11 Actors You Didn’t Know Nearly Played Superman

Come this October, Teen Wolf star Tyler Hoechlin will play Superman in a guest spot on Supergirl. In doing so, he will join the long line of actors who have donned the red cape of the Kryptonian hero on the small and silver screens. An even longer list, though, consists of all those actors who were considered for the role at one time or another but did not eventually nail the part. For instance, current incumbent of the role Henry Cavill first auditioned for Clark Kent for 2006’s Superman Returns but lost out to Brandon Routh. And when Cavill was later cast in 2013’s Man of Steel, he beat other frontrunner Matthew Goode (Ozymandias in Watchmen) to the part. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg (or should that be Fortress of Solitude?). Read on for 11 other actors that you probably weren’t aware nearly played the Man of Steel. 11) Nicolas Cage Let’s start with the most famous almost-Superman ever. After the success of his Batman movies, Tim Burton was hired to helm a Superman reboot, Superman Lives. Despite the film going through several redrafts from different writers (including Kevin Smith) and a release date planned for 1998, the project eventually disintegrated. Nevertheless, Burton did hire his (peculiar) choice for the Man of Steel when the film was still operational – and it was none other than self-confessed comic book fan Nicolas Cage. Though he didn’t get to shoot any material, Cage did attend several costume fittings. As you can see, he would have sported a mullet and a more metallic outfit. We’ve no idea how the actor would have fared in the role, but his casting has become the stuff of movie legend ever since. 10) Arnold Schwarzenegger One of the things that makes Nicholas Cage a strange choice for Superman is that he didn’t have the right physique. Well, you certainly can’t say that about Arnold Schwarzenegger – if there's anyone alive who looks like he could leap tall buildings in a single bound, it would be him. Though he was never actually offered the role, Schwarzenegger was on an early list of contenders before Christopher Reeve was cast. Also on that list were Robert Redford (who demanded too much money), Nick Nolte (who wanted Clark Kent to be schizophrenic) and James Caan (who refused to wear the tight suit). Let’s be thankful Arnie didn’t nab the role. We know he’s an alien, but an Austrian-sounding Superman would be too much of a stretch. 9) Will Smith After the death of Superman Lives, Warner Bros. knocked around several different versions of a new Superman movie, with each of them intending to be radical departure from what had come before. One of these ideas was to rejuvenate the character be changing his skin tone. Will Smith was approached to become the Man of Tomorrow, which would have made him the first black actor in any medium to portray Superman. However, he turned the role down. “The script came, and I was like, ‘There is no way I’m playing Superman!’” Smith explained. “Because I had already done Jim West , and you can’t be messing up white people’s heroes in Hollywood!” 8) Zac Efron In a move that would have had comic book fans spontaneously combusting if it had come to pass, High School Musical star Zac Efron was allegedly approached to play Superman Back in 2010, it got around that the actor had turned down the part in an early version of what would become Man of Steel – and he did it on the advice of Leonardo DiCaprio. According to an insider source from gossip site Surfme: “Zac feels he’s very much following in the footsteps of Leo and respects his opinion. He didn’t turn Superman down because of him but Leo was unsure whether it would be the best move for him. It’s a massive franchise. Zac is now chasing more dramatic roles in independent movies.” 7) Josh Hartnett Another actor who shunned Superman in favour of lesser-known roles was Josh Hartnett. Around the turn of the millennium, Hartnett was the latest teen heartthrob who looked set for big things – superhero movies, in particular. As well as being considered for Batman and Spider-Man, he was a prospective Supes, too. On two occasions, no less. First, Wolfgang Peterson offered the part to Hartnett for his abandoned Batman vs. Superman movie. Once Warner Bros. decided a multi-superhero movie wasn’t for them (ha!), Brett Ratner asked him again for his Superman: Flyby project. Both times, however, the actor turned it down. 6) Ashton Kutcher After Hartnett turned them down, Ratner and Warner Bros. needed to find a new leading man for Superman: Flyby. They decided on – yet another bizarre choice – That 70s Show star Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher even screen tested in the Superman costume (as well as Clark Kent’s suit), opposite Felicity’s Keri Russell reading as Lois Lane. It seemed that the production team were happy to go ahead with him in the part, but the actor himself turned it down. “It did not feel right. I hadn't worked out or done anything right. ... I was like a rail with fake muscles. It looked funny,” Kutcher explained. “I don’t think I could be a superhero who was in tights. I could play He-Man.” Uh, keep holding on to that dream, Ashton. 5) Jude Law Though Kutcher didn’t feel right in the Superman suit, Jude Law definitely did – it just wasn’t enough to convince him to take the role. Surprise, surprise, Law was another actor considered for Superman: Flyby. His test for the role was curiously private, as he was sent the costume to try on in private. “I go in the bathroom, put it on and look in the mirror, and suddenly, I am Superman,” Law said. “And it is an amazing costume. My chest pops up and the music comes on… That was it. I got it out of my system. I took it off, put it in the bag, and was like, “I’m not going to do it. I saw myself… No need for the rest of the world to see me.” 4) Paul Walker When the late Fast and Furious star Paul Walker was offered the role of the Man of Steel in – do I even need to say it anymore? – Superman: Flyby, he turned to an expert on the character for advice; the director of the original Superman movie, Richard Donner. Walker later spoke about their chat, saying: “We had conversations and by the end of it, the closing thing I said, ‘Do you think I need it, should I do it?’ He said, ‘For what sake?’ I said, ‘Financially.’ He said, ‘No kid, you do it if you want to do it.’ I said, ‘Well I don’t think I want to die as Superman.’ And he said, ‘Well there’s your answer, don’t do it.’ And that was it.” 3) Brendan Fraser After all these actors turned it down, Superman: Flyby did eventually find a willing star – The Mummy actor Brendan Fraser. The trouble this time, though, was that the studio weren’t keen on him. He later revealed that: “It seems as if then the big monster studio machine and all the machinations behind it, all the cogs and wheels rolling, suddenly it went from an ‘offer’ to ‘subject to a screen test’ blah, blah, blah, ‘subject to approval’…” Apparently what drew Fraser to the role is exactly what made fans glad the movie never happened – the re-imagining of the Superman mythos. Written by future Star Trek/Wars director J.J. Abrams, Flyby would have made Supes a martial arts expert, kept Krypton alive and made Lex Luthor a Kryptonian secret agent! 2) Sylvester Stallone He’s got the eye of the tiger… and heat and X-ray vision? Yup, as unlikely as it sounds, Rocky Balboa himself Sylvester Stallone was in the running for the Man of Steel before Christopher Reeve got the role in the 1978 movie. Stallone is actually a dedicated life-long fan of the character and lobbied hard for the part. Unfortunately, he had an enemy working against him. Already cast as Kal-El’s father Jor-El was Marlon Brando, who had a very public ongoing feud with Stallone. With Brando having negotiated a lot of creative control on the movie, he was not about to let Stallone get the lead role. Apart from that, the producer Ilya Salkin also didn’t think the actor was right for the role, deeming him “too Italian.” 1) Muhammad Ali Of all of the names on this list, the late, great Muhammad Ali has got to be the least likely contender to play Superman. Apart from his obvious differences from the usual look of the character, he wasn't even an actor. Early on in the casting process for the 1978 movie though, Salkin briefly considered putting the boxing champ in the spandex suit. Casting a black man as Supes would be a surprising move now, let alone in the 1970s, so kudos to the guy for being so open-minded. In the end, Ali wasn’t actually formally approached for the part, so we'll never know if he would have been interested. Funnily enough, though, he would be immortalized in Superman comic Superman vs. Muhammad Ali the very year that the movie was released.