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The new Superman is a tricky proposition to market. Not only does it represent a new reimagining of an 87-year-old character, but it also has to tell everyone who David Corenswet is. The new Superman is a complete unknown to many of us, and you suspect that a hefty slice of the film’s promotional budget has been given over to selling the guy to the world.
In the old days, this would have been achieved with wall-to-wall press interviews. Big, hefty cover stories in key publications in every territory, where interviewers would attempt to plumb the depths of his psyche to see if he can pass muster. But that hasn’t really happened. Instead, there is a very big chance that – if you’re the right age – you will have learned everything you need to know about David Corenswet from a couple of TikToks.
The ones going viral at the moment show Corenswet’s undying, encyclopedic love of the Star Wars prequels. One of them, the one that has gained the real traction, sees him passionately argue that Anakin Skywalker would have had a profoundly different fate had he been trained by Qui-Gon Jinn and not Obi-Wan Kenobi. His argument is calm and fluid and eloquent. Most importantly, it shows a deep understanding of the worst films of an overcooked franchise. In other words, it’s the perfect demonstration of why he should be Superman.
This isn’t an isolated incident, either. Much of the press for Jurassic World: Rebirth has revolved around the odd platonic showmance between Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey. In fact, watch any social clip of them gazing into each other’s eyes and giggling and it’s clear that they’re taking the lead from Wicked’s promotional cycle, which was fuelled by the social-driven narrative of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo variously crying, clinging to each other or talking in weird little baby voices.
Indeed, every new blockbuster released this year will follow a similar formula. The stars will make short clips that distill the correct facets of their personality into neat little nuggets, and a worldwide audience hungry for a parasocial relationship will do the rest of the work.
It might sound depressing, but really it’s nothing new. Before this, movie studios attempted to achieve the same sort of thing with junket days; tightly controlled, daylong sessions where stars submitted themselves to dozens of four-minute press interviews a day. In theory these were great, because an actor could demonstrate charisma without having enough time to say anything inflammatory. But in reality they were dreadful.
Junkets were exhausting and stressful for everyone involved, and the only facet of a personality that an actor ends up revealing is “person who is tired of repeating the same three answers 13 times an hour”. Fun fact: the only interesting thing that ever happened to me at a junket was when I was due to meet Reese Witherspoon on the day Osama bin Laden was killed, because right before it happened a furious publicist crashed into the waiting area and screamed: “Can everyone PLEASE STOP asking Reese Witherspoon about Osama bin Laden?” at the top of their voice.
The thing that grates about every iteration of this, old and new, is that this condensed presentation prioritises personality over the work. There are some of us, still, who want to hear about the actual films, rather than what a good boyfriend the actor would be for the internet. Regardless of the form, it’s a deliberate dumbing down.
But still, as frustrating as this can be, at least there are holdouts. Serious film-makers – the men and women tasked with maintaining the high standards of the cinematic tradition – have yet to lower themselves to this model. But it might be coming. After all, anyone who saw the jarring video of Christopher Nolan playing along with Wired’s Most Searched Questions parlour game knows that it can only be a matter of time before he’s forced to promote The Odyssey by getting stomach cramps and going cross-eyed on Hot Ones.
And actually, now I come to mention it, there’s a very strong chance that your children primarily know who Martin Scorsese is because he acts like a cutely bewildered old man on his daughter’s TikTok. You know what? It’ll all be so much less painful if we just submit to this. This is simply how movies are promoted. The countdown to Ari Aster promoting Eddington by giggling on a sofa with Joaquin Phoenix begins now.
