Why ‘Superman 2’ Should Bring in The Authority

Superman is a box office and critical hit, with the future of the DCU looking bright. All eyes are already set on announcing projects like Peacemaker Season 2, Lanterns, Supergirl, and Clayface, all of which are slated for release within the next year or so. Yet fans cannot wait to see the likes of David Corenswet’s Superman and Rachel Brosnahan’s Lois Lane return in a future film, namely Superman 2. The status of a sequel is uncertain, as James Gunn recently teased that his next DCU film has not been announced due to other studios easily being able to copy it, while also being coy about a sequel.

This suggests that Superman’s next appearance in the DCU might not be a traditional sequel. Instead, it might be a crossover film, as Superman has already established a supporting cast of other DC heroes. Given Superman‘s rich thematic content, a straightforward sequel featuring Brainiac or Mr. Mxyzptlk may seem a bit less engaging (though we would still like to see it). We aren’t here to tell James Gunn how to do his job. With Superman, he has yet to miss with a DC project, so whatever he has planned, he knows what he is doing.

We believe the next Superman movie might be combined with a previously announced DCU project that has struggled to gain momentum, The Authority. The Superman follow-up could be Superman vs. The Authority, a film that builds on Superman’s themes, differentiates The Authority from The Boys, and sets the stage for the Justice League’s arrival in the DCU.

The Struggles To Get ‘The Authority’ Film off the Ground

The Authority was one of the first slate of projects announced by James Gunn in January 2023 as part of the DCU. Based on the Wildstorm comic of the same name, the comic focuses on a team of superheroes that take drastic measures to ensure the Earth remains safe, often blurring the line between hero and villain. With the inclusion of one of the team’s members, The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría), in Superman, many fans assumed The Authority would be the next film following Superman. Yet, in February 2025, James Gunn stated that the script had a difficult time coming together. Now, Supergirl is the next DCU film, while Clayface, a movie not part of the initial announcement slate, will follow afterward.

Gunn has made it clear that no DCU movie will move forward without a finished script that he is satisfied with, hence why the Sgt. Rock movie was delayed instead of pushing forward to meet a release date. What problems The Authority is facing are unclear. However, the biggest might be that the concept of edgier superheroes has become played out in stories like The Boys and Invincible. While The Authority might predate them in the comics, it now has the John Carter effect, as the stories it influenced were adapted for the big screen first, and now the original will seem like a copy.

The Authority is an interesting concept and shouldn’t be tossed out. Instead, the film should be reworked into a battle between Superman and The Authority. Superman has already faced off against The Engineer, and a follow-up film could see her recruit other metahumans to form a new superhuman team, ones with intentions of being “better” heroes than Superman, who don’t wait for trouble but take measures to prevent danger at all costs.

Superman’s History With The Authority

The idea of pitting Superman against The Authority is nothing new. When James Gunn first announced his plans for the DCU, we speculated that it was building to a showdown between Superman and The Authority. This could still be the plan, but now, instead of two separate films leading to a clash, it is one Superman film followed by a second film that serves as both an Authority movie and a Superman sequel. Superman and The Authority have been linked for quite some time, as the two concepts represent different approaches to superhero heroics.

One of the most famous Superman stories is a comic titled “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” where Superman fights a team of heroes called The Elite. The Elite serve as a stand-in for The Authority, as they are another team of cooler, edgier heroes who kill their victims, and it becomes a philosophical battle between them and an old-fashioned hero like Superman. The comics’ writer, Mark Waid, also previously wrote Kingdom Come, another series in which Superman comes out of retirement to show a group of younger, more violent heroes the old-fashioned way of heroics.

Related

‘Superman’ Reveals a TON About the Future of the DCU

‘Superman’ sets up a variety of future DC stories, including the formation of the Justice League and an iconic villain’s return.

Then, when the Wildstorm characters were folded into the DC Comics Universe, Grant Morrison wrote Superman and the Authority. The comic merges both the traditional members of The Authority with some members of their original stand-in, The Elite, solidifying the connection between the two teams. However, Superman and the Authority act as a rebuttal to Kingdom Come, as its version of an older, wiser Superman decides to mentor and guide a new version of The Authority, who would be cosmic liberators that would free the universe from threats like Darkseid, Mongul, and Brainiac.

Gunn has already pulled heavily from the work of Mark Waid and Grant Morrison. Waid’s Kingdom Come House of El crest is used for David Corenswet’s Superman, while Gunn constantly cited Morrison’s All-Star Superman as a significant influence on his DCU film. A Superman sequel that combines elements and themes from Superman and The Authority, “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and The American Way,” and Kingdom Come sounds like the perfect sequel set-up that builds off the themes established in the first film of Superman being an old-fashioned hero in a modern world filled with cynics.

The Authority Can Build on the Themes Introduced in ‘Superman’

Both Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way” are meta-commentaries on the state of superhero stories in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This era favored gritty anti-heroes over the old-fashioned heroics of Superman. Both stories argue for the traditional superhero model and why a character like Superman still matters in a world that seemingly thinks he is too old-fashioned. This feels like an appropriate place to follow up on James Gunn’s Superman, which is ushering in a new era of superhero movies. Ones that are moving away from the gritty realism of the 2000s, as defined by The Dark Knight trilogy or the self-aware irony of the MCU in the 2010s, in favor of something more earnest.

The movie already hinted that Superman took issue with heroes like the Justice Gang killing the Kaiju instead of trying to find a less lethal path, while they also focused more on stopping the creature with less concern for collateral damage, which Superman took great care to avoid. Superman is already presented as a bit of an outsider among fellow heroes, and later inspires them to take a more active step in doing better. Yet, this also seemingly teases the nations of the world’s unease about metahumans taking control, with Rick Flag Sr. seemingly worrying about a future where they are the ones calling the shots, and sets up other metahumans, like The Authority, going a step too far.

Related

‘Superman’ Fixes a Big Mistake from ‘Man of Steel’

‘Superman’s controversial change to Krypton contrasts with how ‘Man of Steel’ prioritizes the alien heritage of Clark Kent’s human upbringing.

The Authority, as a team, naturally builds on this, as forcing their will on the world would make Superman question his actions. Superman views his actions as inherently good, so the sequel’s next logical step is to explore what happens when others adopt the same mindset. If it is suitable for Superman, why is it not good for everyone else? If it isn’t good for others, is it also acceptable for Superman? What makes Superman’s action different from a team like The Authority, if both are, in the end, looking to do good? The answer is that The Authority is using more brutal and authoritarian methods. Still, it would push Superman to see that even in the quest to do good, some might be driven to extremes. These are thematically rich questions that a hypothetical sequel could pose, building on what is established in Superman.

Following Grant Morrison’s take on The Authority, the Authority/Superman crossover could conclude with Superman not overpowering the team, but rather inspiring them to change and shift their focus from being authoritarian on Earth to taking their fight to the stars as cosmic liberators. This would be a clever inversion of the Engineer’s fear of an alien like Superman on her planet and eventually becoming an alien herself to other planets. The Authority could be positioned as the DCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy (fitting since that was the MCU team that James Gunn established) and build off cosmic storylines set up in stories like Lanterns and Supergirl. This could also serve as a recurring vehicle for Jason Momoa’s Lobo and set the stage for the long-awaited introduction of the villain Brainiac or the DCU’s take on the New Gods, which will be featured in the Mister Miracle animated series.

It also sets the stage for The Justice League, a team whose arrival seems teased by the introduction of the Justice Gang. Since the Justice Gang is a corporate-backed superhero team funded by infamous Justice League villain Maxwell Lord, it’s unlikely they’ll evolve into the Justice League. However, Superman being forced to face off against a team like The Authority might motivate him to recognize the need for a superhero team, one that seeks to protect the world rather than impose its own will on it. The Justice League’s formation could be a response to The Authority, making for the perfect setup for a follow-up movie.

How Is This Different From the DCEU’s Big Superman Mistake?

Following a Superman movie with a team-up film leading into a Justice League movie certainly sounds a lot like the problem that faced the previous experiment of a DC shared Universe, the failed DCEU. Instead of following Man of Steel with a sequel, they opted for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which also served as a giant trailer for Justice League. Isn’t that the same thing that a Superman and the Authority movie would be, skipping over a sequel to Superman in favor of a crossover film? Is this not just 20th Century Fox adapting The Dark Phoenix Saga again after X-Men: The Last Stand with Dark Phoenix and expecting it to be different?

The first big difference is that Batman v. Superman was the second film in the DCEU, after a three-year gap from Man of Steel. A hypothetical Superman sequel would be the sixth or seventh entry in the franchise at the earliest. Meanwhile, Batman and Wonder Woman will hopefully be introduced in their own solo DCU projects before the Justice League film forms. The other is that a Superman and Authority crossover film feels like a natural continuation of Superman, as it builds on established themes and a side villain from the first movie. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was created as a marketing push to recover from the disappointing fan reaction to Man of Steel and accelerate the development of a cinematic universe to rival the MCU.

Like any great superhero movie, Superman leaves the audience wanting more. The sequel can’t come soon enough. DC has had terrible luck with sequels such as Wonder Woman 1984, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The hope is that whatever form the Superman sequel takes, it will be more like The Dark Knight and The Suicide Squad. Also, please don’t let it take as long as The Batman – Part II. Superman is in theaters now.