Pre-production
Production design, costume design, and casting began in April 2023. Production designer Beth Mickle and costume designer Judianna Makovsky returned from The Suicide Squad and Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Filming was set to begin in January 2024. Gunn said the character Jimmy Olsen would appear. He did not intend for the film to be a comedy and intended for it to differ from previous Superman films while respecting what came before. Gunn completed the first draft of the script at the end of April. Production was not expected to be impacted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike when it began in early May.
Gunn was looking for an actor to play Superman who possessed the character's humanity, kindness, and compassion, and was "somebody who you want to give a hug". Audition tapes for the main roles of Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor were submitted by early May. Gunn began watching them later that month, while he was storyboarding the film. At this point, Gunn watched the film Pearl (2022) and David Corenswet's performance in it stood out to him. Corenswet had previously expressed his desire to portray Superman and his audition was one of the first Gunn saw. Corenswet became a top contender for Superman and was set to do a screen test by early June. Jacob Elordi, Tom Brittney, and Andrew Richardson were also in consideration, though Elordi declined to read for the role. Patrick Schwarzenegger, the Arrowverse series Supergirl (2015–2021) guest star Pierson Fodé, and Jack Quaid—the voice of Superman in the animated series My Adventures with Superman (2023–present)—all submitted self-tapes for Superman.
Emma Mackey, Rachel Brosnahan, Samara Weaving, and Phoebe Dynevor tested for Lane; Dynevor was one of the final contenders. Brosnahan made an audition tape with her husband Jason Ralph, who read Superman's lines. Nicholas Hoult, the runner-up to play Bruce Wayne / Batman in the standalone DC film The Batman (2022), was eyed for Luthor but chose to pursue the role of Superman instead, because he felt while he could play Luthor well, he insisted himself to focus on auditioning for Superman. Gunn considered A-list actors he had already worked with for Luthor, and briefly discussed the role with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 star Bradley Cooper while promoting it around that time. Other superheroes were expected to be established in the film's setting, and testing took place for Black actors to play Michael Holt / Mister Terrific, using the label "Apex", a reference to a comic version of Luthor called Apex Luthor.
In-person screen tests took place at the Warner Bros. Studios lot in Burbank, California, with Gunn and Safran in mid-June 2023. The actors tested in makeup and costume as Kent and Lane in the following pairs: Hoult and Brosnahan, Brittney and Dynevor, and Corenswet and Mackey. The Kent contenders then tested in costume as Superman against Mackey. One of Cavill's original DCEU Superman suits, which was in poor condition, was used for the tests. Gunn said Brittney "messed it up" and then it was "torn to shreds" by Corenswet, who was too tall. Gunn edited the tests together to be played for a deciding committee that included Zaslav, and the casting of Corenswet as Superman and Brosnahan as Lane was announced on June 27. Gunn personally contacted the actors to inform them of their castings, and he offered the role of Superman to Corenswet while he was filming Twisters (2024) on the condition that he treat everyone involved in the film with kindness and respect, citing his experiences with Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and John Cena (Christopher Smith / Peacemaker in the DCEU) doing the same.
Casting for other roles was set to follow, including for members of the superhero team the Authority, who were expected to be introduced in Superman: Legacy ahead of a planned film about the team. Brothers Alexander and Bill Skarsgård were on the shortlist for Luthor. It was unclear whether Hoult would return to try for Luthor again, but Gunn later contacted Hoult about playing Luthor, which he accepted after realizing he was better suited for the role. Corenswet and Brosnahan each earned $750,000 for their roles, while Hoult was the highest-paid actor in Superman, earning $2 million. They were all eligible for bonuses based on the film's box office performance. Gunn was paid $15 million for his work on Superman, in addition to his seven-figure salary for his role at DC Studios.
On July 11, 2023, the casting of Isabela Merced, Edi Gathegi, and Nathan Fillion, respectively, as the superheroes Kendra Saunders / Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Guy Gardner / Green Lantern was announced. Merced tested as Barbara Gordon / Batgirl for the unreleased DCEU film Batgirl, while Fillion starred in several of Gunn's earlier films including as Cory Pitzner / T.D.K. in The Suicide Squad and had previously voiced fellow Green Lantern Hal Jordan in several animated projects. Gathegi was cast over 200 other actors. Anthony Carrigan, who expressed interest in playing Luthor, was cast as the superhero Rex Mason / Metamorpho the next day. Gunn chose some of these actors some time earlier but had been waiting until Superman and Lane were cast before negotiating further actor deals, leaving little time to complete negotiations before the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14. In response to concerns that other superheroes would take away from the story of Superman and Lane, Gunn said those two characters remained the film's focus and the other actors were being cast for multiple DCU projects. He later elaborated that a large cast of characters was included in the film because he wanted to explore Clark Kent's interactions with his colleagues and Superman's interactions with other superheroes, and show how those groups impact the character's values and choices.
When the WGA strike ended in September 2023, Superman: Legacy was expected to begin filming in early-to-mid 2024. Jason Momoa, who portrayed Aquaman in the DCEU, was reported the following month to have discussed portraying the character Lobo in either this film or a solo film; he was later cast in that role for the DCU film Supergirl (2026), originally titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The SAG-AFTRA strike ended on November 9, and filming was clarified to be beginning in March 2024. Gunn said the film would still make its July 2025 release date. María Gabriela de Faría was revealed to be cast as Angela Spica / The Engineer, one of the film's antagonists and a member of the Authority, in mid-November. Madison Beer said she submitted a self-tape and unsuccessfully auditioned for a role, as did O'Shea Jackson Jr. Hoult was in talks to portray Luthor prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, and negotiations for the role were continuing in November, when Skyler Gisondo and Sara Sampaio were revealed to have been respectively cast as Jimmy Olsen and Luthor's assistant Eve Teschmacher. Gunn said Gisondo, Sampaio, and de Faría had been cast prior to the strike, and the roles of Mister Terrific and Teschmacher were particularly difficult to cast and required many auditions.
In December 2023, Gunn's brother Sean was cast as Maxwell Lord for future DCU projects, after Pedro Pascal played the role in the DCEU film Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). The character was expected to be referenced in Superman: Legacy but it was unknown if he would appear in the film. James Gunn confirmed that Hoult had finalized a deal to portray Luthor, and Miriam Shor entered negotiations for an undisclosed role after appearing in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The Hollywood Reporter also said the cast included Sean Gunn and Pom Klementieff, who starred in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, before James Gunn stated that Klementieff was not involved in the film and Shor had not been cast. He added that the film's script had been mostly completed before the writers' strike. Gunn said in January that work on the sets, prosthetics, and visual effects models were underway, the costumes were being completed, and most of the actors had been cast. Brosnahan said the film was being made with a lot of love for the source material, as many cast and crew members had grown up watching Superman films and reading the comics. At the end of the month, Milly Alcock was cast as Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El / Supergirl. The character was reported to be making her debut in Superman: Legacy ahead of starring in her own DCU film, Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Alcock had performed auditions and screen tests in costume on the Superman: Legacy set in Atlanta, Georgia, earlier in January.
Pre-production work in Ohio began in early February 2024, with the Ohio Department of Development announcing that Superman: Legacy would be partially filmed in Cleveland and Cincinnati. The film was awarded over $11 million through the state's tax credit program, based on a $37 million spend in the state out of the film's reported total gross production budget of $363.8 million; Gunn disputed the accuracy of this budget, which would have made it one of the most expensive superhero films ever made. The film was later reported to have a net production budget of $225 million with incentives and tax breaks factored in. Also in February, Bassem Youssef said he had been cast in the film—reportedly as Rumaan Harjadi, the leader of a fictional Middle Eastern country—but his character was removed from the script. He believed this was potentially due to comments he made in October 2023 criticizing the Israeli government during the Gaza war. Gunn disputed this, explaining that he discussed a role with Youssef before the WGA strike but the actor had not been formally offered the part, and the character was removed after the strike ended and before Youssef's comments were made. A table read with the cast was held on February 22, and Gunn revealed that Terence Rosemore was portraying Luthor's henchman Otis Berg after having small roles in some of Gunn's prior films. Zaslav said filming would begin the following week, when Gunn announced that he had shortened the film's title to Superman. He had come to feel while writing the film that it was about looking forward while the Legacy subtitle was about looking backward.
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