It’s looking like the days of Superman saving Lois Lane are long behind us.
According to a recent interview, the film set to launch the rebooted DC movie universe — 2025’s “Superman: Legacy” — will feature the exact opposite.
Instead, Lois Lane will be saving Superman.
Speaking with Variety, actress Phoebe Dynevor shared her thoughts on auditioning to play the iconic Superman love interest.
Though Rachel Brosnahan, best known for playing the titular character in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” eventually beat out Dynevor for the role, the latter still managed to make it to the final round of auditions.
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During the process, she appears to have been given a sneak peek at Lane’s role in the upcoming DC flick.
“She saves Superman. She’s the brains; she’s actually the fearless one,” Dynevor said of the character.
Though it’s unclear exactly how Gunn’s Lois Lane character will pan out, fans seem none too pleased with Dynevor’s description.
I’m just so tired of the strongest heroes in a universe needing their girlfriends to save them from the villain. Can we come up with anything new for the women to do in these movies.
— Moosey (@0nlyMeez) January 3, 2024
Do you think the new Superman film will flop?
“I’m just so tired of the strongest heroes in a universe needing their girlfriends to save them from the villain. Can we come up with anything new for the women to do in these movies,” one X user wrote.
“She’s the brains; she’s actually the fearless one”” here we go again with the feminist bs
— batman (@kamallamal8) January 4, 2024
“[H]ere we go again with the feminist bs,” another wrote.
Damn.. Oh well Superman goes public domain in less than a decade 2033.
“It was a whirlwind and then I realized that it was over, but it was great. She saves Superman. She’s the brains; she’s actually the fearless one”https://t.co/WPmSglWdTq
— Ashaman (@_Ashaman) January 5, 2024
“Damn.. Oh well Superman goes public domain in less than a decade 2033,” another posted in response to the quote.
Is “Superman: Legacy” DC’s Last Chance?
Anticipation has been building for the upcoming DC blockbuster since it was first announced back in January 2023, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is set to launch the new James Gunn/Peter Safran-led DC Studios, which aims to create a series of movies, television shows and video games set in the same shared universe.
In addition to leading the creative side DC Studios, Gunn is set to write and direct the Man of Steel reboot.
Gunn previously directed the highly successful “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy for Disney-Marvel.
Much is riding on the film for DC and its parent company, Warner Bros.
“Superman: Legacy” will be released off the back of several massive DC flops.
In fact, every single 2023 DC release lost money at the box office, including “The Flash,” “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” “Blue Beetle” and December’s “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom.”
According to IMDb estimates, the four films had a combined production budget of roughly $634 million.
Given the general Hollywood rule of thumb that a movie must gross 2.5 times its budget to break even (given marketing and other costs not included), the four films would have needed to bring in over $1.58 billion to break even.
Instead, according to IMDb’s latest numbers, their combined box office total was a mere $872,671,294, putting DC’s 2023 productions nearly $700 million in the red.
That total won’t grow much as “Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom” finishes out its theatrical run.
If “Superman: Legacy” fails to turn around the franchise’s momentum, it’s unclear how many more flops Warner Bros. will be willing to suffer before scaling back its production of superhero franchise movies.
