James Gunn Reveals Shocking and Disturbing ‘Superman’ Scenes That Never Made it To the Final Cut

The new Superman movie only hit theaters last week, but it’s already a huge hit. Fans around the world are loving it, and critics are saying good things too. But what most people don’t know is that getting the movie finished was not easy at all.

Before Superman made it to the cinemas, a lot of scenes were changed, re-edited, or completely removed after test audiences reacted badly or got confused. Director James Gunn spent months fine-tuning the film.

Even before the movie was released, there were signs that parts of it had been changed. One example was from one of the early trailers. Fans saw a quick scene of Superman flying over the North Pole, but according to reports, Gunn wasn’t happy with the way the CGI looked in that moment.

He decided to change the scene before the movie was finished. Another deleted moment involved The Engineer, one of the movie’s villains. In an early version, she was shown kicking Krypto, Superman’s dog. That scene, according to industry insiders, was also removed, probably because it made audiences uncomfortable.

Now, James Gunn himself has opened up about even more changes that most fans never knew about. Gunn appeared on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, hosted by Joshua Horowitz, and he shared some interesting behind-the-scenes stories about scenes that didn’t make it into the final film.

One of the strangest debates, according to Gunn, was about a small moment where Superman saves a squirrel. Gunn said this simple scene caused a lot of disagreement among the people working on the movie. In the scene, Superman saves a little squirrel from being crushed. Gunn thought it was a sweet moment, but test audiences didn’t agree.

“So we had three or four things that were heatedly debated throughout this movie. Saving the squirrel. Heatedly debated,” Gunn said. He explained that people in the audience just didn’t like the idea. “Too much. Some audience members didn’t…‘Why is he saving a squirrel?!’ Cuz it’s a cute little adorable squirrel that was about to be crushed by a tail. It wasn’t a small number of people. There are a lot of squirrel haters out there, and this is in Los Angeles. Like Michael Rooker, he eats squirrels. He hunts and eats squirrels. That’s for real, that’s not a joke.” Gunn joked during the interview.

But the debate about the squirrel wasn’t the biggest problem. Gunn said there was one scene that caused even more discussion, and it had to do with what Guy Gardner, one of the Green Lanterns, calls Superman in the movie. In the version shown in cinemas, Gardner calls Superman a “wuss.” But that wasn’t the original plan.

In the first cut of the movie, Gardner used a much harsher insult. Gunn explained that Guy Gardner actually called Superman a word that many people would consider inappropriate.

“Another debate was, and this was probably the biggest, there were two biggest ones. The other debate was…Guy Gardner didn’t call him [Superman] a wuss in the first cut. He called him something else,” Gunn said. He went on to say that Gardner called Superman a “p*****” in the original version.

Gunn then described how the full scene played out before it was changed. “It got an enormous laugh, an enormous laugh because he said ‘don’t be such a p****’ and then Clark goes, and this was what was cut, Clark goes: ‘hey there are kids here’ and then Guy goes ‘I said don’t be.’ and then he walks away. And so that was the big debate, whether we were gonna keep that word.”

Even though people laughed when they saw it, the filmmakers finally decided that the insult was too strong for a Superman film, especially one meant for families. So, they changed it to “wuss.”

Gunn also talked about another scene that caused arguments, but this one was a much smaller detail. It happened at the end of the movie when Eve hugs Jimmy Olsen. According to Gunn, there were actually three different versions of this moment. In the version seen in theaters, Jimmy smiles after the hug. But in one version, Jimmy just stared blankly into nothing after Eve hugged him. In another, he gave a tired, resigned smile.

“So at the end, Eve hugs Jimmy, and in one version, he just smiles. In another version he just stares out into the dark void that goes on forever. And then in the third version he just kind of accepts his fate and gives into it and smiles because she did save the day. She is the unsung hero of the movie. Selfies save the day,” Gunn explained.

He also admitted that he preferred the darker version. “So there was three different versions, and I have to admit I was pro void,” Gunn laughed. He said that producer Peter Safran wanted the happier version where Jimmy smiles, and although they debated it, this discussion wasn’t as intense as the one about the bad word.

One of the most shocking things Gunn revealed during the podcast was a deleted scene involving Lex Luthor. In the movie, Lex, played by Nicholas Hoult, shoots a man in the head. But Gunn said that originally, the scene was supposed to be much darker.

After shooting the man, blood starts pooling across the floor. Lex notices that the blood is about to reach his expensive shoes, and rather than being disturbed by killing a man, he’s annoyed about ruining his shoes.

That wasn’t all. In the original scene, Lex actually tells Vasil Ghurkos to fix the problem. Gunn described the deleted scene: “So, Lex shoots a guy in the head. That was always done in this extreme way so it wasn’t too graphic. But the guy fell on the ground and the blood is pouring out onto the platform. And Lex looks down and he sees that the blood is about to get on his shoes and he’s like ‘oh my god my shoes.’”

Then Lex orders Ghurkos to soak up the blood using his own body. “So Ghurkos goes, ‘no!? What!?’ And Nick looks at me, and his delivery is great because he just looks at him, and his delivery is great, and he’s like ‘No?’ And then Ghurkos just sheepishly trudges forward and lies down on his back and then just starts soaking up the blood,” Gunn said.

That scene was shot, but Gunn said they never even showed it to test audiences. They decided early on that it was too disturbing and cut it out completely.

Hearing all of these behind-the-scenes stories makes it clear just how much work went into shaping the final version of Superman. Some scenes were funny, some were dark, and some were just strange, but Gunn and his team worked hard to find the right balance.

Whether saving a squirrel or using a bad word, every little moment was carefully debated before the Superman movie fans saw was finally ready to hit the big screen.

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