Fresh off of the success of The Mummy franchise, Brendan Fraser was once in consideration for a Superman adaptation from J.J. Abrams and produced by Brett Ratner.
Recalling the experience of screen-testing for the would-be flick that never came to pass (Warner Bros. ultimately settled on Bryan Singer’s version, the 2006 Superman Returns), the Rental Family actor said that while he connected with the script, he wasn’t sure he was prepared to tackle such a blockbuster role, which was likely to have come with a lengthy time commitment and weighty legacy.
“I loved that screenplay,” he told Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast. “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.”
Noting that the project was shrouded in secrecy and taking a photo of himself in the “big guy suit” was “anathema,” the Academy Award winner reflected on what it would mean to be forever associated with the Man of Steel.
“You feel a little certain anxiety anyway when you’re going up on some big job,” he said, “but I also remember thinking: ‘If I do get this job, then, well, I think Superman’s gonna be chipped on my gravestone.’ There’s an element of, you are that for the rest of your days, your career. And that’s not a bad thing; I’m not saying it’s gonna kill me any time soon, but it is something that becomes part of your entire brand, who you are. And I don’t know if I was ready to take that on then. I mean, I felt I was because [it was a] big opportunity, and excitement, et cetera, et cetera.”
Ultimately, however, Fraser characterized the experience with the words filmmaker Terry George shared with him on the set of 2012’s Whole Lotta Sole: “What’s not for you will pass you by.”
That said, on the development side of things, DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn made it known last year that despite his own iteration of Superman, the rousing box office banger starring David Corenswet as the righteous Kryptonian, Abrams’ version was still in progress.
In 2021, it was reported that Abrams was producing a Superman reboot with Ta-Nehisi Coates attached as a writer. No plot for the film was revealed, but this Kal-El would exist in an alternate universe not connected to Gunn’s 2025 film.
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