Superman: Isabela Merced Hypes Playing Hawkgirl, Working With James Gunn

Isabela Merced says it was a dream come true to play the DCU‘s Hawkgirl in James Gunn‘s Superman.

“I was a DC kid growing up,” Merced said in an interview with Collider while promoting her latest movie Turtles All the Way Down. “We had the action figures, and most of them were so old and used that the paint had come off… But I really adored Hawkgirl. I had Hawkgirl and Hawkman as part of my collection. Well, technically it wasn’t mine. It was my siblings and I’s collection. We had Hot Wheels too. We just had a really fun, enjoyable childhood with those. So, this is a full circle moment.”

Merced continued by giving praise to director Gunn whose filmmography contains an unlikely franchise favorite of hers: 2002’s Scooby-Doo and its 2004 sequel. Both movies were penned by Gunn before launching his directing career with cult favorites like Slither and Super.

“James Gunn also curated a lot of my favorite childhood movies, like the Scooby Doo movies,” Merced said. “And to work with him and learn from him, he’s just got such a solid team and a solid way of just doing it. He knows. He just knows. And he likes me too, I think, so that’s awesome.”

Who stars in James Gunn’s Superman?

As the first installment of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU under DC Studios, Superman sees Clark Kent diving time between the Daily Planet and his duties as a superhero while having to reconcile his Kryptonian roots. Superman stars David Corenswet as the titular Man of Steel, while Rachel Brosnahan will play Lois Lane. Nicholas Hoult has been cast as Lex Luthor, Sara Sampaio is playing Eve Teschmacher, and Skyler Gisondo is playing Jimmy Olsen. Additional cast includes Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific, María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, and Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner.

Superman is scheduled for release on July 11, 2025.