David Corenswet is our new Superman and, although we’re still a ways from seeing him in the legendary red and blue, the actor’s recent public appearances amid his training for Superman: Legacy reveal that he’s undergone a jaw-dropping body transformation to portray the Last Son of Krypton.
As is par for the course for any Marvel or DC hero, it was expected that Corenswet would bulk up considerably to lead the DCU’s much-anticipated reboot, but the extent to which Corenswet has piled on the muscle indicates he might just be the most physically intimidating Superman we’ve yet seen on screen.
That remains to be seen for sure, but what we can already ascertain is whether David Corenswet is the tallest Superman on screen. How do the heights of the various Kryptonian heroes from movies and TV match up? Let’s whip out our tape measures…
10. Dean Cain — 5’11
Thanks to his frequent appearances on the likes of Fox News, Dean Cain is many people’s least favorite Superman these days, and wouldn’t you know it, is also the shortest. In fact, Cain — who starred in 1990s favorite Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman — is the only Supes actor to fall below six-foot tall.
9. Nicholas Cage — 6’0
OK, so Superman Lives never actually happened, but canonizing Nicolas Cage as Superman is one of the few reasons we should be thankful for The Flash. It was hard to judge Cage’s Kal-El’s height when he was fighting that CGI robot spider, but in real life, the one and only Nic Cage is 183 cm tall.
8. Tyler Hoechlin — 6’0
Tyler Hoechlin is the perfect leading man for The CW’s Superman & Lois, but yes, he is among the shorter Supermen out there. His relatively short stature was apparent in 2019’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event in which Hoechlin shared the screen with the much taller Tom Welling and Brandon Routh (more on those in a moment).
7. Kirk Alyn — 6’1
Kirk Alyn has the honor of being the very first actor to portray Superman in live-action, with the performer chosen thanks to his athletic figure and background in dance. His 6’1 frame likely helped land him the role, too, even if Alyn isn’t one of the biggest takes on the character these days.
6. Henry Cavill — 6’1
Thanks to his bulging biceps, and the way he tends to play physically imposing characters (see Mission: Impossible, The Witcher, heck, even Enola Holmes), it may come as a shock to his fans that Henry Cavill doesn’t break into the top five tallest Supermen of all time. Sorry, Henry!
5. George Reeves — 6’2
Kirk Alyn may have been the first, but George Reeve is certainly the most iconic Superman of Hollywood’s Golden Age, thanks to his multiple appearances as the hero in both film and television across the 1950s. Sure enough, he also had an extra inch on Alyn (and Cavill too).
4. Tom Welling — 6’3
Tom Welling may have never worn the Superman suit (the closest he came was the climactic shirt-ripping scene from the Smallville finale), but nobody can deny that he was pitch-perfect casting for Clark Kent. Apart from his looks being a close match for the comics, he also had the 6’3 height to go with it.
3. Brandon Routh — 6’3
Matching Welling’s 190 cm height is Brandon Routh, who ironically had the opposite Superman career from the Smallville star. While Welling played Clark over 200 times but never wore the suit, Routh donned the full regalia but only got the one movie, 2006’s Superman Returns (and a cameo in “Crisis on Infinite Earths”).
2. Christopher Reeve — 6’4
There are many reasons why Christopher Reeve is viewed as the most definitive Superman of them all, and perhaps part of that is because of his lofty 193 cm height. Famously, Reeve was able to utilize his lanky frame in different ways to differentiate the awkward Clark Kent and the confident Kal-El.
1. David Corenswet — 6’4
Yes, after 45 years, the Superman franchise has finally found an actor to play the part who’s as tall as Christopher Reeve. Not only could Corenswet potentially be the bulkiest Supes we’ve seen, but he’s also the joint tallest. Whether that means any of Reeve’s acclaim will rub off on him too, we’ll have to see. In the meantime, if anyone can donate a stool for the 5’2 Rachel Brosnahan, who’s playing Legacy‘s Lois Lane, the production team would probably appreciate it.
