Since James Gunn was announced as the new head of a rebooted DCU, fans of the franchise have begun reading into his social media posts and other comments with a forensic view that would put most stalkers to shame. Yet, even when the director and creative is trying to be clear, as he was with a recent tweet, fans online can’t help but speculate about hidden meanings.
The post on the DC_Cinematic subreddit showed a screenshot of a Gunn tweet that discussed how he doesn’t like to publicly announce who’s auditioning for roles in his films. He name-checks Zachary Levi and Glenn Howerton as exceptions, as they have already discussed their attempts to get the role in public, and then goes on to confirm that there’s only one person who’s actually been cast in the upcoming film Superman: Legacy. He then ends the tweet with the message that this cast role is not a character we’d normally associate with the Man of Steel, and what looks like a mermaid emoji with a trident — which is where the fan speculation has come in.
There’s already been a lot of ideas thrown about online about which DC characters will be making an appearance in the rebooted universe, especially after it was all but confirmed there would be multiple different characters who aren’t normally in Superman related content. So, with this seemingly strange mermaid emoji being posted at the end of Gunn’s tweet, it’s only natural that people have begun asking questions. Some believe that Lori Lemaris, a love interest of Superman, will be involved in the film. Considering Lois Lane is currently also being cast, this means there could be a small love triangle plot. Others have said it’s a likely allusion to Aquaman, a character whose future we are still unsure about as nobody has confirmed if Jason Momoa has been recast as the hero.
Others were quick to point out that James Gunn’s Peacemaker featured mermaid emojis being used by Vigilante, so the throwaway symbol could just be a reference to that. However, one thing that’s for certain is that the Suicide Squad director is not teasing a Little Mermaid/Superman crossover, despite the hilarity that would ensue. While we know the new DC head has a creative mind, it would take some epic storytelling to get those two in the same movie — unless Ariel was revealed to be from Atlantis, like many other DC characters. For now, though, we’ll just have to assume Gunn wasn’t thinking too hard when he wrote the tweet, as much as we’d all like him to lead us on a bit of a treasure hunt.