The Man of Steel was born in June 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in the comics. However, Superman was not brought to the big screen until 1978 by producer Alexander Salkind and director Richard Donner to commemorate the character’s 40th anniversary. Superman hasn’t starred in too many movies , which can be quite shocking considering his impact on mainstream culture. In fact, there are more Man of Steel projects canceled than completed. This has been due to many factors such as economic problems, loss of rights or discrepancies between the writers. Next we will review the stages through which the superhero has passed in his time in the cinema, as well as all his films .
Original stage: the Salkind era (1978 – 1987)
The first stage of the Superman movies is the considered series of Salkind films , which lasted almost a decade: from 1978 to 1987. During all these years, Christopher Reeve was in charge of interpreting the superhero.
Superman (1978)
The first film of the Kryptonian superhero was also the most expensive movie in history at the time. It told the story we all know of Kal-El’s beginnings on his collapsing home planet and his subsequent sending to Earth, where he is found by a couple of farmers from Smallville and raised as Kal-El’s own son. the. After adolescence, Clark would leave town to move to Metropolis, where he would end up facing Lex Luthor .
It was a film highly valued by critics both for its technical aspect, as well as for the double interpretation of Christopher Reeve and the direction of Richard Donner . Also, John Williams was commissioned to create a soundtrack that hasn’t aged since those days.
Superman II (1980)
The second Superman movie would come a couple of years later, but it wasn’t without its problems. The Salkinds (Alexander and Ilya) did not agree with the director’s vision , and decided to fire him when he had nearly three-quarters of the film done. In his place they put Richard Lester , who remade much of the film and kept only a third of Richard Donner’s work, which was not even credited in the film.
Superman II tells the story of several Kryptonians who are accidentally freed by Superman himself, who end up seeking revenge upon discovering that he is the son of Jor-El. Despite all the changes that its script underwent, the film was a success , as it retained part of the charm of the first part and was well valued in general terms.
Superman III (1983)
The third installment was again entrusted to Richard Lester, but lost Mario Puzo as screenwriter, one of the most important assets the Salkinds had at the time. It would tell the story of Ross Webster , a megalomaniac who decides to take revenge on Superman when the superhero destroys a crop on his property that was dangerous to the environment. Ross orders a computer expert to design a synthetic kryptonite to take on Superman, which would end up dividing him between Clark Kent and a dark Superman .
On this occasion, the film itself was highly criticized, both for its direction and for its lack of originality .
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
It was Christopher Reeve himself, who pulled the strings so that this film ended up being produced, getting the support of Cannon Films, Golan-Globus and Warner itself.
The story was proposed by Reeve , and was about nuclear disarmament . The film begins with the superhero attending the United Nations General Assembly and announcing that he will eliminate all nuclear weapons from the planet. However, Lex Luthor disagrees with Superman’s plans. The villain would end up cloning the superhero and creating a version of the protagonist powered by nuclear energy. The film was even weaker than the previous one, and would close out Reeve’s run as a superhero.
The Dark Period: Superman’s Canceled Projects
After the four movies, we wouldn’t see Superman on the big screen again until 2006 . In between there were all kinds of canceled projects. Superman V would end up being canceled due to the bankruptcy of Cannon Films, the production company that was behind the previous installment.
In 1993 , Warner regained the film rights to Superman and assigned the project to Jon Peters, who had produced Tim Burton’s two Batman films in 1989 and 1992. Peters would eventually hire screenwriter Jonathan Lemkin, who completely ignored the director’s guidelines. Warner and did the screenplay for Superman Reborn , which told the story of how Superman died and Lois gave birth to a new Superman. The story did not please Warner, as expected. Later, the project would be canceled after hiring a new screenwriter who did not end up convincing the studio either.
Jon Peters’ next flop was called Superman Lives . The script was entrusted to Kevin Smith, forcing him to comply with a series of absurd premises that the creator ignored. The film should have been released in 1998, directed by Tim Burton and starring Nicolas Cage. The film began shooting, but was stopped to rewrite the story. The rest were chained. Wesley Strick was hired, who demolished many of Smith’s ideas. Later, the director himself began to be unhappy with Peters, and seeing the financial situation of Warner at that time, the most sensible thing was to cancel the project. All this history is collected in the documentaryThe Death of Superman Lives: What Happened? , directed by Jon Schnepp.
However, three more films would still be cancelled . The first draft of Batman vs. Superman was commissioned from JJ Abrams, and would be canceled in 2002 . Later, the same artist wrote Superman: Flyby, which was canceled because Abrams felt that they did not have a sufficient budget. And finally, Superman Destruction would also end up on deaf ears in the early 2000s.
Superman Returns (2006)
Nearly three decades later, Bryan Singer decided to cancel two productions to direct Superman Returns for Warner Bros. Apparently, the director had been a big fan of Richard Donner’s work, and to a certain extent, Superman Returns was completely unaware of what had happened. in the two films after the Donner stage, so it could be considered a direct sequel to Superman II .
On this occasion, the Man of Steel would be played by Brandon Routh , quite unknown until then, but with a profile that was slightly reminiscent of Reeve. He was also given the role of Lex Luthor by Kevin Spacey . The film narrated Superman’s return to Earth after five years searching for survivors from his home planet, which had caused Lex Luthor to roam at ease with him.
This stage could have been much longer, since the film was quite successful, raising almost 400 million dollars and having very good reviews. The sequel was scheduled for summer 2009, but Warner ended up considering that the numbers had not been as spectacular as they imagined. The sequel was never written , but according to Singer, it would have been called The Man of Steel, that is, just as the subsequent reboot would end up being called .
DC Extended Universe
Another seven years passed and Warner Bros finally decided to give Superman a new chance, making a complete reboot of the franchise, and laying the foundations of what we now consider the DC Extended Universe .
Man of Steel (2013)
It is the current stage of Superman. It was born with Man of Steel (2013), where Henry Cavill was introduced as the protagonist and began the era of Zack Snyder , who in turn was influenced by Christopher Nolan, who had just succeeded with his The Dark Knight trilogy .
This film combines part of the two original films performed by Christopher Reeve, where the early life of Clark Kent is narrated , his evolution and his subsequent confrontation with the other survivor of Krypton, General Zod , who wants to destroy humanity.
Snyder’s vision was quite interesting, showing a very introverted Superman with very dark undertones. The box office was successful , making over $668 million at the box office.
Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Titled in Spain as Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice , this film takes place a year later than Man of Steel . On this occasion, Batman (now played by Ben Affleck) would see with his own eyes how the fight between Superman and Zod in Metropolis would end the entire Wayne Enterprises building due to the negligence of the Kryptonian himself, where Jack O’Dwyer ends up dying, Bruce Wayne’s henchman.
After these events, the Dark Knight ends up totally opposing the Kryptonian way of dispensing justice —as if his had previously passed through a court order— and decides to confront him. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor creates a monster from Zod’s DNA, which he names Doomsday .
Justice League (2017)
The Justice League movie began planning just after Man of Steel wrapped in 2012, and followed the events of its predecessor. Without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman—along with other DC superheroes—are unable to face Steppenwolf , a new threat to the world, so they come to the conclusion that the only way to face him is to resurrect Superman. .
The script was in charge of David S. Goyer and it was established that there would be two films in total, but not consecutive. Both would be directed by Snyder. However, everything would go wrong after the premiere of Batman vs. Superman , which had very bad reviews. Warnet decided to take weight off Snyder so as not to burn him out. This was added to the fact that the director and his wife were going through a bad time, so they both stepped aside and Joss Whedon was hired for the post -production of the film. Whedon would end up making multiple changes, even reshooting scenes and adding humor.
As if that were not enough, the criticism was quite negative . DC fans would start a campaign for Snyder to release his own montage of the film under the banner #RelasetheSnyderCut . And, for the first time in history, complaining on Twitter served a purpose. On March 18, 2021 , Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) was published on HBO (HBO Max in the US) , a ‘director’s cut’ adapted for television that was highly valued by critics, despite being an unnecessarily montage long.