Superman flew back to the big screen in 2006 with the titular feature Superman Returns starring Brandon Routh. But before he was in Man of Steel, Henry Cavill also auditioned for the ambitious reboot. However, there was one particular reason why Routh was ultimately chosen over Cavill.
How Brandon Routh won ‘Superman Returns’ director over Henry Cavill
Controversial filmmaker Bryan Singer tried resurrecting Superman for a more contemporary audience with Routh as his lead. But before Routh was cast in the role, several hopeful actors were vying to don the superhero’s costume. This included Cavill, who was just 22 years old at the time when he auditioned for the role. But in an interview with Refinery 29, Cavill explained that a shift in management was what ultimately cost him the role.
“I screen tested for that role, yeah. McG was attached and there was a different script. I was high in the running. Whether I had got the role or not, I don’t know,” he said. “For whatever reason McG stopped the project. A new director came on with a new script, new ideas, and a whole new vision for the movie that I didn’t fit into. So, this was my second chance to play a great character and tell a great story.”
That director was Singer who, although was fond of Cavill’s screen test, felt Routh embodied the Christopher Reeve spirit Singer was going for.
“Um… I think Henry Cavill is great. I knew Henry. He and I were friends years ago. Oddly enough, the reason I didn’t cast him was because I was making a sequel to Christopher Reeve and I wanted somebody who embodied Reeve more,” Singer once told The Wrap.
Bryan Singer had one critique regarding Henry Cavill’s Superman
At the time, Cavill considered himself fortunate that he didn’t star in Superman Returns after all. Not getting the role allowed him to star in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel several years later.
“Did I have to fight for it? You fight for every job you audition for. The fight normally happens in places you don’t even realize. Like, you go in, audition, do your screen test, and then people will begin fighting on your behalf. I just did my best to try and get the role, and something right happened,” he said.
It might’ve helped that Singer’s Superman Returns wasn’t as successful as Snyder’s Man of Steel. The latter made more money at the box-office than the former, and ushered in a new but temporary cinematic universe. Although Singer was disappointed with how Superman Returns turned out, he admired Snyder’s work with Man of Steel.
“I am in awe of the world building and the scope of that picture. It’s tough for me. I’m not a critic and it starts to get into a weird thing where one director is talking about another director. I know how hard it is to make a movie, especially one of these movies and especially a Superman movie, and there was so much I was impressed with in that movie,” Singer said.
But if there was one slight criticism of the film, it was that Singer might’ve tweaked Cavill’s Superman a bit.
“There were things I might have done a little differently just because of the way I view the character. Don’t misinterpret that as me not liking something,” he said.
Bryan Singer explained why ‘Superman Returns’ failed
Singer had his own theory as to why Superman Returns wasn’t as successful as he would’ve hoped. The feature was both a reboot and a sequel to Reeve’s original 1978 film Superman The Movie. Singer felt his movie, ultimately being a love letter and homage to the original, proved to be its biggest weakness.
“I think that Superman Returns was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don’t think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer,” Singer once said according to The Hollywood Reporter. “What I had noticed is that there weren’t a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie, but they were going to line up to see The Devil Wears Prada, which may have been something I wanted to address. But when you’re making a movie, you’re not thinking about that stuff, you’re thinking, ‘Wow, I want to make a romantic movie that harkens back to the Richard Donner movie that I loved so much.’ And that’s what I did.”
