In the early ’00s, Warner Bros. was desperately trying to get a Superman reboot off the ground. This was after the studio canceled Tim Burton’s Superman Lives in the ’90s, and they were back at square one. They went to Alias and Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams, who developed a script called Superman: Flyby, that would have reintroduced the Man of Steel for the 21st century. Most of the biggest actors of that era auditioned to play Superman, including Brendan Fraser, fresh off the success of The Mummy films. While promoting his film Rental Family on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast (via Deadline), Fraser talked about what it was like almost being Clark Kent, and the “Shakespearean” J.J. Abrams version he loved:
I loved that screenplay. They let me read it. They locked me in an empty office in some studio lot, I signed an NDA. It was printed black on crimson paper, so you couldn’t photocopy it or sneak it out the door inconspicuously. I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good screenplay.
Despite all the security around the script, details of it leaked online anyway. The fan reaction was not kind to the changes in Superman lore. In Abrams’ version, Krypton did not explode. Superman’s father, Jor-El, who ruled the planet, sent him to Earth to fulfill a prophecy. Jor-El and his brother, Kata-Zor, were locked in an endless civil war. Eventually, Kata-Zor’s children would come to Earth and battle their cousin, which resulted in Superman’s (temporary) death. Ever since the 1992 Death of Superman storyline, every cinematic iteration of the character has tried to replicate this story. This version reimagined Lex Luthor as a CIA operative, and the last-minute twist would reveal him as a Kryptonian sleeper agent. It would have begun a trilogy about Superman trying to liberate his birth planet.
Universal Pictures/DC Comics
Once the word got out that the fans hated the changes, Warner Bros. got cold feet on this version. At the time, Brett Ratner was going to direct it. This was an early example of online nerd fandom dictating how a franchise should present on film. For good or bad, that’s a tradition that has remained. Warner Bros decided to go for a more straightforward sequel with Superman Returns. But one could argue that they didn’t really get it right again until James Gunn’s Superman. Even though Fraser loved this take on Superman, he admitted he was glad it didn’t work out, as actors who play the character often become typecast. We’d love to see a photo of him in the suit though. We are sure he filled it out nicely.
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