That Robot Giggling in the Superman Sneak Peek Is the Secret to James Gunn's Success

With the wide release of the five-minute Superman sneak peek that was first shown at CinemaCon earlier this week, one thing stands out even more than Krypto’s lovable (if painful for Superman) hijinks: It’s the fact that James Gunn understands the most important thing he can do for his reboot of not just the Man of Steel, but the entire DC universe, is to make us care about the characters. All of the characters, great and small, Kryptonian and human, canine and, yes, even robot. Giggling robots.

The extended preview features footage from the film that we’ve seen before, including of course Kal-El’s incredibly cute super dog arriving on the icy scene when his master is at a real low point. But it expands on that sequence from the film’s first trailer, showing us that Krypto is very much the troublemaker Gunn has described him to be. Yes, Superman is bloodied and beaten, pleading with Krypto to take him “home,” but all the pup wants to do is play. And he makes this point by jumping on the hurt Supes with all of his super-dog strength, and even dragging Kal-El’s leg up into an extremely awkward yet entirely believable pose. “Play with me, Dad!” he’s saying, in deeds if not words. It’s all very funny and it makes you love Krypto even more than you already did. Oh yes, you will believe that a super-powered dog can fly – and be lovable.

But Superman is hurt, and Krypto finally gets it, bringing Kal to the Fortress of Solitude. And that’s where we meet that giggling robot, who is one of the keys to understanding why James Gunn is so good at what he does. But before we get to that, consider that the first time we ever saw Gunn’s version of the Last Son of Krypton in action, he was in bad shape – beaten up, bleeding, needing his dog to save him. And we don’t yet know who dished out this punishment either, so this first image of Gunn’s version of Superman battered and broken is not for the benefit of getting a villain over. There’s no “look how scary this antagonist is because they beat the hell out of the Man of Steel.” The purpose of beginning the entire marketing push for this film is to show Superman in dire straits and in need of help. It’s a far cry from the typical introduction of any superhero, let alone the superhero, and yet it makes perfect sense coming from Gunn.

It’s the Harrison Ford Syndrome. Which isn’t so much a syndrome as it is a legitimate strength of Ford’s on screen persona. Either way, think about how badly Indiana Jones gets roughed up. We don’t love him because he’s so good at fighting; it’s because he’s tired and in pain just like the rest of us. Think about the scared-as-shit look on Ford’s face when he was on the run in The Fugitive, the desperate man leaping off of a dam en route to prove his innocence. Think about the hurt on Han Solo’s face, the fully bruised ego when he thought Leia was into Luke and not him at the start of Empire. It’s an everyman appeal that few actors have ever really been able to pull off. Honestly, it might just be Ford and Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley that do it completely right. The point is, seeing your heroes beat up a little bit kind of makes you love them even more, especially when they rise to the occasion later to be, you know, heroes, despite everything they’ve been through.

Gunn knows this, and he has a track record of putting his characters through the ringer. Think back to the first time we met the Guardians of the Galaxy. The first trailer for that film shows that nobody knows Star-Lord’s name and that it stings a little. And yes, Star-Lord was a little known character from the depths of Marvel’s roster, and Superman is… well, it’s almost apples to oranges, but Gunn’s approach is exactly the same here. Let’s put some dents in our main character as quickly as we can. Let’s meet a protagonist at a moment when they’re not heroic, not saving the day, when they don’t even have the upper hand – that’s part of what makes Gunn’s superhero work resonate as well as anybody’s ever been able to.

So giving us a Superman who right off the bat has broken ribs, a jacked-up bladder, and is in awful pain even when/because his robots are healing him… it’s a very Gunn choice, and it goes a long way to getting us invested in his version of a character who, let’s not forget, has had like 10 movies and 15 TV shows or something at this point and is older than your grandparents. Superman and all his pals have been around forever, so why should we care about yet another version of his story?

And not for nothing, it’s important to remember that a significant criticism has been lobbed at Superman over the years saying his invulnerability and squeaky clean boy scout-ness are just plain boring. He was, after all, created to be the best of us, but crafting interesting narratives around an overpowered alien with only a single weakness can start to get hard after a century. So how do you make this familiar story engaging? Opening on a shot of a damaged Kal-El is a great start, but we still need to fall for the supporting cast.

And that brings us back to the giggling robot. Once Krypto gets his dad into the Fortress (which is a cool re-thinking of the classic Richard Donner ice-crystal Fortress of Solitude, only in this case one that grows out of the snowy landscape on command), the robots take custody of Superman as they carry the injured hero in to treat his wounds. In the comics we know that the ‘bot known as Kelex is usually the main caretaker of the Fortress, although here we see the main robot has the simple designation of “4” on the Superman-shield on his chest.

As they tend to Superman, 4 (voiced by Alan Tudyk) introduces the newest robot of the group: “Meet 12. She’s new.” Superman nods to her weakly, and 12 practically blushes, despite being made of metal, as she giggles and says “Oh, he looked at me!”

12 has just that one line of dialogue (we're not sure who’s voicing the character but it’s gotta be someone we know, right?), but we're already so invested in her and these other robots that we're a little embarrassed to admit it. 4 also tells Kal-El that there’s no need to thank them for their service because they have “no consciousness whatsoever. Merely automatons here to serve.” But you know what? We're calling bullshit on that right now, because you can be guaranteed that half of us are going to be crying when we see the movie and one of these robots gets killed (something that in fact has already been teased in the first trailer). There’s also something about Tudyk’s delivery of those lines, like he’s dripping with sarcasm. No consciousness my red-briefs-clad-butt.

So even while comics fans can dig in and try to figure out if 4 is Kelex or how Superman’s biology works (he has intestines!) or whatever other lore or Easter egg stuff comes to mind, Gunn isn’t actually that concerned with that stuff. At minimum, we feel comfortable saying it doesn’t seem like his first priority. Yes, he understands the geeky things, he’s a fan himself and he’s read the comics – and loves them, no doubt – but what he’s doing here is building out little character moments and beats that will make us actually care about these people. And robots. And dogs!

This isn’t gonna be a Superman movie as much as it is a James Gunn movie, and we can’t wait.