corenswet to do another take to make his performance more intense and emotional.
“All of a sudden, David stops, and I’m like, oh no, David’s doing his thing,” the DC Studios chief said.
What follows is the two individuals giving their take on the scene and how to best portray it.
“I love talking about text and what each word means and what each punctuation mark means, and I can piss people off doing that. I need it to make sense. I need to know what I’m trying to do,” the Hollywood actor said in the documentary.
After a long debate on and off-set, David Corenswet and James Gunn finally agree on what they want from Superman in the scene.
This was one of my favorite moments on the set of #Superman and was freaked out (and so happy) to find out it had been filmed.
This and many other moments were captured in
“Adventures in Making Superman,” a 60-minute making-of feature showcasing intimate behind-the-scenes of… pic.twitter.com/5bkFCRDZkO— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) August 15, 2025
As the Hollywood actor delivers the speech again, Gunn and Peter Safran, co-chief with Gunn, are visibly overwhelmed with emotions.
“There’s no anger in any of this at all. There’s a reason why he’s asking all these questions. Because it makes it better,” the DC Studios chief said at the end of the clip.