Superman's first trailer features a hidden DC villain that required a James Gunn tease before anyone found them

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.

Director and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn revealed that there's a hidden DC villain in the new Superman trailer – and fans figured out the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in just a few hours.

As shown on actor María Gabriela de Faría's Instagram Story , Gunn challenged the audience to find where de Faría's The Engineer crops up in the Superman teaser.

Remarkably, it only took someone a few hours to figure it out. World's Greatest Detective, eat your heart out.

As pointed out by Revistacine on Threads, you can see The Engineer skulking about on the rooftop of the Luthercorp building. You can see it for yourself below or at 1:30 in the trailer itself. Gunn even replied, saying, "Haha, you are correct!"

While the Superman trailer has made a fuss out of many of its heroes and villains – Lex Luthor, Guy Gardner, Mister Terrific, and Hawkgirl to name but a few – we've heard precious little about The Engineer, AKA Angela Spica.

In DC's comics, she's part of The Authority , a group of more hardline superheroes who were assembled by Superman after he began losing his powers.

While DC Studios hasn't officially confirmed which side of the hero/villain divide the character will sit on, we definitely know that The Authority (of which The Engineer is a part) will get their own feature film - and it sounds like they're up to no good.

The Authority will take matters "into their own hands to do what they believe is right," per the movie's official synopsis in 2023.

"Whether that means killing people, destroying heads of state, changing governments, you know, whatever they want to do to make the world better," Gunn previously outlined.

To double down on their shades-of-gray standing, co-CEO of DC Studios Peter Safran compared the team to Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men. So they'll be villains in some people's eyes, but ultimately feel like they're doing the right thing for the greater good. All told, it's the sort of complex morality that could spark further interest in the DCU.

De Faría joins a cast that includes David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. The cast also features Isabela Merced, Nathan Fillion, Edi Gathegi, and Anthony Carrigan.

Superman, directed by James Gunn, kicks off the live-action portion of DCU Chapter One on July 11, 2025.

For more from all things Superman, check out our Superman trailer breakdown plus read James Gunn's thoughts on how he aims to strike a balance between Silver Age comics aesthetics and modern storytelling.