James Gunn's Most Controversial Superman Movie Lore Change Explained

Contains spoilers for "Superman"

Even as "Superman" delivers on a hopeful new version of the last son of Krypton and builds out a new DC universe, the movie still hews pretty close to Superman's comic book story and aesthetics. But writer-director James Gunn made one massive canon change that's bound to be controversial for comic fans.

Early in the movie Superman (David Corenswet) watches a recording that his birth parents, Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), sent with him to Earth. In their message, Superman's parents express their love for him and tell him to watch over his new home. Thanks to damage during the journey from Krypton, the final seconds of the message are lost, but Superman is still inspired by what his parents said. That's a major part of his motivation for becoming a superhero in the first place.

For his own devious purposes, Lex Luthor recovers the other half of the recording, and it's considerably darker. It turns out that Superman's parents were actually urging him to rule the Earth and even take multiple wives to help reproduce the Kryptonian people. The public fallout from the message and Superman's ensuing crisis of faith become driving forces in the movie's plot. The ending of "Superman" doesn't undo this unprecedented lore change, so it seems like Superman's parents — at least in the new DCU — are actually evil.

In the DC Comics universe, Superman's real parents were a mystery for quite a long time. Readers got to know Ma and Pa Kent, the humans who raised Clark Kent, at the very beginning of Superman's story, but they had to wait years to meet his birth parents. Jor-El and Lara were finally introduced in a story called "The Origin of Superman," which came out a full 10 years after Superman's first appearance.

In the comics, Jor-El and Lara don't send their only son to dominate the Earth. They really are just trying to find a way for their son to survive the fall of Krypton. Because Jor-El is a scientist, he's able to commandeer one last spaceship to get his son away from the planet in time. This truly good-hearted version of Superman's parents is the one that audiences have gotten to know in all of the other "Superman" movies. 

Aside from creating some tension in this new "Superman" film, the big change could also set up some intriguing future storylines. Comic fans are likely to have a hard time adjusting to an evil Jor-El and Lara, so some of them are probably hoping that the DCU produces a retcon down the line. For now, Superman's Kryptonian parents in the DCU are part of an origin story that comic readers don't have all the answers to.