July 11, 2025
Provided image/Warner Bros.
Philly's own David Corenswet (seen saving a bystander) plays Superman in the eponymous movie, out Friday.
Philadelphia plays a major role in the new "Superman" movie, though not in terms of setting. (Sorry, the caped crusader doesn't fly by the Linc.) The region can claim several cast members, including the starring superhero.
As many outlets, including ours, have noted, the new Superman/Clark Kent hails from the city. David Corenswet likes hoagies and the Phanatic just as much as the rest of us, but he's not the only person in the movie to patronize a Wawa. Discover who else in the "Superman" movie, out Friday, has ties to the area — though if you want to see it without any spoilers, come back and read this later:
A Shipley School grad steps into Superman’s spandex. Audiences may not be familiar with Corenswet, whose previous film work was mostly confined to supporting roles in "Pearl" and "Twisters." But he’s an instant star in the role, exactly the kind of handsome, goofy Boy Scout the part demands. Corenswet injects levity — and, with an equally charming Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, romantic chemistry — into the franchise after decades of overly serious or simply boring takes on the character. His relationship with his badly behaved dog Krypto is one of the movie’s highlights.
The Eagles’ leading celebrity fan plays the long-dead father of Superman, as the film’s director James Gunn previously revealed. Cooper, a Jenkintown native, appears exclusively in an incomplete message that the Jor-El and his wife send with their son to Earth. When the missing piece of that video comes out, it poses a serious problem for Superman and complicates his lifelong perception of his parents.
The Queen Village-bred CNN anchor appears as one of many talking heads reporting on the chaos in Metropolis and abroad. For reasons unknown, he is credited as "Jake Tapir."
The movie's second assistant director may have a small role as "onlooker," but he’s apparently from Reading, so he makes the cut.
In a plot twist, Corenswet has not one but two roles in the movie. (Hollywood really can’t quit its twin obsession.) Late in the story, Superman unmasks the soldier Lex Luthor has engineered to destroy him and finds his face staring back at him. Turns out, Luthor cloned his nemesis. This guy is much quieter, though, and dumber. Without Luthor’s team of henchmen programming his every move, he folds like an issue of the Daily Planet.
Follow Kristin & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @kristin_hunt
| @thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice
Have a news tip? Let us know.
