Superman is back in a big way: Filmmaker and studio head James Gunn is taking his franchise reboot (and the blockbuster kickoff to his DCU movie initiative) into its second box-office weekend with a $261 million worldwide gross, with plenty of summer left to go. A semi-sequel is already in the works; after a cameo introduction at the end of Superman, Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) as Supergirl will hit theaters in 2026.
But here’s the big question: Where’s our great Superman video game?
Gunn’s hope for the DCU is for the storytelling to be so cohesive that DC-related projects at sister operation Warner Bros. Games will click right in. “One of our jobs is to come in and make sure the DCU is connected, in film, television, gaming, and animation,” Gunn said in 2023. “That the characters are consistent, played by the same actors, and it works within one story.” The scale of such a task made at least one Marvel game developer gulp, and major upheaval over the last two years has made WB Games’ future hazy. (A Wonder Woman game, in development for years, was outright canceled in February.)
If Gunn can really connect the cinematic-universe dots, his take on the Man of Steel could address the longstanding problems of, well, Superman games being absolute shite. As we detailed in a 2024 report on the legacy of DC’s Superman titles, from the notorious Superman 64 to the faulty tie-in Superman Returns, none of the previous failures could be boiled down to a single issue. Some were technological: How do you nail flying in a sandbox game where the sky shouldn’t be the limit? Others were baked into the lore: Superman has a lot of powers.
In a way, Gunn addresses the latter complaints head-on with a fully developed DCU “world” that spans thousands of years and is brimming with contemporary superheroes and villains who can throw Kal-El curveballs. This version of Superman could star in a video game that cuts to the narrative chase, just like Rocksteady’s Batman-led Arkham series.
But I think Gunn gave his WB Games partners an even better solution. The time is right for a Krypto game.
The one-two punch of Superman’s introduction of Krypto, the last pup of Krypton, and our recent call-to-action for more playable canines made this all sound like the perfect workaround to address the neverending drought of decent Superman games.
Then I saw the trailer footage for Barkour, and it all clicked.
The upcoming spy thriller from VARSAV Game Studios casts you as Agent THUNDER, a James Bond-worthy dog who can run, jump, and bust up crime syndicates. Even on Steam, the devs admit their entire concept is reveling in “charming absurdity.” And what better way to describe Gunn’s take on Krypto? The difference between Clark Kent and Supergirl’s pet companion is communication. Superman is there to save the world and bestow a sense of moral righteousness to its citizens. Krypto will help if you whistle, but he may also just tear up the house.
Forget “pet the dog” — it’s time to be the dog. And one that can fly. Games like Stray and Little Kitty, Big City prove players are ready for a silent, ground-level quest. And while Spirit of the North, a game in which you play as a fox caught up in a Nordic spirit journey, inches toward the possibilities of superpowered animal abilities, it’s stoic and nowhere near what’s possible with Krypto’s energy. Who let the dogs out? It should be Gunn and WB Games.
“I think a truly spectacular Superman game would have to nail that delicate tonal balance of feeling super strong, but also be able to get down to a regular human’s level and make the player really care about protecting the average citizen,” Laura Davila, an environmental artist who worked on the 2006 game Superman Returns, told Polygon last year. So maybe forget Superman, who will always stick to the sky. Off the leash, Krypto could fulfill this exact, long-awaited possibility.
