James Gunn explains how he landed Bradley Cooper for that Superman cameo.
Spoilers follow.
Bradley Cooper plays Jor-El in the movie, the Kryptonian father of the David Corenswet Man of Steel. Cooper, of course, also voiced Rocket Raccoon for Gunn in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
“Well, Bradley’s a friend of mine, and I needed somebody who could play Jor-El — and I don’t think this is a spoiler, everybody knows about this — who had the stature of what we imagine that character being, somebody who could walk in the footsteps of Marlon Brando,” said Gunn (via Deadline).
Gunn added, “A lot of times, Jor-El is played by a 70-year-old man and that means he was 70 when he had a baby, so I wanted somebody that wasn’t too old. Everyone was bringing up all these actors that were too old for me. I think Bradley was perfect, he did it for me as a favor because he’s my friend, and I really appreciated him doing it.”
Gunn has yet to comment on the big change to Jor-El in the movie, which has lit a fire online among fans.
In Gunn’s version, Jor-El basically sends Superman to Earth to take over and continue the Kryptonian bloodline. It’s similar to Omni-Man in Invincible, with fans joking online that Jor-El is now a Viltrumite.
Nerdrotic even goes so far as to say the change is worse than what Zack Snyder did with Pa Kent in Man of Steel and ruined the movie.
I disagree, at least for now, as it remains to be seen if the change and the message sticks. While they said in the movie the message is indeed legit, fans online are hoping it still got changed, maybe via Brainiac, or even Sean Gunn’s Maxwell Lord.
Also worth a mention is if Jor-El is evil, what does that mean for Supergirl?
The fact this is literally a major plot point in James Gunn’s Superman is insane pic.twitter.com/DVjuN2xSTJ
— Endymion (@EndymionYT) July 11, 2025
yeah something like that would be cool
— Cosmic Book News (@cosmicbooknews) July 11, 2025
What did you think of the Jor-El message? Did it take you out of the movie completely? Let us know in the comments below.
