{"id":116545,"date":"2025-09-05T14:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116545\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:54:07","slug":"tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-what-does-james-gunns-new-superman-title-mean-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/116545\/","title":{"rendered":"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow\u2026 what does James Gunn\u2019s new Superman title mean? | Superman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is tomorrow just another day, as the adage goes? Or is it suddenly a franchise-within-a-franchise, a special wing of the nascent DC Universe focused in hard on what all those nutty Kryptonian super-cousins have been up to? What we do know, thanks to studio boss James Gunn<\/a> in a series of social media splurts<\/a>, is that Tomorrow is most definitely the future. Gunn has revealed that his follow-up to Superman will be titled Superman: Man of Tomorrow, due out in 2027. Now you might think you\u2019ve heard the title before, and that would be because you have: next year sees the release of the already announced Supergirl, which up until June was titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are we to make of that title? In the comics, \u201cMan of Tomorrow\u201d has long been one of Superman\u2019s many sobriquets, a hopeful tagline suggesting he represents the future rather than the past. It\u2019s cropped up in everything from old radio serials to Alan Moore\u2019s bittersweet Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? graphic novel, and even lent its name to a 2020 animated movie. It\u2019s a phrase that carries the weight of the best part of a century of mythology. And yet given Gunn\u2019s online spats with Trumpian anti-immigration types \u2013 hello Dean Cain!<\/a> \u2013 over what the latter saw as Superman\u2019s overly friendly attitude towards immigrants, it\u2019s hard not to imagine the film-maker chuckling to himself at the new title\u2019s liberal undertones.<\/p>\n

What else can we glean from Gunn\u2019s announcement? Well, the title hints at hope and futurism; the concept art suggests a bald billionaire trying to punch his way to relevance. Somewhere between those two extremes probably lies Gunn\u2019s film, but in the absence of anything solid to chew on, we\u2019re in the realms of conjecture and wild-eyed fan theory.<\/p>\n

Some have suggested the \u201cTomorrow\u201d in the title might not even refer to Superman<\/a> at all, but to Conner Kent \u2013 the broody Superboy clone who arrived after Superman \u201cdied\u201d in the early-90s Death of Superman\/Reign of the Supermen comic book arc, and is therefore often framed as representing the next generation of Krypto-heroism. Conner was later revealed as half Superman, half Lex Luthor, and all attitude: stomping around in a leather jacket and shades like a Kryptonian extra from Beverly Hills, 90210. The idea was that he might one day grow into the mantle of Superman, but mostly he spent his early years sulking, flirting and trying to work out whether it was OK to call Lex \u201cDad\u201d. If Gunn does bring him in, then \u201cTomorrow\u201d suddenly looks less like an aspirational tagline and more like the galaxy\u2019s most unexpected custody battle.<\/p>\n

Others reckon the mech-suit, and a pic from Gunn\u2019s posts in which Superman seems to be about to hand Lex a screwdriver, hints at a reluctant team-up between the pair \u2013 perhaps after they are faced with a greater threat. But whether this is a necessary plot device to ensure Earth has enough firepower to take down Brainiac, Darkseid, or some other interstellar monstrosit, there\u2019s still something absurd about the idea of Luthor prowling about like Iron Man\u2019s embittered tech bro cousin.<\/p>\n

And then there are the optimists who think \u201cTomorrow\u201d means Superman will finally tackle issues such as climate collapse, LGBTQ+ rights and the plight of migrants everywhere. Maybe this really is the film where Superman stops trading punches with the supervillain of choice and turns his attention to saving us from ourselves. Or perhaps Hollywood has got enough existential crises to deal with thanks to James Cameron\u2019s 23 upcoming Avatar sequels and their increasingly waterlogged metaphors for late-stage capitalism and environmental burnout.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow has been Superman\u2019s tagline for 80 years. It\u2019s been painted on lunchboxes, scribbled across duvet covers, and used as an excuse to reboot the same origin story at least once every decade in print. The question is whether in Gunn\u2019s hands it will finally mean something.<\/p>\n