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There's a new hero in town, and he’s got four legs and a wagging tail. Krypto the Superdog is officially stealing the spotlight in James Gunn’s upcoming 'Superman' reboot.
This scrappy, snowy-white sidekick might just become the DCU’s most beloved new face. Krypto’s cinematic debut is based on a very real (and very chaotic) pup: Gunn’s own rescue dog, Ozu.
In a viral video shared by Gunn on social media, Ozu can be seen reacting to his on-screen doppelgänger, barking furiously at scenes from the trailer. “Every time he sees himself on screen, he tries to murder himself,” Gunn shared.
And it’s not just resemblance, Krypto was fully 3D modeled after Ozu’s body. “Then made white to match his DC Comics counterpart,” Gunn explained.
Back in October, Gunn opened up about how adopting Ozu inspired one of the film’s most unexpected characters. “Krypto was inspired by our dog Ozu, who we adopted shortly after I started writing Superman,” Gunn shared.
“Ozu, who came from a hoarding situation in a backyard with 60 other dogs and never knew human beings, was problematic to say the least. He immediately came in and destroyed our home, our shoes, our furniture – he even ate my laptop," the director revealed.
He continued, "It took a long time before he would even let us touch him. I remember thinking, ‘Gosh, how difficult would life be if Ozu had superpowers?’ – and thus Krypto came into the script and changed the shape of the story as Ozu was changing my life."
Krypto appears in a flash of snow and thunder in the trailer, gently pulling Superman’s cape in his mouth as he drags him home. “Take me home,” Clark tells him.
“We must protect Krypto at all costs,” one fan wrote, while someone else commented, “If ANYTHING happens to Krypto I will be going full John Wick.”
It’s been confirmed that Krypto will headline his own series of animated shorts following the film’s release. “We’ve got these cool little Krypto shorts that are so fun, man,” Gunn said to ComicBook. “He’s a terrible, terrible dog. It’s for families and it’s just really fun and goofy.”
While his comic book origins go all the way back to 1955, the story of this adorable sidekick is timeless. “So many dogs about to be named Krypto, oh my god,” one fan posted.