Meet the Justice Gang: Superman stars introduce their dynamic super-trio

When Superman lands in theaters this summer, David Corenswet’s take on the Man of Steel won’t be Earth’s first or only defender. In James Gunn’s bold new vision for the DC Universe, super-powered beings—metahumans—have walked among us for centuries. But now, some of them are punching the clock and collecting a paycheck. Enter the Justice Gang: a high-powered, corporate-backed trio of metahumans brought vividly to life by Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced, and Edi Gathegi. Far from a traditional super team, the Justice Gang may be new to moviegoers, but in Gunn’s Superman, they’re already making waves. “Clark Kent has his work friends and his play friends,” Gunn explains. “The Justice Gang are his work friends.”

Composed of the brash Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Fillion), the airborne warrior Hawkgirl (Merced), and the hyper-intelligent Mister Terrific (Gathegi), the team offers a distinct counterpoint to Superman’s earnestness—and a glimpse into a world where super-heroism meets bureaucracy, branding, and a whole lot of baggage.

Who are the Justice Gang?

In Superman, Earth has long grown accustomed to the existence of metahumans. “If you saw a shark-man walking down the street, you’d probably vomit and s— yourself to death,” Gunn jokes. “But if they saw one, it would be more like seeing Paul McCartney on the sidewalk in New York.”

The Justice Gang are elite metahumans, but they’re also employees. Backed by Maxwell Lord (played by Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn), the group operates under the umbrella of LordTech Industries, a tech conglomerate that raises a cheeky but critical question: How do superheroes pay rent? “There’s no paycheck for being a superhero,” Fillion says. “But corporate sponsorship? That makes sense.”

That sponsorship doesn’t come without trade-offs. From filming commercials to operating out of a newly opened headquarters still full of unpacked boxes, the Justice Gang feels less like the Avengers and more like a startup in its scrappy early days. “It’s like a day job for her,” Merced says of Hawkgirl. “She treats it as such. And it’s fascinating to see it through that lens.” Despite the logos and ledgers, these heroes aren’t sellouts. “They’re not bad,” Gunn insists. “They’re good. They’re just not saintly.”

Guy Gardner: The wild card with a will of steel

Green Lantern Guy Gardner is a study in contradictions—and hair choices. “If you want to know something about Guy Gardner, know this: He has a bowl cut and he’s into it,” Fillion quips. Armed with a power ring that turns raw willpower into physical constructs, Guy can fly, create weapons, and manifest force fields. But power doesn’t equal polish. “If you have an emergency and need a Green Lantern, Guy’s the last one you want,” Fillion laughs.

Guy’s signature trait isn’t nobility, but fearlessness—something that makes him both powerful and problematic. “You don’t have to be pure of heart to be a Green Lantern,” Fillion adds. “You just have to have the will. And Guy thinks he can take on Superman. No, you can’t take on Superman, dude.”

By the time the audience meets the Justice Gang, the rest of the team has clearly grown tired of Guy’s antics. “He’s famously an asshole,” Gathegi says bluntly. “Nobody likes him except Guy Gardner. And that’s fun.” Still, Fillion notes, the team knows how to manage him. “They don’t take him seriously. There’s a lot of eye-rolling—right to his face, which you can respect. These are not people who get steamrolled.”

Hawkgirl: A warrior with wings and baggage

For Isabela Merced, taking on the role of Hawkgirl meant long hours on wires, physical training, and embracing her inner thrill-seeker. “I was basically a glorified stunt person,” she says. “My whole family’s full of adrenaline junkies—my dad and brother are firefighters—so I pulled from that. That kind of bravery, that enjoyment of danger, is core to who she is.”

Hawkgirl, a.k.a. Kendra Saunders, is a reincarnated warrior from the alien planet Thanagar. Armed with a mace and sprouting enormous wings, she retains memories of past lives while living as a modern woman. “She has that military vibe, but she’s also contemporary,” Merced explains. “She’s cool, sassy, and complex. There’s a lot of history there that might not even fully be hers.”

Though audiences only get a glimpse of Kendra in Superman, she’s poised for a larger role in Peacemaker season 2, where she reappears alongside Guy and Maxwell Lord to evaluate whether John Cena’s Peacemaker is Justice Gang material. (Spoiler: the interview doesn’t go well.) “It’s a bit more blatantly comical,” Merced says of the character’s next outing. “It’s so f—ed up, but in a fun way.”

Mister Terrific: A stoic mind with a tragic past

Edi Gathegi’s Mister Terrific, a.k.a. Michael Holt, is a far cry from the impulsive Guy Gardner. With a genius-level intellect, Holt responds to personal tragedy not with rage but reason. After losing his wife in a car accident, he commits himself to science and justice. “He saw that, while the universe might be cruel, intelligence and innovation could make it better,” Gathegi explains. “He chose to become hope, rather than give in to despair.”

Holt’s most iconic invention? The T-spheres—floating orbs that act as AI companions, weapons, and Swiss-army tech marvels all rolled into one. Unlike the emotive Guy or the fierce Kendra, Mister Terrific is quiet and analytical. “That was the key for me: stoicism,” Gathegi says. “But in playing him, I realized that kind of detachment felt a little psychotic. No one in these situations is unaffected. So we found more complexity. More humanity.”

For Gathegi, this role is something of a redemption arc. In 2011’s X-Men: First Class, his character Darwin—one of the few Black superheroes—was killed off prematurely despite comic lore indicating his invincibility. Fans have long called out the mishandling. “I kept waiting to be brought back. It was a missed opportunity,” he says. “So to now play one of the most philosophically compelling heroes in DC? That’s justice.”

The future of the Justice Gang

Superman is just the beginning. With the Justice Gang already making appearances in upcoming projects like Peacemaker, James Gunn is clearly planting seeds for something much bigger. But this isn’t just about franchise-building—it’s about expanding the definition of what a superhero team can be.

Whether it’s a brash Lantern, a winged warrior, or a stoic genius, the Justice Gang defies easy categorization. They clash. They compromise. They do commercials. But at the end of the day, they save lives—and maybe, redefine what it means to be heroic in the modern age. “They’re not perfect,” Gunn says. “But they’re trying. And sometimes, that’s more interesting than perfection.”