When will Superman enter the public domain?

Public domain laws are weird, but kind of wonderful, characters like Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, and even King Kong are all in the public domain, meaning if you wanted to make a movie where the world’s most recognizable detective and Frankenstein’s monster fight a giant ape you could totally do that and even release it in theaters.

Superman is a character plenty of people would love to get their hands on. Just think of the possibilities: You could make your own Superman movie, or have him interact with other public domain characters. I’m just spitballing, but here’s a few ideas off the top of my head: have Superman robbing banks with his partner in crime: Cthulu, or write a love story between the Man of Steel and Jay Gatsby. The possibilities are practically endless. 

Films that take a well known character and put them in a completely different situation have already been made before. For example, in 2022, a certain little yellow bear entered the public domain and so we got Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a slasher film where Pooh and Piglet went on a killing spree. As you’d expect, it’s not very good.

The most recent addition to the list of public domain characters is Disney’s own mascot, Mickey Mouse himself. Well, technically it’s the first version of the character, who appeared in the animated short, Steamboat Willie.  Anyways, it’s not too long before we can expect to see Superman become a part of the public domain too!

So when will Superman enter the public domain?

The character debuted in 1938 and according to U.S. laws any property or character created before 1978 will go into public domain after 95 years. That means that the last year that DC owns the copyrights to that version of the character will be 2033, from 2034 onwards, Superman will be public domain. 

So we now have less than a decade until we could start seeing fan made Superman films. That’s a pretty exciting thought, although fan made super-hero projects don’t always turn out great, *cough* Spider-Man: Lotus *cough* but still, it will be cool to see what others come up with.

What other DC characters are set to enter the public domain?

In 2035 Batman will also become public domain so it’s possible we could see a remake of Batman vs. Superman. Even with no budget, it couldn’t be much worse than the 2016 version. In 2036, the Joker will no longer be protected, and then in 2037 Wonder-Woman will also be free from copyright laws. It’s pretty wild to think that these characters have all been around for nearly a century.

Of course, it’s still a legal minefield, companies like Disney are notorious for fiercely protecting their characters, and DC and Warner Bros. will likely be just as protective. It’s also important to remember that only the original versions of the character will be public domain, so we won’t be getting fan films based off of Henry Cavill’s or Christopher Reeve’s versions, as those are technically still protected by copyright.