As we reported a few days ago, Brandon Routh, who starred as Superman in the 2006 film “Superman Returns,” will return as the Man of Steel once more for The CW’s upcoming “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event. In an interview with ET Online during San Diego Comic-Con, Brandon Routh spoke about how it feels to get to play Superman again.
“I am very grateful to have the opportunity to play four characters in the crossover,” Routh marveled. “Coming back to play Superman and Clark, alongside Tyler, who’s done a fantastic job on Supergirl, to have two Supermen on screen at the same time I think will be a lot of fun. And also, [we’ll] have Atom and Ray Palmer around for some fun, too.”
Routh, who played the heroic role in director Bryan Singer’s 2006 film, Superman Returns, joked that he’s “working on getting back into Superman [shape]” to play the part again. “You gotta be prepared for the photo shoot that might happen, and also to feel like the guy, inside.”
He couldn’t dish too much on the crossover, but the actor did admit that he’s had “very specific talks about [the cape].”
“There’s a certain regality to it,” he explained, prompting co-star Caity Lotz to jokingly demand, “I want a cape!”
Source: ETonline.com
It’s so great seeing Brandon talk about playing the role of Superman again. I’m really looking forward to seeing him as the Man of Steel again.
Brandon Routh returns to Superman role,BEST SUMMER NEWS EVER!!!!
I think he’s basically going to be Kingdom Come Superman which I really don’t see him as being old enough to play but maybe they’ll age him up a little. While I’m not a huge fan of SR I think Brandon did get a bit of a raw deal and I’m glad he’ll get a chance to revisit the character and get some closure out of that whole thing.
If his Superman interacts with Ray Palmer that should be hilarious.
Kingdom Come Superman,I’ll take it. I’m just really really happy that this is happening and that he is coming back to the role. I also wonder if Ray and Clark will have a scene together. I bet that it will be fun to watch.
So are they combining elements of Crisis and Kingdom Come? If so, will we see Magog from Kingdom Come?
I don’t know if they are doing that so much as having Kingdom Come Superman be in the same role as Earth-2 Superman in the comics COIE and having Tyler effectively in the role of the Earth 1 Superman.
I blame the shortcomings of SR on singer, Dougherty and Harris being creatively bankrupt when it comes to Superman. I thought Routh could have been great had he been given a chance to have a fresh start and not mimic Chris Reeve.
Yeah I see him being too young for Kingdom come Superman as well. They’re always trying to make him play a Superman that’s older than what he actually is.
I hope they let him be his own Superman now and don’t have him mimic Reeve again. I’ve always liked Brandon and thought he got a bad deal and I’m glad he has a second life with the role.
Personally I really liked how he reminded me of Reeve. However, I’m getting the impression that he will play a different version of Superman. If that’s the case, then it’s likely this version of Superman, like Hoechlin’s Superman, is a alternate version of Reeve’s. Now I’m not saying it’s going to be the same or that Hoechlin’s is the same as Reeve, but since this is the multiverse, more than one version of the same character is possible. Hoechlin’s Superman has some inspiration from Reeve as well as other interpretations of the Man of Steel. So basically he might look… Read more »
I actually do hope they let Routh be his own version of Superman instead of copying Reeve. Let him be charismatic in the role. I’ve had enough of stoic Superman.
The one thing that bothered me about Brandon’s role in SR is that he was given so little to say, and when he was talking, He was either brooding, sad, or confused… or parroting Chris Reeve’s line from the first Superman movie. Never got to hear him speak positively or inspirationally (which many of us feel is Superman’s REAL superpower). It wasn’t until Brandon returned to TV work that we got to see how talented he really was. As for his age, he’s not a 20-something anymore, though he looks great physically. AND I am sure that his afore mentioned… Read more »
I know that he was repeating what Reeve said about “flying,statistically speaking is the safest way to travel”, but I thought that was a positive thing he said while in the role of Superman, even though it was Reeve’s line from the first Superman movie. Still you do have a good point about them not giving him more lines and making him brooding, sad, and confused. I don’t blame him for that. That wasn’t his fault. That was the writers and Singers fault. I’d love to see Routh return as Superman in any Superman movie or tv series. I hope… Read more »
Oops! I should have put “ when he said” in front of flying and I should have deleted about at the beginning of my last paragraph. Lol! My fingers got ahead of me again. Ha ha ha.
For me, I was looking for something new… not the same stuff I had already seen and heard in other movies. That’s not Brandon’s fault but the fault of the writers and Bryan singer whose only knowledge of the character was the donner movies. SR doesn’t know what it wants to be… sequel, remake, something new… it failed on all 3 fronts because it wouldn’t commit to any one thing. And it seemed to have no faith in Brandon.
I couldn’t agree with you more about Rouths lack of dialogue. It was the same thing with Cavill Superman as well. This, to me, is why audiences haven’t responded to the character… not because he’s boring or too powerful. His lack of personal agency really diluted the character in both continuities.
Even though I thought Spacey did a fantastic job as Lex, it’s unfortunate that Lex had way more dialogue than the hero and star of the film. It was called Superman Returns, not Lex Luthor Returns.
Even lex retreated familiar territory with the land scheme nonsense. Even his speech to to kitty (miss tessmacher) Was the same from the first movie. I just don’t understand why they didn’t commit to either remake or reboot.
It was meant to be a sequel of Superman II Donner cut
This is cool news, but Im worried. If he is doing heroics then the visuals have to live up to Superman Returns and I don’t think The CW can do that right without it looking a bit cheesy. On a side note, as Helen Slater, Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher, Erica Durance, Laura Vandervoort have all appeared at some point, why not have them in their older roles? Add in Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Marc McClure and others, that would be great. Burt Ward is going to be in it so anything is possible, and as for actors and actresses saying… Read more »
Well there’s still plenty of time till they start filming, so anything’s possibile with the other actors right?Who knows? Maybe Routh is the first in a line of previous actors and actresses to appear in this crossover. That would be so cool if it happens. As for the special effects, I think that they will be able to pull it off.
Hopefully they can do it, if it can go as far back as the 60’s Dick Grayson on the Batwoman crossover Im hopeful.
I don’t think welling will ever agree to don the cape, but maybe a cameo as Clark? I’m pretty sure he’s done with the role.
I would absolutely love to see Rosenbaum come back as lex though. He remains to this day the best interpretation of a modern day lex we’ve ever had.
I think It would be cool to mix and match different continuities… like throwing Routh in With Erica’s lois and Rosenbaums lex. That would be fun.
That would be so fun to see. Routh’s Superman interacting with Rosenbaum’s Lex and Erica’s Lois. Sounds great! But also bring in Welling’s Clark too.
I can’t stand the \s/ shield colors just being black and red. This is exactly what I figured would happen with him. There will probably be NO correlation between his role from SR and what we’re going to see in this cross over. Secondly……Superman Returns. Singer and company made the movie as a way of paying homage to the first two Reeves. That’s why there was a few references to each. I would be willing to bet that majority of people here haven’t watched SR in quite a while. Like any of these movies there’s always going to be questionable… Read more »
That airplane sequence is still amazing to this day… no argument here. I wish they had done more original ideas like that in the film rather than rehashing a bunch of Chris Reeve stuff. This is the problem with writers and directors who think the donner moves are canon. I was disappointed Routh didn’t get a chance to shine in an original story. I would have preferred to have an unconnected film with a lex that was a corrupt businessman. I’ll be curious to see if this kingdom come version will be connected to that Reeve version. I hope they… Read more »
You see,..you call it a re-hash. BUT….the thought was at the time, the STILL most talked about desirable Superman was Reeves, so they paralleled off the Donner era because it seemed like a logical direction to go. So SR gave us a more intimate association,..both with Clark and SM. And I for one had no problem with the amount of dialog each had. Trouble was according to some, there wasn’t some big bad monster/villain for him to fight and overcome. That’s what the plane save took the place of but it wasn’t recognized as such. And so the picking apart… Read more »
One other thing as well regarding SR. I’m sure there was much communication regarding what direction to go. And when they decided to go in the direction they did, a total reboot like MoS, wasn’t in the cards. It almost or DID turn out to be a “damned if you do and damned if you don’t environment. There was a lot of great action efforts through out the entire movie and it deserved WAY more credit for it than it got…….and still doesn’t.
MOS swung too far in the other direction without addressing what I thought was the real problem of SR and that was giving Superman much to say or do. Everyone is telling him what to do in both films and his character is never really developed. You’re supposed to just feel connected to him just because he’s Superman and that wasn’t enough.
That plane scene was very impressive.
I met Routh at a Con two years ago (and I’m going to get mileage out of my “he made me look shorter” story for the rest of my life), and he was a ridiculously nice and charming guy. I remember thinking “why didn’t they just let him do this for Superman?” Hopefully this time he won’t be so chained down.
The biggest mistake of the last two incarnations has been not letting the actors natural charisma seep through to the character. Routh is actually a charming midwestern dude and seems like a natural for playing Superman. I’ll never know why they decided to go the silent savior route. Actually I do know why… they mistakingly thought that a do gooder Boy Scout type wouldn’t play to audiences. Meanwhile… captain America has retired being arguably the most popular character in the McU.
I thought Routh had plenty to say whether he was Clark or SM.
Sorry but I never found Capt America’s chattiness that overwhelming or even interesting in making any of the overrated Marvel movies memorable.
Whether or not if Brandon will play the same Superman from Superman Returns, I’m just happy he’s coming back. This is great news! Am I right? or Am I right? This is so exciting! I can’t wait!
Superman Returns relied too much on people’s previous knowledge of the franchise which ended 20 years prior… not a promising way to introduce a character to new audiences. Of course the material is familiar to us as Superman fans, but I would hardly expect a new audience to be privy to all the info and not enough new material or new dialogue was introduced. It mostly relied on the Reeve material, which for me personally, I didn’t want. I enjoyed it nonetheless but left disappointed at what could have been. They took a similar approach with Snyder’s version and expected… Read more »
It will be interesting to see what direction they will take his Superman. I know that I keep saying this but I can’t wait to see this! Wow!This is so exciting!
sundevil…..I believe that the mind set behind SR was that they didn’t need to re-introduce Superman. That’s why they skipped all the rocketed to Earth as a baby and raised by the Kent’s, etc. Instead he rocketed back to Earth as an adult. Although there were some selected scenes that played off of the first two Reeves movies, I didn’t find that they overwhelmed the general story line. Snyder’s version was complete re-boot. And I believe that after the negative comparisons of SR to the Donner era that wiping the slate clean and starting over was all they really had… Read more »
NO, they skipped the rocket to Earth and all the other origin aspects because SR was meant to be a direct sequel to Donner’s version of Superman II, not a reboot or remake.
Loose sequel.. to be fair. Too many things that didn’t make sense for it to have been a direct sequel to either version.
That is simply not correct. Singer himself said, SR was made to pay homage to the first two Reeves movies. Some have taken that out of context and applied “sequel” to that. There was too many inconsistencies to say it was a direct sequel.
Actually the Donner cut came out November of 2006 while Returns came out in June. I don’t think the footage of the Donner cut was available yet for Singer to base returns on prior to its release. Most likely it was the Lester version he was referencing. Plus at the end of the Donner version , Superman reversed time to send Zod back to the Phantom Zone and preventing everything that occurred throughout the duration of the story including Lex finding the fortress and Lois finding out Clark is Superman. In Returns Lex knows where the fortress is and Lois… Read more »
I don’t know why my last post went to the wrong place.
Singer worked with Donner. The line about the father becoming the sun and the son becoming the father is directly from the Donner cut
Yes but did Donner confirm that it’s from his cut, or is it just speculation? A lot of things don’t add up for it to be a direct sequel. Superman reversed time in the Donner cut preventing the events that had taken place. Luthor would still be in jail and he would have never have found the fortress of Solitude and he wouldn’t have had the knowledge of where it was or what it is because he would’ve still have been in prison thanks to Superman’s earth spin time reversal. Superman and Lois would not have had a child because… Read more »
And the son becoming the father line was originally in the first movie at the beginning when Jor-el had placed Kal-el in the ship, and it was not just in the second movie Donner cut version. Most likely Singer wanted to use the line from baby Kal-el’s space ship send off scene as another nod in a long line of nods to the first Superman film for his film.
And to further my point, when Lex, Kitty, and the rest of his group arrived at the fortress in Returns, Kitty asked about the fortress to witch Lex responded that this was the place where he found out who he was and that it’s where he came for guidance. Kitty then remarked that Lex acts like he’s been there before. Lex would not have known of the knowledge of the fortress since Superman had reversed time to prevent his first visit in SII Donner cut. But in Lester’s version of SII, Superman didn’t reverse time, so Lex retained that knowledge… Read more »
Is there any quote from Singer or Donner where they say “Returns is a sequel to the Donner cut?” If there is a direct quote from either of them, then I will consider that it is. But until then, the knowledge of Donner working with Singer is just not enough to convince me that it is.
Why don’t we just agree to disagree on this one? What do you say? Can we please move on to the next topic? I think that it would be a great idea.
watch the commentary on the special features of SR they bring it up numerous times
Look, you want to believe that, that’s fine. I don’t agree, and frankly at this point I just want to move from this debate and the other debate further down this comment section as well.We clearly don’t agree on these topics so I’ll say it again. Let’s agree to disagree and move on. We could go on and on and on and on debating on why it is or isn’t a sequel to Donner cut. I would be giving my reasons why it’s not, and then you would be giving reasons why it is. So again, I say let’s just… Read more »
Belief has nothing to do with it, it is on the commentary of the movie.It’s not a debate it’s a statement of fact. Watch it or don’t, I don’t care
Two people who have different views on a subject and are trying to prove their own point of view is called a debate. We are debating whether or not Superman Returns is a sequel to the Donner cut of Superman II. Just because Donner collaborated with Singer on making Returns, doesn’t necessarily make it a sequel to his own film. For example,Nolan collaborated with Snyder for Batman V Superman, but that doesn’t mean that Batman V Superman is a sequel to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.True that Returns was a love letter to the original two Superman films. I’ll give… Read more »
Maybe he was being funny when he made you look shorter. You’re so lucky to have met him. I hope that I get to meet him one day. Maybe he will make me look shorter. That’s something that I would laugh about. Ha ha ha.
Honestly, I don’t think he was consciously thinking about it. Most other photo ops I’ve had, the celeb put their arm across the back of my shoulders. Routh put his arm over the top of my shoulder and firmly, but not rudely, pushed down. The result was that I look about two inches shorter in the picture, even though I was just a little bit taller than him standing straight.
I guess I don’t have to worry about him making me look shorter than him if I do get to meet him. I’m nowhere near his height. Ha ha ha.
I’ve just had a “scary” thought. I read a snippet of an interview that said the Crisis is going to start with a bunch of universes being wiped out. What if Routh’s Superman is basically just a cameo where he appears on an Earth just before it is destroyed?
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Whilst it would be fun to see Ray and Routh-erman interact I think both characters will be kept apart throughout most of the Crisis to save on production costs whether or not Routher-man survives.
I hope that’s not the case about it being just a cameo and having his world destroyed. I don’t think that they would do that to Routh’s Superman since he has a big following of Superman fans. It would be an insult to them if they did, and it most likely wouldn’t be good for their ratings if they did do that. Lets just hope that they give Brandon a respectful Superman role that all of us Superman fans can be proud of and enjoy.
I hope so to…but then I think about how they utterly wasted the return of Jon Wesley Shipp as The Flash in the last crossover. They jobbed him so quick.
What you said about Shipp’s Flash is true MattComics, and it is possibile that they could do the same to Routh’s Superman,however I don’t think that they would do that twice. The big rumor around the MCU right now is a possible live action spiderverse. So for DC tv to do it first with two Superman actors playing Superman would be a huge thing. And it would be a waste of an opportunity to not have a team up with both of these Supermen. I am wondering if they will go mostly by what the Cisis on infinite earths story… Read more »
Most likely, similar to 90s Flash in the last crossover and the Smallville characters seen laid out in the one scene, just there to acknowledge their existence.
Like I said before,we won’t know till December. But I’m thinking that they wouldn’t be that disrespectful to the Routh Superman fans by doing that. If they are going by the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic, then most likely he will survive the upcoming crossover events.
Why not, they were that disrespectful to the fans of those other versions? Why should a character from a tepidly received movie 13 years old garner any more respect? Especially considering how they treat the Superman actually from that universe.
Wow. Only three or four days since the news of Routh’s return to the Superman role and already there’s talk of the worst outcome for his character. I mean come on. We don’t know anything yet. Why assume the worst with so little info? I just don’t understand it. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m going to give it a chance and not jump to negative conclusions. And by the way, in the Crisis on infinite earths comic,the older earth 2 Superman lives by the end of the story. Since they are going in that direction, it’s logical… Read more »
Furthermore last year when Hoechlin had reprised the Superman role wearing black, some assumed that he had turned evil, and that it would be a round 2 of the Supergirl vs Superman fight. This was not the case. It was a madman who had taken the image and powers of Superman. Granted the fight between Superman and his fake version was not what it should have been, but point is some people came to one conclusion without even considering that that might not be the case. All I’m saying is that there are many ways that this crossover could go.… Read more »
And in regards to respect. They have worked with Routh for years now. They know what Superman means to him and to his fans. They wouldn’t disrespect him that way I believe. Again I say, I can’t speak for anyone else. If people want to believe the worst, well that’s their choice. I don’t understand it, but it’s still their choice. But as for me, I’m an optimist. I have said that in the past that Routh’s return to the Superman role was possible do to the multiverse. People didn’t believe me and said that it would never happen, but… Read more »
Correction to that last line, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be a bad scenario or ending for Routh’s Superman.
If anything, That scene is proof of how they mishandled Superman, He got his ass handed to him and Kara had to come save him. Superman has consistently gotten the shaft in this series, no reason to think that will change now.
Again not denying that that scene was poorly handled, however as I said before jumping to negative conclusions with very little information makes little sense. Like saying “ what a great sunny day it is in July! I think that it will snow three feet today.” All we know is that it will be based on Crisis on infinite Earths. Brandon said that himself in an interview. And going by the resurch on that book, Superman of Earth 2 survives. And as I said before, people assumed one thing on last year’s crossover about Superman fighting Supergirl again and they… Read more »
And I don’t think that he would have said yes to coming back if they were going to treat his Superman poorly. In the interview he said that this will give him a chance to say hello and goodbye in a way that he couldn’t do before. So it sounds to me that he approves of the kind of script that they have planned for him.And as I said before, he’s a big Superman fan, and they know that he is. Superman is a part of his own professional history. And I’m positive that they want to acknowledge that respectfully… Read more »
Nothing they’ve done thus far has held even remotely close to the source, what they did in the books means nothing in this context
Well then it’s a matter of wait and see now isn’t it. After all, none of us can see the future right? And unless someone leaks info on the episodes( not that I want to know spoilers, because I don’t. I try to stay away from spoilers), I doubt we will know before the episodes air. If you want to think that this crossover will be bad, then that’s fine. That’s your opinion. I have my own opinion.So like I said many times before, I’m going to wait and see before jumping to conclusions.
And from my perspective this is what I hear from some of the reactions of Routh’s return. “ Did you hear? Brandon Routh is coming back to the Superman role! Oh wow! Really? Well It’s not going to go well with the episodes. To bad.” I mean what? Seriously? Only a week into the news of his return and there’s already speculation that it’s going to be bad. There’s not that much info even about the crossover to even speculate what the whole plot will be about. Yes we have some names of heroes and a couple of villains and… Read more »
As with my previous suggestion, can agree to disagree? This debate could be going on for quite some time, and truthfully I’m finding it hard now to see which posts are the most recent ones to reply to. So I say let’s agree that we both have our own opinions, and that’s ok.
I’m seeing some speculation on what version of Superman Routh will play. Some say it will be a continuation of where he left off after his Returns film. Others say it will be a version directly out of the Crisis comic or the Kingdom come comic. Some even say that he will play a future version of Hoechlin’s Superman. Or an entirely new version of Superman all together. My point is we don’t know much yet. All we know is that this story will be inspired by the Crisis comic, Routh’s return to the Superman role while possibly wearing the… Read more »
If we all go by what we’ve seen so far then it makes sense we’re not going to see any actual resemblance to how he was to SR. It would make absolutely no sense for him to reprise his role from SR.
It was a great nostalgic nod having John W Ship as the original Flash but his role was barley nothing more than a visual appearance. I would expect this to follow the same path.
I don’t know redcape. The footage I saw online from the comic con event had a crowd that cheered when he revealed his S symbol. Now as far as I know, Shipp didn’t have that at last year’s comic con for his Flash. So to do that to his character in this upcoming crisis crossover I believe wouldn’t be wise. They could lose viewers if they did go that route in my opinion. And like I said before, if they are going for the Crisis story, then by the end of the crossover, the older Clark and Lois will end… Read more »
I meant to say that Hoechlin’s Superman might not survive.
I didn’t release that yesterday was actor Terence Stamp’s birthday. Happy belated birthday Terence! I guess we should all take a knee and “ Kneel before Zod!” Ha ha ha.
Oops I meant to say realize not release. Ha ha