As James Gunn walked into our interview to promote the newest “Superman,” the A-list Hollywood creative didn’t appear to bring any ego into the room – just, quaintly, his wife and a publicist.

Then, I asked about David Corenswet, the Julliard-trained actor he cast as the next Man of Steel.

“Yes, I have a bit of an ego about it,” Gunn said with a playful grin. Gunn was referring to his knack for turning relatively unknown actors into major stars. See Chris Pratt, who Gunn cast in his 2014 blockbuster “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Pratt received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame three years later and remains a superstar today.

“I think I’m really good at finding people who become huge stars,” Gunn said. “I think David Corenswet is the biggest movie star in the world and people don’t know it yet. And that’s what I said about Chris Pratt early on, too. There are very, very few people that have the acting chops, the comedy chops and happen to be extraordinarily handsome at the same time.”

End scene on Gunn’s feigned ego. He isn’t too big to admit he’s nervous and has a lot riding on the success of this newest “Superman” ahead of its July 11th opening. He’s not just the writer and director, he’s also the co-CEO of the newly formed DC Studios, the production company behind the big budget “Superman.”

Through the first quarter of the year, “Superman” had largely been seen as the make-or-break film for the Warner Bros. 2025 film slate. The success of Warner’s “Minecraft” and “Sinners” has lightened the load on Gunn, but not fully: “Superman” is the first release under the DC Studios banner, and Gunn, along with co-CEO Peter Safran, is launching a new cinematic universe built on DC comics like Supergirl and Batman.