Reports emerged this week claiming DC Studios was screen-testing Marisa Abela, Ella Purnell, and Adria Arjona for the role of Maxima in the upcoming “Man of Tomorrow” movie. The story, sourced from Deadline, spread quickly — but James Gunn moved fast to shut it down.
Posting on Threads, Gunn called the reporting “shoddy & incorrect” and said he was “frankly disappointed” in Deadline‘s lack of due diligence. Most strikingly, he said that while he has been friends with Arjona since casting her in “The Belko Experiment”, he has never even met Abela or Purnell. “If someone would have run these names by us we would have said it’s bullshit,” he wrote.
The rebuttal was forceful enough that Deadline issued a correction, removing Abela and Purnell’s names from the original article. Arjona’s connection to Gunn keeps her name in the conversation, though nothing has been confirmed.
What is confirmed: in a follow-up reply, Gunn revealed that casting for “Man of Tomorrow” casting is almost done, with just one role left to fill. Whether that remaining slot is Maxima — or someone else entirely — is the question fans are now asking.
“Man of Tomorrow” is currently scheduled for release in July 2027.
