In a new Superman behind-the-scenes clip, James Gunn shares the touching story of how he fell in love with a new rescue dog after losing his dog Wesley during the making of Suicide Squad. He didn’t feel ready “for many years,” but finally he went to a rescue and met a scrawny, scared canine who had “one ear sticking up like a beacon.” Upon bringing the adorable pup home, Ozu proceeded to destroy Gunn’s house. “I thought, what if this awful, terrible, maniac dog had superpowers?” He said. And thus, Krypto was born.
In the clip, Gunn and the VFX team discuss how Ozu served as the physical model for Superman‘s Krypto the Superdog, right down to Ozu’s habit of biting people’s feet. Ozu “despised” the 3-D scan process, Gunn previously told The New York Times: “He has to stand on this table and then there’s a globe of cameras all the way around him. They take pictures and we kind of move him around a little bit and it gets every angle of him.”
Introducing the comically ill-behaved flying dog at the very beginning of the film sets the tone for Superman and for the new DC Universe, Gunn proposes in the clip. But the relationship between Krypto and Superman also helps the audience get to know this new Clark Kent. “He is such a compassionate person or, you know, Superman, that he’s worried about the dog being scared,” Gunn explained to the NYT. “That’s the thing that upsets him: The dog is scared. And we’ve only seen the dog give him grief. I think it’s really important that Superman is tuned into his own sense of compassion in that way.” If you haven’t caught Superman in theaters, the film is now available to buy or rent on the Apple TV app.
