How James Gunn Modeled Superman’s Dog Krypto After His Own Pet

For the furry sidekick, Krypto, in “Superman,” the director James Gunn found inspiration — and a physical model — in his own unruly pet.

About three years ago, the director James Gunn was trying to figure out the arc of what would become his new blockbuster “Superman.” Then he adopted a dog.

He named the scruffy rescue Ozu, after the Japanese filmmaker known for his serene works. At about 8 months old, Ozu the dog was not at all peaceful. After surviving a hoarding situation, Ozu was fearful of humans and intensely destructive. He chewed up furniture, shoes and even a $10,000 computer. He also ate one of Gunn’s wife’s tampons out of a wastebasket, necessitating a trip to the vet. Gunn realized that if Ozu had been superpowered, the damage would have been even worse.

“It was where the movie came together for me,” he said in a video call.

Gunn decided that his version of Superman would have not just a dog, but a bad dog who could fly. He wrote the opening sequence in which Superman (David Corenswet), defeated for the first time ever, calls out to the canine Krypto to help drag him to the Fortress of Solitude. Krypto — who, like Ozu, is poorly behaved — jumps all over his master, seemingly causing more pain before doing his duty.

“The universe we normally see Superman living in in movies is usually this lone, serious superhero and then people and then that’s it,” Gunn said. “This Superman exists in a different sort of universe where there are flying dogs.”

But Ozu served as more than just inspiration. Gunn’s pup also became the physical model for Krypto, who is computer-generated so he can do things like soar through the sky and attack villains. Krypto is a little bigger than Ozu and has white fur instead of gray, but otherwise he’s a dead ringer.

Although Gunn’s version of Krypto owes everything to Ozu, Krypto has a long history in comic books. He first appeared in 1955, and while he has never shown up in one of Superman’s live-action big-screen outings, he was voiced by Dwayne Johnson in the animated film “DC League of Super-Pets” (2022).

Gunn doesn’t get deep into Krypto lore in “Superman,” but he does have plans for him, including a starring role in next year’s “Supergirl,” which is based on the comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Krypto features prominently in that tale.

Because Gunn wanted Krypto to resemble his own pet as closely as possible, the first step involved a 3-D scan of Ozu. Ozu, who is now better behaved than he used to be, “despised” the process, the director said, explaining, “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.”

Though Ozu was initially wary of humans, he immediately befriended Gunn’s cat, and like any good owner, Gunn had a plethora of videos of his pets acting cute. He handed those over to the visual effects artists.

“I have tons of videos of them playing,” he said. “In fact, when Krypto is jumping on Superman at the beginning of the movie, that’s all based on footage of him playing with my cat.”

Gunn ultimately worked with three VFX companies to develop Krypto, but mainly relied on Framestore, which was also responsible for creating another crucial furry character, Rocket Raccoon, in the director’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies. With Krypto, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to depict him flying.

“At first it kept looking like he was running in the air and it looked dumb,” Gunn said, adding, “It was getting the right amount of motion with his legs and he was flying. It just took a lot of trial and error.”

On set, the actors playing opposite Krypto occasionally just had to imagine he was there, miming as if interacting with a dog. In other instances, a “series of very small women” played Krypto, Gunn said. But sometimes a real dog was present. Her name was Jolene, and they would play the Dolly Parton song every time she arrived.

“She had white fur and we would use that as a reference for the lighting so we knew what a white dog would look like in the area,” Gunn said.

As for the sounds Krypto makes, Gunn once again went back to Ozu and recorded him for reference. But Gunn also didn’t want to overdo it.

“The sound people know this: It’s my pet peeve that every time an animal’s onscreen, they make it make a goddamn sound,” he said. “The truth is dogs are funny because for the most part they are Buster Keaton.”

As a dog lover, Gunn aimed to make sure the way Krypto cranes his neck, wags his tail or gets easily distracted was portrayed accurately. The fact that he is terribly behaved makes Superman’s loyalty to him all the more impactful in perilous situations, Gunn said.

“He is such a compassionate person or, you know, Superman, that he’s worried about the dog being scared,” Gunn said. “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.”

Ozu, meanwhile, seems to have complicated feelings regarding his debut as the model for a superhero. Gunn posted a video to Instagram of Ozu barking at Krypto. This, he said, happened repeatedly during the editing process.

“He comes darting from the other side of the house and runs into the office so he can bark at Krypto,” Gunn said. “For two years, he barked at Krypto onscreen.”

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