Bryan Singer Wishes He Had Rebooted Superman; Wanted 'Darkseid' For RETURNS Sequel
X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer reveals what he would do differently if he could go back and remake Superman Returns, going on to reveal that 'Darkseid' would have been the main villain in a "pretty world-destroying" sequel. Hit the jump for details!
In the latest issue of Empire Magazine, X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer was asked to share his thoughts on how the reaction to Superman Returns has evolved over the years, with many now hailing it as one of the worst comic book movies ever. "Half of that I understand and half of it I never will," Singer told them. "It was a movie made for a certain kind of audience. Perhaps more of a female audience. It wasn't what it needed to be, I guess. I think I could lop the first quarter off and start the movie a bit more aggressively and maybe find a way to start the movie with the jet disaster sequence or something. I could have grabbed the audience a little more quickly. I don'y know what would have helped. Probably nothing. If I could go again, I would do an origin. I would reboot it."
So, that's how the director would change Superman Returns, but what of the sequel that was set to follow the movie? As it turns out, that too was meant to be called Man of Steel ("That was the title. Actually, my buddy, one of my two best friends, came up with that."), while Darkseid would have been the villain. "We did explore it a little. Just hammering out ideas. I think Darkseid was going to be the villain. It was pretty world-destroying, actually." We'll now never know what that movie would have looked like, but why exactly did Singer decide to not make it? "I ended up having the opportunity to go and make Valkyrie, and I think the studio lost interest at that point," he reveals. "I can't say it was all the studio's fault and I can't say it was all my fault. It just fizzled out." What do you guys think?
About The Author:
A lifelong comic book fan who grew up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series in the '90s, Josh Wilding has been contributing to ComicBookMovie.com since 2009.
While he's also written for websites like Batman-News, HeyUGuys, and WhatCulture, Josh is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic for CBM and the site's #1 contributor with nearly two decades of experience covering film and TV news (including interviews with Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Gary Oldman, Halle Berry, Jon Bernthal, Tom Welling, and hundreds more).
Based in the UK with his wife, Josh is also an avid WWE and Formula 1 fan and writes about those passions on CBM's sister sites, TheRingReport.com and FullThrottleHQ.com. Favourite superhero? Spider-Man. Favourite pro wrestler? CM Punk. Favourite F1 driver? Max Verstappen.