Man of Steel (film)
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''Man of Steel'' is a 2013
superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature Action film, ac ...
based on the
DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...
character
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
. Directed by
Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
from a screenplay by
David S. Goyer David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker, novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for writing the screenplays for several superhero films, including ''Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (film), Nick Fury: Agent ...
(who conceived the screen story with co-producer
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
), it is the first installment in the
DC Extended Universe The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films and television series produced by DC Studios and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is based on characters that ...
(DCEU) and a
reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...
of the ''Superman'' film series, depicting the character's
origin story In entertainment, an origin story is an account or backstory revealing how a character or group of people become a protagonist or antagonist, and it adds to the overall interest and complexity of a narrative, often giving reasons for their intent ...
. It stars
Henry Cavill Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill ( ; born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. He is known for his portrayal of Charles Brandon in Showtime's ''The Tudors'' (2007–2010), DC Comics character Superman in the DC Extended Universe (2013–2022), Gera ...
in the title role along with
Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
,
Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor, producer, musician, and theater director. He is an off beat actor known for his on-screen versatility, performing in both comedies and dramas. He became known for his frequent ...
,
Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...
,
Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film ''A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to star ...
,
Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three time Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative charact ...
, and
Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...
. In the film,
Clark Kent Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publish ...
learns that he is a superpowered alien from the planet
Krypton Krypton (from grc, κρυπτός, translit=kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often ...
. He assumes the role of mankind's protector as Superman, making the choice to face
General Zod General Zod is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly known as an List of Superman enemies, adversary of the superhero Superman. The character, who first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961 ...
and prevent him from destroying humanity. Development began in 2008 when Warner Bros. took pitches from
comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
writers,
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...
s, and
directors Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...
, opting to reboot the franchise. In 2009, a court ruling resulted in
Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...
's family recapturing the rights to Superman's origins and Siegel's copyright. The decision stated that Warner Bros. did not owe the families additional royalties from previous films, but if they did not begin production on a Superman film by 2011, then the Shuster and Siegel estates would be able to sue for lost revenue on an unproduced film. Producer
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
pitched Goyer's idea after story discussion on ''
The Dark Knight Rises ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...
'', and Snyder was hired as the film's director in October 2010.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began in August 2011 in
West Chicago, Illinois West Chicago is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, United States. The population was 27,086 at the 2010 census. It was formerly named Junction and later Turner, after its founder, John B. Turner, president of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroa ...
, before moving to
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
and
Plano, Illinois Plano is a city near Aurora in Kendall County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 11,847 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, being about 55 miles (90 km) from Chicago. The city was home to the Plano Har ...
. ''Man of Steel'' premiered in the
Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...
on June 10, 2013, and was released in the United States on June 14, 2013 in 2D, 3D, and
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...
. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on Cavill's performance as Superman, and it grossed over $668million worldwide becoming the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2013. It is also the final DC film co-financed by
Legendary Pictures Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC (doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborated ...
. A follow-up titled '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'' was released on March 25, 2016.


Plot

The planet
Krypton Krypton (from grc, κρυπτός, translit=kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often ...
is destabilized from the mining of the
planetary core A planetary core consists of the innermost layers of a planet. Cores may be entirely solid or entirely liquid, or a mixture of solid and liquid layers as is the case in the Earth. In the Solar System, core sizes range from about 20% (the Moon ...
. Just before the planet explodes, Krypton's supreme council chief advisor
Jor-El Jor-El, originally known as Jor-L, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Jor-El first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 with Superman. ...
infuses the genetics codex into his infant son,
Kal-El Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publish ...
, the first naturally born Kryptonian child in centuries. Jor-El manages to send Kal-El in a spacecraft toward Earth before being killed by
General Zod General Zod is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly known as an List of Superman enemies, adversary of the superhero Superman. The character, who first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961 ...
during an uprising. Kal-El lands in
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, where he is adopted by
Jonathan and Martha Kent Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent, often referred to as "Pa" and "Ma" Kent (respectively), are fictional characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are the adoptive parents of Superman. They live in the rural town of Smallville, ...
and named
Clark Clark is an English language surname, ultimately derived from the Latin with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educate ...
. As he grows older, he develops superhuman powers that Jonathan urges him to keep hidden, even refusing Clark's help years later during a tornado incident where he loses his life. Burdened with guilt over Jonathan's death, Clark travels the globe hiding under various aliases seeking a purpose in life. ''
Daily Planet The ''Daily Planet'' is a fictional newspaper appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The newspaper was first mentioned in ''Action Comics'' #23 (April 1940). The ''Daily Planet'' build ...
'' reporter
Lois Lane Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning journalist for ...
receives an assignment to investigate the discovery of a Kryptonian scout ship in the Canadian Arctic. Clark enters the ship disguised as a worker and learns from its artificial intelligence (AI), modeled after his father Jor-El, that Clark was sent to Earth to guide its people. While following Clark, Lois inadvertently triggers the ship's security system, and he uses his powers to rescue Lois from its defenses. He wears a uniform provided by the ship's AI and begins testing his flying abilities. Unable to convince supervisor
Perry White Perry White is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the editor-in-chief of the Metropolis newspaper the ''Daily Planet''. The character maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards and i ...
to publish an article on the incident, Lois tracks down Clark in Smallville, with the intent of exposing him. However, Lois drops the story upon hearing of Jonathan Kent's sacrifice, keeping Clark's identity safe, which fuels Perry's suspicions. Zod and his crew escape the
Phantom Zone The Phantom Zone is a prison-like parallel dimension appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is mainly associated with stories featuring Superman. It first appeared in '' Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961), and was created ...
, where they were imprisoned for treason for their actions against Krypton. They travel to Earth to turn it into a new Krypton, possessing several
terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make ...
devices salvaged from Kryptonian outposts. Following Clark and Lois' capture, Zod's science officer,
Jax-Ur Jax-Ur is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as an adversary of Superman. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp, the character first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #289 (October 1961). He has be ...
, extracts Clark's genes to create Kryptonian colonists who will build a society based on Zod's ideals of genetic purity. Using the Jor-El AI to take over the ship, Clark and Lois flee and warn the U.S. military of Zod's plan, resulting in an explosive confrontation between Clark and Zod's troops. Zod deploys his most powerful terraforming device, the World Engine, which severely damages
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...
and puts humanity's existence at risk. Clark destroys the terraforming platform while the military launches a suicide attack, sending Zod's troops back to the Phantom Zone. With the ship destroyed and Krypton's only hope of revival gone, Zod vows to destroy Earth and its inhabitants out of revenge. The two Kryptonians engage in a lengthy battle across Metropolis, which concludes when Clark is forced to kill Zod as he attacks a family in a train station. Sometime later, Clark adopts the moniker "
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
" and persuades the government to let him act independently, under the condition he does not turn against humanity. To gain covert access to dangerous situations, he takes a job under his civilian identity, Clark Kent, as a freelance reporter for the ''Daily Planet''.


Cast

*
Henry Cavill Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill ( ; born 5 May 1983) is a British actor. He is known for his portrayal of Charles Brandon in Showtime's ''The Tudors'' (2007–2010), DC Comics character Superman in the DC Extended Universe (2013–2022), Gera ...
as Kal-El / Clark Kent:
A
Kryptonian Kryptonians are a fictional extraterrestrial race within the DC Comics universe that originated on the planet Krypton. The term originated from the stories of DC Comics superhero, Superman. The stories also use "Kryptonian" as an adjective to re ...
with superhuman powers and abilities, sent by his parents to Earth as an infant to escape the destruction of his homeworld, Krypton, and raised under the mental guidance of farmers in
Smallville ''Smallville'' is an American superhero television series developed by writer-producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The series was produced by Millar Gough ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, until he is inspired by the
holograph An autograph or holograph is a manuscript or document written in its author's or composer's hand. The meaning of autograph as a document penned entirely by the author of its content, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by a copyist o ...
ic message from his late father to become Earth's greatest protector. Cavill is the first non-American actor to play the character. He was previously cast in '' Superman: Flyby'', which was ultimately shelved, and was considered for the role in the 2006 film ''
Superman Returns ''Superman Returns'' is a 2006 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris (screenwriter), Dan Harris from a story by Singer, Dougherty and Harris based on the DC Comics character Superman. I ...
'', but lost to
Brandon Routh Brandon James Routh (; born October 9, 1979) is an American actor. He portrayed Superman in the 2006 film ''Superman Returns'', which garnered him international fame. In 2011, he played the titular character of the film '' Dylan Dog: Dead of Ni ...
. Cavill stated, "There's a very real story behind the Superman character." He explained that everyone's goal has been to explore the difficulties his character faces as a result of having multiple identities—including his birth name, Kal-El, and his alter ego, Clark Kent. Cavill also stated that, "He's alone and there's no one like him," referring to Superman's vulnerabilities. "That must be incredibly scary and lonely, not to know who you are or what you are, and trying to find out what makes sense. Where's your baseline? What do you draw from? Where do you draw a limit with the power you have? In itself, that's an incredible weakness." In an interview with ''
Total Film ''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched i ...
'' magazine, Cavill stated he had been consuming nearly 5,000 calories a day, training for over two hours daily and plowing
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
to pack on the
muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...
mass.
Tyler Hoechlin Tyler Lee Hoechlin (; born September 11, 1987) is an American actor. Initially earning recognition for starring as Michael Sullivan Jr. in the 2002 film ''Road to Perdition'', Hoechlin went on to star as Martin Brewer on '' 7th Heaven'' between ...
(who would later play the character in the
Arrowverse The Arrowverse is an American superhero media franchise and a shared universe that is centered on various interconnected television series based on DC Comics superhero characters, primarily airing on The CW as well as web series on CW Seed. ...
and ''
Superman & Lois ''Superman & Lois'' is an American superhero drama television series developed for The CW by Todd Helbing and Greg Berlanti, based on the DC Comics characters Superman and Lois Lane, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Tyler Hoechlin and E ...
''),
Matthew Goode Matthew William Goode (born 3 April 1978) is a British actor. Goode made his screen debut in 2002 with ABC's TV film feature '' Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister''. His breakthrough role was in the romantic comedy ''Chasing Liberty'' (2004), f ...
,
Armie Hammer Armand Douglas Hammer (born August 28, 1986) is an American actor. Hammer began his acting career with guest appearances in several television series. His first leading role was as Billy Graham in the 2008 film '' Billy: The Early Years'', and ...
,
Jamie Dornan James Peter Maxwell Dornan (; born 1 May 1982) is an actor, model and musician from Northern Ireland. Formerly a character actor, he often portrays solemn, steady characters. The recipient of two Irish Film and Television Awards, he has been n ...
,
Joe Manganiello Joseph Michael Manganiello ( ; , ; born December 28, 1976) is an American actor. His professional film career began when he played Flash Thompson in Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Man''. His breakout role was as werewolf Alcide Herveaux in five seasons of ...
and
Colin O'Donoghue Colin Arthur O'Donoghue (born 26 January 1981) is an Irish actor and musician, best known for portraying Captain Killian "Hook" Jones on the ABC TV show '' Once Upon a Time''. He appeared in the 2011 horror thriller film '' The Rite'' (2011 ...
were also considered for the role. Manganiello was subsequently cast as
Deathstroke Deathstroke (Slade Joseph Wilson) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, the character debuted in '' The New Teen Titans'' #2 in December 1980 as Deathstroke the ...
in ''Justice League''. Cooper Timberline was cast as the 9-year-old Clark Kent, and Dylan Sprayberry was cast as the 13-year-old Clark Kent. *
Amy Adams Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
as
Lois Lane Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning journalist for ...
:
A reporter for the ''
Daily Planet The ''Daily Planet'' is a fictional newspaper appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The newspaper was first mentioned in ''Action Comics'' #23 (April 1940). The ''Daily Planet'' build ...
'' newspaper and the love interest of Clark Kent. Adams was selected from a list of actresses that included
Kristen Stewart Kristen Jaymes Stewart (born April 9, 1990) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2012, she has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a César Award, in addition to nominations for an Acad ...
,
Zoe Saldaña Zoë Yadira Saldaña-Perego (née Saldaña Nazario; born June 19, 1978) is an American actress widely known for her work in science fiction franchises, she has appeared in three of the five highest-grossing films of all time (''Avatar'', '' Av ...
,
Olivia Wilde Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Thirteen (House), Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House (TV series), House'' ( ...
, and
Mila Kunis Milena Markovna "Mila" Kunis (born August 14, 1983) is an American actress. Born in Chernivtsi and raised in Los Angeles, she began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series ''That '70s Show'' (1998–2006) at the age of 14. Since ...
. "There was a big, giant search for Lois," Snyder said. "For us, it was a big thing and obviously a really important role. We did a lot of auditioning, but we had this meeting with Amy Adams and after that I just felt she was perfect for it." Adams auditioned for the role three times: once for the unproduced ''Superman: Flyby'', and the second time for ''Superman Returns'' before landing the current role. Adams was confirmed to play Lois Lane in March 2011. While announcing the role, Snyder said in a statement, "We are excited to announce the casting of Amy Adams, one of the most versatile and respected actresses in films today. Amy has the talent to capture all of the qualities we love about Lois: smart, tough, funny, warm, ambitious and, of course, beautiful." On portraying Lois Lane, Adams stated that the film would feature a Lois Lane who is an "independent, feisty woman ... but set in a more identifiable world." Adams said that "She has become more of a free-ranging journalist, someone who likes to be hands-on. The nature of the newspaper business has changed so much. There is so much more pressure." *
Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor, producer, musician, and theater director. He is an off beat actor known for his on-screen versatility, performing in both comedies and dramas. He became known for his frequent ...
as
General Zod General Zod is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly known as an List of Superman enemies, adversary of the superhero Superman. The character, who first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961 ...
:
A Kryptonian general with the same
superpowers A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...
as Superman, bent on transforming Earth into a new Krypton under his reign.
Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and multimedia artist. Born and raised in the State of New York to a Danish father and American mother, he also lived in Argentin ...
and
Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
were also considered for the role. Snyder stated, "Zod is not only one of Superman's most formidable enemies, but one of the most significant because he has insights into Superman that others don't. Michael is a powerful actor who can project both the intelligence and the malice of the character, making him perfect for the role." When Goyer was asked about why Zod was chosen as the villain, he stated, "The way (Christopher) Nolan and I have always approached movies as well is you never say, 'Hey, which villain would be cool for this movie?' You start with the story first. What kind of story? What kind of theme do you want to tell? So we worked that out. Then, usually the villain becomes obvious in terms of who's going to be the appropriate
antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...
for that. When you guys see the movie, the only villain we could've used was Zod and the Kryptonians. I mean, when you see what the whole story is, nothing else would have even made sense." *
Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...
as Jonathan Kent:
Clark's adoptive father. Snyder explained his reason for his casting the on-screen couple is solely for the realism: "I think the thing you realize when you look at Diane and Kevin, in our decision to cast them so far, you sort of get a sense of how tonally we're looking at the movie, and what you realize is that those guys are serious actors, and we're taking this movie very seriously in terms of the tone of having those guys. You're talking about having a situation where whatever the action is or whatever the drama of the movie is, our first priority is to make sure it's rendered in the most realistic way we can get at." *
Diane Lane Diane Colleen Lane (born January 22, 1965) is an American actress. Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at age 14 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film ''A Little Romance''. The two films that could have catapulted her to star ...
as
Martha Kent Jonathan Kent and Martha Kent, often referred to as "Pa" and "Ma" Kent (respectively), are fictional characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. They are the adoptive parents of Superman. They live in the rural town of Smallville ...
:
Clark's adoptive mother. Lane was the first cast member to join the film after Cavill. "This was a very important piece of casting for me because Martha Kent is the woman whose values helped shape the man we know as Superman," Snyder said in the release. "We are thrilled to have Diane in the role because she can convey the wisdom and the wonder of a woman whose son has powers beyond her imagination." *
Laurence Fishburne Laurence John Fishburne III (born July 30, 1961) is an American actor. He is a three time Emmy Award and Tony Award winning actor known for his roles on stage and screen. He has been hailed for his forceful, militant, and authoritative charact ...
as
Perry White Perry White is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. He is the editor-in-chief of the Metropolis newspaper the ''Daily Planet''. The character maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards and i ...
:
Editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
of the ''Daily Planet'' and the boss of Lois Lane. Fishburne is the first African-American to play Perry White in a live-action film. Fishburne remarked of his role: " inspiration really is the late
Ed Bradley Edward Rudolph Bradley Jr. (June 22, 1941 – November 9, 2006) was an American broadcast journalist and news anchor. He was best known for his reporting on ''60 Minutes'' and CBS News. Bradley began his journalism career as a radio news repo ...
, who was a
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
correspondent on ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'' for many years ... helegendary Ed Bradley ... was a friend, a mentor, and a role model for me, particularly because he worked in journalism, and he was the kind of guy who walked with kings, but he had the common touch. And so he was my inspiration for Perry." * Antje Traue as Faora-Ul:
General Zod's sub-commander and a commander of the Kryptonian military, who is completely devoted and loyal to Zod.
Gal Gadot Gal Gadot-Varsano ( he, גל גדות ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter sh ...
was offered the role but declined because she was pregnant at that time; this allowed her to be later cast as
Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...
in the film's sequel.
Alice Eve Alice Sophia Eve (born ) is a British actress. Her movie career includes roles in ''She's Out of My League'', ''Men in Black 3'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', and '' Before We Go''. She has had recurring roles on the TV series ''Entourage'' and ...
,
Diane Kruger Diane Kruger ( Heidkrüger; ; born 15 July 1976) is a German and American actress. Early in her career, Kruger gained worldwide recognition and received the Trophée Chopard from the Cannes Film Festival. Kruger became known for her roles in f ...
and
Rosamund Pike Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike (born 1979) is a British actress. She began her acting career by appearing in stage productions such as ''Romeo and Juliet'' and ''Gas Light''. After her screen debut in the television film ''A Rather English Marriage'' ...
were also considered for the role. About the role of Faora, Traue said in an interview: "What I liked about her was that as a woman, we have certain doubts and we think too much sometimes about ourselves and all these things, they're not there for Faora. She's a bred warrior. So to really focus on that aspect, that fear is a chemical reaction and that it was bred out of her and she doesn't have it, it's liberating when you actually think about it. That you're just a one-track mind, there's no filter, there's no double meaning. She gets orders and she answers those orders without a question." *
Ayelet Zurer Ayelet Zurer ( he, איילת זורר; born ) is an Israeli actress. She was nominated for awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Israeli Academy Awards and the Israeli Television Academy Awards. She won Best Actress awards for her roles i ...
as Lara Lor-Van:
Kal-El's biological mother and loyal wife to Jor-El.
Julia Ormond Julia Karin Ormond (born 4 January 1965) is an English actress. She rose to prominence by appearing in ''The Baby of Mâcon'' (1993), '' Legends of the Fall'' (1994), ''First Knight'' (1995), ''Sabrina'' (1995), '' Smilla's Sense of Snow'' (199 ...
had previously been announced as cast, but dropped out.
Connie Nielsen Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She has starred as Lucilla in the film '' Gladiator'' (2000) and as Hippolyta in the DC Extended Universe, and in the films ''Wonder Woman'' (2017), ''Justice League'' (2017), ''Wo ...
was in negotiations for the role before Zurer was cast. Nielsen was subsequently cast as Queen
Hippolyta In Classical Greek mythology, Hippolyta, or Hippolyte (; grc-gre, Ἱππολύτη ''Hippolytē'') was a daughter of Ares and Otrera, queen of the Amazons, and a sister of Antiope and Melanippe. She wore her father Ares' ''zoster'', the Gr ...
in ''
Wonder Woman Wonder Woman is a superhero created by the American psychologist and writer William Moulton Marston (pen name: Charles Moulton), and artist Harry G. Peter. Marston's wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byr ...
''. *
Christopher Meloni Christopher Peter Meloni (; born April 2, 1961) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC legal drama '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' for its first 12 seasons and its spin-off ' ...
as Col. Nathan Hardy:
A United States Air Force officer, call sign "
Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
", assigned to the
United States Northern Command United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is one of eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. The command is tasked with providing military support for non-military authorities in the U.S., and protect ...
. *
Russell Crowe Russell Ira Crowe (born 7 April 1964) is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia, and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maxi ...
as
Jor-El Jor-El, originally known as Jor-L, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, Jor-El first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 with Superman. ...
:
A Kryptonian scientist who is Kal-El's biological father.
Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...
and
Clive Owen Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series '' Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...
were also considered for the role. Crowe incorporates how his own fatherhood informed his reading of the script to portray Jor-El, stating that "... it was one of those things where that's how it was connecting me. That's the question that Jor-El faces, that's the situation that he's in." Crowe also comments on his preparation for the film stating that: "When I signed on ... well, one, I didn't realize that I would be wearing
Spandex Spandex, Lycra, or elastane is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity. It is a polyether-polyurea copolymer that was invented in 1958 by chemist Joseph Shivers at DuPont's Benger Laboratory in Waynesboro, Virginia, US. The ge ...
—'cause you know that's Superman's costume—I didn't realize that I'd have to fit into it as well," Crowe said. "But, I also didn't realize the type of organiser that Zack Snyder is, 'cause this was really old-school prep. This is sort of
David Lean Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
-level preparation, and I really appreciated him. And I was on the movie for three and a half or four months before I even got in front of the camera." Additionally,
Harry Lennix Harry Joseph Lennix III (born November 16, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Terrence "Dresser" Williams in the Robert Townsend film ''The Five Heartbeats'' (1991) and as Boyd Langton in the science-fiction series ''Dollh ...
plays
Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Calvin Swanwick The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on superhero films and other series starring various titular superheroes produced by DC Films, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, and based on char ...
, a United States Army
general officer A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
and the deputy commander of United States Northern Command. Christina Wren plays Capt. Carrie Ferris, a United States Air Force officer and the assistant to General Swanwick.
Richard Schiff Richard Schiff (born May 27, 1955) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing Toby Ziegler on ''The West Wing'', a role for which he received an Emmy Award. Schiff made his directorial debut with ''The West Wing'', directing ...
plays Dr. Emil Hamilton, a scientist who works with the United States Armed Forces for DARPA.
Carla Gugino Carla Gugino (; born August 29, 1971) is an American actress. After appearing in ''Troop Beverly Hills'' (1989) and ''This Boy's Life'' (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the ''Spy Kids'' trilogy (2001 ...
portrays the voice of Kelor, the Kryptonian AI service-robot.
Mackenzie Gray Alexander Mackenzie Gray (born 22 November 1957) is a Canadian film, television, and stage actor. He is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Canada. He divides his time between Toronto and Vancouver. Life and career Gray was born in Toron ...
plays
Jax-Ur Jax-Ur is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as an adversary of Superman. Created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp, the character first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #289 (October 1961). He has be ...
, a Kryptonian scientist who is one of General Zod's followers. Michael Kelly plays
Steve Lombard Steve Lombard is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Steve Lombard made his cinematic debut in the DC Extended Universe in the 2013 film '' Man of Steel'', played by Michael Kelly. Publication history ...
, an employee of the ''Daily Planet'', and Rebecca Buller plays Jenny Jurwich, an intern of the ''Daily Planet''. Jadin Gould, Rowen Kahn, and Jack Foley, respectively, play
Lana Lang Lana Lang is a fictional supporting character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She has appeared in other media adaptations of Superman, typically as a teenager. These portrayals include the '' Adventures of Superboy'' t ...
, Kenny Braverman, and
Pete Ross Peter Joseph Ross is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Publication history The character was created by Leo Dorfman and George Papp and first appeared in ''Superboy'' #86 (January 1961). Fictional c ...
, classmates of Clark Kent in high school. Joseph Cranford portrays Ross as an adult. Richard Cetrone,
Samantha Jo Samantha Win Tjhia (born March 29, 1991), formerly known as Samantha Jo, is a Canadian actress and former wushu taolu athlete. After her competitive career, she turned to acting and in 2012, she debuted as an actress in the role of Ki ...
, Revard Dufresne and
Apollonia Vanova Apollonia Vanova ('' Slovak: Apolónia Váňová'') is a Slovak-born actress and opera singer, known for her roles as Silhouette in the film version of ''Watchmen'' and as the leading Wraith Queen and leader of a Wraith Alliance in the '' Starg ...
, respectively, play Tor-An, Car-Vex,
Dev-Em Dev-Em is a fictional character who appears in DC Comics. He first appeared in '' Adventure Comics'' #287 (June 1961), created by Jerry Siegel and George Papp. Various versions of the Dev-Em character has appeared over the years in '' Legion of Su ...
II and Nadira, Kryptonian soldiers that follow General Zod.


Production


Development

In June 2008, Warner Bros. took pitches from comic book writers, screenwriters and directors on how to successfully reboot the ''Superman'' film series. Comic book writers
Grant Morrison Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...
,
Mark Waid Mark Waid (; born March 21, 1962) is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles ''The Flash'', '' Kingdom Come'' and '' Superman: Birthright'' as well as his work on ''Captain America'', ''Fantastic Four'' and '' Dar ...
,
Geoff Johns Geoffrey Johns (born January 25, 1973) is an American comic book writer, screenwriter, and film and television producer. Johns's work on the DC Comics characters Green Lantern, Aquaman, Flash and Superman, has drawn critical acclaim. He serve ...
and
Brad Meltzer Brad Meltzer (born April 1, 1970) is an Americans, American novelist, non-fiction writer, TV show creator, and comic book author. His novels touch on the political thriller, legal thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, while he has also writte ...
were among those who pitched their ideas for a reboot: "I told them, it's not that bad. Just treat ''
Superman Returns ''Superman Returns'' is a 2006 American superhero film directed by Bryan Singer and written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris (screenwriter), Dan Harris from a story by Singer, Dougherty and Harris based on the DC Comics character Superman. I ...
'' as the
Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...
''
Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk' ...
''", Morrison said. Waid said: "''
The Incredible Hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of '' The Incredible Hulk'' (May 1962). In his comic book a ...
'' has proven the audience will forgive you and let you redo the franchise". Morrison's idea was similar to their work on ''
All-Star Superman ''All-Star Superman'' is a twelve-issue American comic book series featuring Superman that was published by DC Comics. The series ran from November 2005 to October 2008. The series was written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Frank Quitely, and digita ...
'', while Waid's was akin to '' Superman: Birthright''.
Mark Millar Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer and television producer who first came to prominence with a run on the superhero series '' The Authority'', published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. Millar has written ex ...
, teaming with director
Matthew Vaughn Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond (born Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn; 7 March 1971) is an English filmmaker. He has produced films including ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) and '' Snatch'' (2000), and directed ''Layer Cake'' (2004 ...
, also planned an epic eight-hour ''Superman'' trilogy, each installment released a year apart, similar to ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
''. Millar compared it to ''The Godfather'' trilogy, in which it would chronicle the entire life of Superman, from the early days of Krypton, where little Kal-El witnesses his father's tireless struggle to save the planet, to the finale where Superman loses his powers as the Sun starts to go
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
. According to Millar, Vaughn suggested his '' Stardust'' actor
Charlie Cox Charlie Thomas Cox (born 15 December 1982) is an English actor. He is known for portraying Matt Murdock / Daredevil in several projects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, including lead roles in the television series ''Daredevil'' (201 ...
as a Golden-Age inspired Superman "when he was a bit more of a regular person". In August 2008, Warner Bros. suggested a reboot of the film series. Studio executive Jeff Robinov planned to have the film released either by 2010 or 2011, explaining that "''Superman Returns'' didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had Superman worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. Now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
and Superman movie at all." Paul Levitz stated in an interview that Batman holds the key to the Superman reboot. He elaborated: "Everyone is waiting for Nolan to sign on for another Batman, once that happens, the release date for Superman and all other future projects will follow." In February 2009,
McG The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hem ...
, who previously planned to direct ''Superman: Flyby'', expressed interest in returning to the Superman franchise. August 2009 saw a court ruling in which
Jerry Siegel Jerome Siegel ( ; October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996)Roger Stern. ''Superman: Sunday Classics: 1939–1943'' DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press, Inc./ Sterling Publishing; 2006 was an American comic book writer. He is the co-creator of Superman, in ...
's family recaptured 50% of the rights to Superman's origins and Siegel's share of the copyright in ''Action Comics'' #1. In addition, a judge ruled that Warner Bros. did not owe the families additional royalties from previous films. However, if they did not begin production on a Superman film by 2011, then the Siegel estate would have been able to sue for lost revenue on an unproduced film. The plot of ''Man of Steel'' employs a
nonlinear narrative Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, video games, and other narratives, where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways ...
, and tells parts of the story in flashbacks. During story discussions for ''
The Dark Knight Rises ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...
'' in 2008,
David S. Goyer David Samuel Goyer (born December 22, 1965) is an American filmmaker, novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for writing the screenplays for several superhero films, including ''Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (film), Nick Fury: Agent ...
told
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Cinema of the United States, Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. ...
his idea regarding how to present Superman in a modern context. Impressed with Goyer's concept, Nolan pitched the idea to the studio, who hired Nolan to produce and Goyer to write based on the financial and critical success of ''
The Dark Knight ''The Dark Knight'' is a 2008 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. Based on the DC Comics superhero, Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman Begins'' (2005) and the second insta ...
''. Nolan admired
Bryan Singer Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Singer d ...
's work on ''Superman Returns'' for its connection to
Richard Donner Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American filmmaker whose notable works included some of the most financially-successful films during the New Hollywood era. According to film historian M ...
's version, stating that "a lot of people have approached Superman in a lot of different ways. I only know the way that has worked for us that's what I know how to do", emphasizing the idea that Batman exists in a world where he is the only superhero and a similar approach to the ''Man of Steel'' would assure the integrity needed for the film. Nolan, however, clarified that the new film would not have any relationship with the previous film series, in which he commented: "Each serves to the internal logic of the story. They have nothing to do with each other". Robinov spoke to ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'', and allowed a peek over the wall of secrecy surrounding their DC Comics plans: "It's setting the tone for what the movies are going to be like going forward. In that, it's definitely a first step." Plans included for the film to contain references to the existence of other superheroes, alluding to the possibility of a further
DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green Lant ...
, and setting the tone for a shared fictional universe of DC Comics characters on film.
Guillermo del Toro Guillermo del Toro Gómez (; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor. He directed the Academy Award–winning fantasy films ''Pan's Labyrinth'' (2006) and ''The Shape of Water'' (2017), winning the Academy Awards for Be ...
, with whom Goyer worked on ''
Blade II ''Blade II'' is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by David S. Goyer. A sequel to ''Blade'' (1998), it is the second installment in the ''Blade'' franchise, foll ...
'', turned down the director's position on the reboot because of his commitment on a film adaptation of ''
At the Mountains of Madness ''At the Mountains of Madness'' is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931 and rejected that year by ''Weird Tales'' editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length. It was or ...
'', while
Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...
was also approached.
Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
(who would eventually be cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the film's sequel),
Darren Aronofsky Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction. Aronof ...
,
Duncan Jones Duncan Zowie Haywood Jones (born 30 May 1971) is a British film director, film producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the films ''Moon'' (2009), ''Source Code'' (2011), ''Warcraft'' (2016), and ''Mute'' (2018). For ''Moon'', ...
, Jonathan Liebesman, Matt Reeves (who would later direct a The Batman (film), Batman reboot), and Tony Scott were considered as potential directors, before
Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
was hired in October 2010. Casting began the following November. Snyder confirmed both Booster Gold and
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
references in the film, indicating their presence in the DC shared film universe. When Zod destroys a satellite, the words "Wayne Enterprises" are scrolled on the satellite. The film's storyboard was created by storyboard artist Jay Oliva, in his first live-action feature film project, along with Snyder. Oliva has cited the Japanese anime shows ''Dragon Ball Z'' and ''Birdy the Mighty'' as an inspiration for the film's epic battle scenes. During the film's brainstorming, Oliva pitched the idea as "I could come up with something I've never seen in live-action American cinema and only in anime".


Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began on August 1, 2011, at an industrial park near DuPage Airport under the codename "Autumn Frost". Zack Snyder expressed reluctance to shooting the film in 3-D, due to the technical limitations of the format, and instead chose to shoot the film two-dimensionally and 2D to 3D conversion, convert the film into 3-D in post production, for a 2-D, 3-D, and IMAX 3-D release. Snyder also chose to shoot the film on 35 mm movie film, film instead of digital cinematography, digitally, because he felt it would make the film "a big movie experience". Cinematographer Amir Mokri shot the film with Panavision Panavision cameras#Panaflex Millennium, Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras and Anamorphic format#Origination, C-Series anamorphic lenses. Filming was expected to last for two to three months. Production took place in
Plano, Illinois Plano is a city near Aurora in Kendall County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 11,847 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area, being about 55 miles (90 km) from Chicago. The city was home to the Plano Har ...
on August 22 to 29. According to an interview with Michael Shannon, filming would continue until February 2012. ''Man of Steel'' filmed in the Chicago area, California, and Burnaby's Mammoth Studios in
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, which was utilized as a set for Krypton and the extraterrestrial aircraft portrayed in the film. Vancouver's North Shore waterfront area was also used for the oil rig rescue scene where Superman is first introduced. Ucluelet and Nanaimo, British Columbia, feature prominently in the film's first hour—the trademark winter mist and rough seas are passed off as Alaska in the film. Filming took place in the Chicago Loop from September 7 to 17. The Chicago shoot was a unit project, meaning that filming would partake numerous establishing shots as well as Cutaway (filmmaking), cutaways and might not necessarily include principal cast members.


Design

''Man of Steel'' features a redesigned Superman costume by James Acheson and Michael Wilkinson (costume designer), Michael Wilkinson. The costume preserves the color scheme and "S" logo, but adopts darker tones, and notably does not feature the red Swim trunks, trunks usually worn by Superman. Zack Snyder said the costume is "a modern aesthetic". He and the producers attempted to devise a suit featuring the red trunks, but could not design one that fit into the tone of the film, leading to their removal from the suit. Because of Wilkinson's unavailability, Snyder chose Acheson to design the suit; however, he only started developing it, and Wilkinson finished the development when he returned, and designed the other character's costumes as well. Due to the substantial weight a practical suit would yield, the
Kryptonian Kryptonians are a fictional extraterrestrial race within the DC Comics universe that originated on the planet Krypton. The term originated from the stories of DC Comics superhero, Superman. The stories also use "Kryptonian" as an adjective to re ...
armor for General Zod was constructed through CGI to allow Shannon "freedom of movement". In a March 2014 interview with ''Esquire (magazine), Esquire'', Wilkinson explained the reason for the look of Superman's redesigned suit:


Effects

John "DJ" Desjardin served as the visual supervisor for ''Man of Steel'', with Weta Digital, Moving Picture Company, MPC and DNEG, Double Negative providing the visual effects for the film. Zack Snyder wanted the film to "appear very natural because there's some very fantastical things in there and he wanted people to suspend their disbelief, and we the visual effects team had to make it as easy as possible for them to do so." Desjardin noted that the intent in shooting the film was to utilize handheld devices to make the film feel like a "Cinéma vérité, documentary-style" film. Desjardin said: "We had to think about what that would mean, since we also had to photograph some crazy action. So for a lot of the Previsualization, previs we did, we'd start to think where our cameras were and where our cameraman was. A lot of the rules are the ''Battlestar Galactica'' rules for the space cams that Gary Hutzel, Gary Hurtzel developed for that miniseries, where we want to make sure if we're translating the camera at all it makes sense. Unless the action is so over the top, like in the end where Superman is beating up Zod—we had to break it a bit." For the first act of the film taking place on the planet Krypton, Weta Digital placed alien-like planet environments, creatures and the principal means of display—a technology the filmmakers called "liquid geometry". Weta Digital visual effects supervisor Dan Lemmon explained that "it's a bunch of silver beads that are suspended through a magnetic field, and the machine is able to control that magnetic field so that the collection of beads behave almost like three-dimensional pixels, and they can create a surface that floats in the air and describes whatever the thing is you're supposed to be seeing." The beads of the display, which up close would appear to be pyramids with a slight bevel, were designed to create a surface of the object to depict inside a "console-like" figure. In the 3D modeling, modeling and animation aspect of the liquid geometry, Goodwin explained: "We had to develop a pipeline to bring in assets, so instead of going through the route of reducing the polygon count to something usable what we would then do—you would take the model in whatever way it was made and just scatter discrete points onto it, and extract the matrix onto the animation and copy these points onto the matrix and have these sparse points behaving in a way that the model would." After the animation, artists duplicated the beads onto the animated geometry for a pre-simulated lighting version to get approval on how the object would read. Simulation, Sims were then run "on all the targets which would be discrete beads floating around on top of the surface which would have its own set of parameters", in which Goodwin further explained: "The bead size or the turbulence that would crawl along the surface constantly updating the orientation was based on the Normal (geometry), normal provided by the surface. That was then saved to disk and we would use that sim as the final target for the simulation." After the simulation process, Weta Digital ran every bead through a temporal filter to remove jitter to control the noise. Lighting solutions directly worked on the set. Weta utilized Pixar RenderMan, RenderMan to take advantage of improved Ray tracing (graphics), ray tracing and Geometry instancing, instancing objects. The sequences where Superman utilizes close-combat fight scenes with the other Kryptonians proved to be a major challenge for the filmmakers and the visual effects crew. Desjardin explained: "When we do these fights and these hyper-real things, we don't want to do the traditional, 'OK I'm a cameraman, I'm shooting a clean plate, I'm going to pan over here to follow the action that's not really there yet but we'll put the action in later. Because that's us animating the characters to the camera. So we would do that animation with the characters—grappling, punching or flying away—and we would take the real guys up until the point until they were supposed to do that and we'd cut. Then we'd put an environment camera there and take the environment. And then a camera for reference of the actors and get each moment. So then we had a set of Image resolution, high-res stills for the environment and the characters. Then, in post, we take the digi-doubles and animate them according to the speeds we want them to move in our digital environment." MPC handled the visual effects for the "Smallville encounter" sequence. Before providing the visual effects, the shots were previsualized for the fight choreography. After the previsualizations, live action portions of the scene would be filmed in small pieces: "If say Superman was being punched and would land 50 meters away, we would shoot our start position and end position, and then bridge that gap with the CG takeovers", says Guillaume Rocheron, the MPC visual effects supervisor. A camera rig would then obtain key frames of the choreographed actor; Desjardin said "it's a six-still camera rig that's built on a pipe rig so that you can run it in at the end of a setup and get stills of key frames of a performance or an expression, and then we could use those hi-res stills to project onto the CG double and get really accurate transition lighting and color—right from the set." On set, a camera rig was used to capture the environment of the sequence. Dubbed "enviro-cam", the visual effects crew would mount a Canon EOS 5D and a motorized nodal head, allowing the crew to capture the environment at a 360-degree angle with 55K resolution for every shot, the process would take approximately two to four minutes. The set capture resulted in lighting and textures that could be reprojected onto geometry. Full-screen digital doubles were a major component for the fighting sequences. Digital armor was also added, along with the energy-based Kryptonian helmets. Cyberscan and FACS were conducted with the actors, and Polarization (waves), polarized and non-polarized reference photos were taken. Superman's cape and costume were scanned in high detail—the cape in particular became a direct extension of Superman's actions. For the sequences involving the terraforming of the city Metropolis, Double Negative handled the visual effects for the sequence. In order to construct a Metropolis that seemed convincing and realistic, Double Negative utilized Esri's CityEngine to help procedurally deliver the city. According to Ged Wright, a Double Negative visual effects supervisor, it was a much more sci-fi based role, "so we took what they had done and extended it a great deal. The work we were doing was based around the Downtowns for New York, L.A. and Chicago and that gave us the building volumes for heights. We'd skin those volumes with kit parts, but most of it then had to fall down! So we had to rig it for destruction and use it for other aspects of the work as well." For the destruction of the buildings, the studio rewrote its own asset system to focus towards its dynamic events. The Bullet (software), Bullet physics software was a heavily impacted component for the utilization of the destruction. Wright said that "we wanted to be able to run an RBD event and trigger all these secondary events, whether it was glass or dust simulations—all of those things needed to be chained up and handled in a procedural way. One of the advantages of this was that, because it was all based around a limited number of input components, you can make sure they're modeled in a way they're usable in effects—you can model something but they'll be another stage to rig it for destruction." Fire, smoke, and water stimulation tools were developed at the Double Negative studio. The studio transitioned between the existing proprietary volume Rendering (computer graphics), rendering software to rendering in Mantra for elements such as fireball sims. Double Negative also used the in-house fluids tool "Squirt" to handle larger-scale sims and interaction for more tightly coupled volumes and particles. Regarding the battle between Superman and Zod, Double Negative implemented real photography onto its digital doubles.


Music

Hans Zimmer initially denied popular rumors that he would be composing the Film score, film's score, but in June 2012, it was confirmed that Zimmer would, in fact, be doing so after all. To completely distinguish ''Man of Steel'' from the previous films, the iconic "Superman music, Superman March" by John Williams was not used. Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for ''Man of Steel'' was released publicly on June 11, 2013. An unofficial rip of the musical score from the third Trailer (promotion), trailer, entitled "An Ideal of Hope", confirmed to be a cut-down version of the track "What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World?", was released on April 19. In late April, the official track listing of the two-CD deluxe edition was revealed.


Themes

Many reviewers interpreted ''Man of Steel'' as a religious allegory, especially since Warner Bros. set up a website that contains "a nine-page pamphlet entitled ''Jesus: The Original Superhero''". Justin Craig compares Kal-El's struggle to the Passion of Christ, stating that "Kal-El is more than willing to sacrifice himself to save the people of Earth. Originally reluctant to reveal his identity and powers to the world, Superman decides to turn himself over to Zod to save humanity from annihilation." Craig also states that there is an allegory to the Trinity within ''Man of Steel'': "Jor-El returns to Kal-El on Earth as a ghost, guiding his budding superhero son on his journey to salvation. Before Jor-El sends his son off to Earth baby Moses-style, he tells his wife that, like Jesus, 'He'll be a god to them.'" Paul Asay of ''The Washington Post'' writes that "Superman floats in space with his arms splayed out as if nailed to an invisible cross," a fact that Craig also mentioned in his assessment of the film. The protagonist of the film is also 33 years old and seeks "counsel at a church." Writing for ''The Huffington Post'', Colin Liotta compared Zod to Adolf Hitler, citing: "He feels his vision for a pure Krypton (i.e. a society like the one Hitler envisioned with his Nazi eugenics, eugenics program) is the only answer for survival." The sequence where a young Clark's powers overwhelm him in grade school, leading to him shutting himself in a closet, has led many to speculate that DC Extended Universe Superman is either autistic or meant to represent the struggles of autism. Many noted that when Martha comforts him, she encourages him to hone out the world by focusing on her voice, an example of hyperfocus; a necessary tool for many autistics to reduce overstimulation.


Marketing

Warner Bros. and DC Comics won the rights to the domain name manofsteel.com, in use by a member of the public, for use for the film's official website. On November 20, 2012, for the release of ''
The Dark Knight Rises ''The Dark Knight Rises'' is a 2012 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan, and the story with David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is th ...
'' DVD-Video, DVD and Blu-ray, Warner Bros. launched a countdown on the film's website where fans could share the countdown on websites like Facebook or Twitter to unlock an "exclusive reward". On December 3, 2012, the "exclusive reward" was revealed to be an official ''Man of Steel'' Teaser campaign, teaser poster. The poster, which depicts Superman being arrested, generated a positive response and much speculation about the film's story. On December 10, 2012, a website appeared at dsrwproject.com that provided audio signals to be decoded by viewers. It was discovered to be related to the film due to the copyright on the website. By December 11, 2012, the decoded message led readers to another website with a countdown that led to the public release of the trailer. In anticipation of the film, Mattel unveiled a toy line which includes Movie Masters action figures. In addition, Lego released three ''Man of Steel'' sets, inspired by scenes from the film; Rubie's Costume Co. also released a new line of ''Man of Steel''-inspired costumes and accessories for both kids and adults. The film has reportedly earned over $160 million from promotional tie-ins. Viral marketing campaigns for the film began when the official website was replaced by "deep space radio waves". The message was decoded to reveal a voice that said "You Are Not Alone". The official site continued to be updated with new static files that slowly revealed the symbol for the film's villain, General Zod. Shortly after, the website was replaced with a "message" from Zod, who requested that Earth must return Kal-El to his custody and told Kal-El to surrender within 24 hours or the world would suffer the consequences. A viral site called "IWillFindHim.com" was released that showed a countdown to the third trailer for the film. Warner Bros. enlisted Christianity, Christian-based marketing firm Grace Hill Media to help spread the Christian values, Christian themes of the film to the religious demographics. Special trailers were created outlining the religious tones, due to Hollywood studios frequently marketing movies to specific religious and cultural groups. Warner Bros. previously marketed films such as ''The Blind Side (film), The Blind Side'', ''The Notebook'', ''The Book of Eli'' and the ''Harry Potter (film series), Harry Potter'' series to faith-based groups. Warner Bros. also asked Professor Craig Detweiler of Pepperdine University to "create a Superman-centric sermon outline for pastors titled ''Jesus: The Original Superhero''." Regarding this, Paul Asay of ''The Washington Post'' wrote that "the religious themes keep coming: Free will. Sacrifice. God-given purpose. ''Man of Steel'' isn't just a movie. It's a Bible study in a cape. The messages are so strong that its marketers been explicitly pushing the film to Christian audiences."


Release


Theatrical

''Man of Steel'' held a red carpet premiere at the Lincoln Center's
Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assist ...
in New York City on June 10, 2013, which featured the attendance of the principal cast members. The film received a wide release on June 14, 2013, in conventional, 3D film, 3D, and
IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately either 1.43:1 or 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. Graeme F ...
theaters.


Home media

''Man of Steel'' was released as a single-disc DVD-Video, DVD (feature film only), on two-disc DVD with bonus features, and respective Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D combo packs on November 12, 2013, and in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2013. As of January 2019, ''Man of Steel'' has sold more than 2.3 million DVDs along with an estimated of 3.3 million Blu-ray Discs totaling $44.4 million and $76.2 million, respectively, for a total of $120.7 million in sales. The film was later released in 4K resolution, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray format on July 19, 2016.


Reception


Box office

''Man of Steel'' grossed $291 million in the United States and Canada, and $377 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $668 million, making it the highest-grossing solo Superman film of all time and the second-highest when adjusting for inflation. It is also the second-highest-grossing reboot of all time behind ''The Amazing Spider-Man (2012 film), The Amazing Spider-Man''. ''Deadline Hollywood'' calculated the net profit of the film to be $42.7million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues, making it the ninth most profitable release of 2013. The film earned $116.6 million on its opening weekend, including $17.5 million from IMAX theaters. ''Man of Steel'' earned an additional $120 million from DVD-Video, DVD and Blu-ray sales. ''Man of Steel'' made $12 million from a Thursday night Walmart screening program, and an additional $9 million from midnight shows. This marked Warner Bros.' third-highest advance night/midnight opening, and the biggest advance night/midnight debut for a non-sequel. The film eventually earned $44 million during its opening Friday (including midnight grosses) and $56.1 million when the Thursday night showings are included. The opening-day gross was the second-highest for a non-sequel, and the 20th-largest overall. Its opening weekend gross of $116.6 million was the third-highest of 2013, behind ''Iron Man 3'' ($174.1 million) and ''The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'' ($158.1 million), and the third-highest among non-sequels, behind ''The Avengers (2012 film), Marvel's The Avengers'' ($207.4 million) and ''The Hunger Games (film), The Hunger Games'' ($152.5 million). It also broke ''Toy Story 3''s record ($110.3 million) for the highest weekend debut in June (the record was again broken two years later by ''Jurassic World''s opening gross of $208.8 million). However, on its second weekend, ''Man of Steel''s box office fell almost 65%–68% if the Thursday night gross is included—putting it in third place, behind ''Monsters University'' and ''World War Z (film), World War Z''. Box Office Mojo called it an "abnormally large drop," close to the second-weekend decline for ''Green Lantern (film), Green Lantern''. ''Man of Steel'' earned $73.3 million on its opening weekend from 24 countries, which includes $4.2 million from 79 IMAX theaters, setting a June opening-weekend record for IMAX. The film set an opening-day record in the Philippines with $1.66 million. In the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta, the film earned $5.6 million on its opening day and £11.2 million ($17.47 million) on its opening weekend. Its biggest opener outside the United States was in China, with $25.9 million in four days (Thursday to Sunday). In total earnings, its three largest countries after North America are China ($63.4 million), the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($46.2 million) and Australia ($22.3 million).


Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's consensus reads, "''Man of Steel''s exhilarating action and spectacle can't fully overcome its detours into generic blockbuster territory." On Metacritic, the film received a weighted score of 55 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audience polls in North America from CinemaScore for the film tallied an average grade of an "A−" on an A+ to F scale, with those under the age of 18 and older than 50 giving it an "A". Cavill's performance as Superman earned mixed reviews, with some critics commenting on perceived stiffness and a lack of charisma. Richard Roeper of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' said that ''Man of Steel'' covered no new ground with regard to Superman films, and instead, "we're plunged back into a mostly-underwhelming film, with underdeveloped characters and supercharged-fight scenes that drag on and offer nothing new in the way of special-effects creativity". ''The Boston Globe''s Ty Burr wrote, "What's missing from this Superman saga is a sense of lightness, of pop joy". ''The Washington Post''s Ann Hornaday stated that with "Hans Zimmer's turgid, over-produced score", the film "is an exceptionally-unpleasant viewing experience". For ''The Denver Post''s Lisa Kennedy, the chief problem with ''Man of Steel'' is the "rhythm and balance in the storytelling and directing" which resulted in a film that swings "between destructive overstatement and flat-footed homilies." Kofi Outlaw, Editor-in-Chief at ''Screen Rant'', gave ''Man of Steel'' a 4-out-of-5-star review, stating that "''Man of Steel'' has more than earned its keep, and deserves to be THE iconic Superman movie for a whole new generation". He would go on to name ''Man of Steel'' the best superhero movie of 2013. Jim Vejvoda of ''IGN'' gave ''Man of Steel'' a 9 out of 10 while praising the action sequences and the performances of Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon. The performance of Antje Traue as Superman's adversary Faora-Ul, particularly in the Smallville battle scenes, has also been lauded. Peter Travers of ''Rolling Stone'' gave it 3 stars out of 4, saying, "Caught in the slipstream between action and angst, ''Man of Steel'' is a bumpy ride for sure. But there's no way to stay blind to its wonders." Todd McCarthy of ''The Hollywood Reporter'' said rebooting the franchise was unnecessary, but that the film was confident enough and Snyder's attention to detail careful enough that audiences could overlook another reboot. ''PopMatters'' journalist J.C. Maçek III, wrote, "The path of this flawed savior isn't quite the one that we have been led to expect and many fans will love that and many fans will decry its comic book-divergent choices. On the other hand, barring Lois Lane's own knowledge of the dual nature of Clark and Superman (thus depriving one of fiction's greatest reveals), the hero we see in the final moments of ''Man of Steel'' is nothing if not the character Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created ... with just a bit more in the 'imperfections' column." Steve Persall of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' stated that, "''Man of Steel'' is more than just ''Avengers''-sized escapism; it's an artistic introduction to a movie superhero we only thought we knew." ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine's Richard Corliss said, "The movie finds its true, lofty footing not when it displays Kal-El's extraordinary powers, but when it dramatizes Clark Kent's roiling humanity. The super part of ''Man of Steel'' is just okay, but the man part is super." In a review on Roger Ebert's website, Matt Zoller Seitz awarded the film three out of four stars, calling it an "astonishing movie" and praising the conflict between Clark and Zod. But he criticized the film for not having more personal and intimate moments between Clark and Lois. In 2014, ''Empire (film magazine), Empire'' ranked ''Man of Steel'' the 286th-greatest film ever made on their list of "The 301 Greatest Movies Of All Time" as voted by the magazine's readers. Speaking to Fox Business Channel, Grae Drake, senior editor of Rotten Tomatoes, expressed dismay over the critical reception, stating, "As much as I love and respect our critics at Rotten Tomatoes, I've got to say I am shocked. Listen, the movie's not perfect but ... I just cannot fathom it. It was a good movie, you guys." Reaction to the film among comics creators was mixed. Those who enjoyed it include Jeff Parker (comics), Jeff Parker, Heidi MacDonald, Ethan Van Sciver, Christos Gage and former Superman writer Dan Jurgens. Among its detractors were Joe Keatinge, Sean McKeever, Gabriel Hardman and
Mark Waid Mark Waid (; born March 21, 1962) is an American comic book writer best known for his work on DC Comics titles ''The Flash'', '' Kingdom Come'' and '' Superman: Birthright'' as well as his work on ''Captain America'', ''Fantastic Four'' and '' Dar ...
. MacDonald praised the film's action, drama and leads Henry Cavill and Amy Adams. Van Sciver singled out Cavill in particular for praise. Gage called it the best ''Superman'' film since 1980's ''Superman II''. Hardman said that he liked a lot of the mechanics but did not connect with the characters, which robbed the story of tension. Waid, who wrote the origin miniseries '' Superman: Birthright'', criticized the film for its overall "joyless" tone, and for Superman's decision to kill Zod, a criticism echoed by other creators. Writer
Grant Morrison Grant Morrison, MBE (born 31 January 1960) is a Scottish comic book writer, screenwriter, and producer. Their work is known for its nonlinear narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, w ...
, who wrote the critically acclaimed miniseries ''
All-Star Superman ''All-Star Superman'' is a twelve-issue American comic book series featuring Superman that was published by DC Comics. The series ran from November 2005 to October 2008. The series was written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Frank Quitely, and digita ...
'', expressed mixed reaction to the film, saying that while they "kinda liked it and kinda didn't", it did not present anything new, as they would have preferred a "second act" type story with Lex Luthor instead of re-establishing the character by presenting information Morrison is already familiar with. Morrison also questioned the need for a superhero to kill, as did artist Neal Adams. Adams suggested that other alternatives were open to Superman when Zod threatened innocent people with his heat vision, such as covering his eyes. He also criticized Superman for not moving the battle away from
Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...
as the character did at the end of ''Superman II''. Jim Lee had a positive opinion: "It’s epic. It’s got a lot of heart, but one of the things that was kind of missing from the last Superman movie I think was the action, and this movie has it in spades. I mean it is a visual thrill ride. It is amazing. You get to see all the powers of Superman, and in all its glory, and I think people are going to be blown away."


Accolades


Future


DC Extended Universe

The success of ''Man of Steel'' started Warner Bros. plans of a cinematic universe featuring other DC Comics characters. In June 2013, Goyer was hired to write the sequel to ''Man of Steel'', as well as a ''Justice League (film), Justice League'' script, with the previous draft being scrapped. In July 2013,
Zack Snyder Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
announced at San Diego Comic-Con International that the sequel to ''Man of Steel'' would have Superman and
Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...
meeting for the first time in the next film. Cavill, Adams, Lane and Fishburne were signed on to reprise their roles. Snyder stated that the film would take inspiration from the comic ''The Dark Knight Returns''. In August 2013,
Ben Affleck Benjamin Géza Affleck (born August 15, 1972) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Volpi Cup. Affleck began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educationa ...
was announced to be playing Batman, while
Gal Gadot Gal Gadot-Varsano ( he, גל גדות ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served in the Israel Defense Forces for two years as a combat fitness instructor, whereafter sh ...
was cast as Wonder Woman in December 2013. Later in December, Chris Terrio was hired to rewrite the script. In January 2014, it was announced that the film had been delayed from its original July 17, 2015 release date to May 6, 2016. In April 2014, it was announced that Snyder would also be directing Goyer's ''Justice League (film), Justice League'' script. In May 2014, the film's title was revealed to be '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice''. Warner Bros. was reportedly courting Terrio to rewrite ''Justice League'' the following July, after having been pleased with his rewrite of ''Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice''. While Superman star Henry Cavill does not consider it a Superman sequel, Snyder stated that he "thinks in a way ''Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'' is ''Man of Steel 2''".


Cancelled sequel

In August 2016, ''TheWrap'' reported that Warner Bros. put a second standalone ''Superman'' film in active development as a top priority. The news was later confirmed by Dany Garcia, Cavill's manager. While promoting ''Arrival (film), Arrival'', Amy Adams confirmed that work had begun on the screenplay. In March 2017, it was announced that
Matthew Vaughn Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond (born Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn; 7 March 1971) is an English filmmaker. He has produced films including ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) and '' Snatch'' (2000), and directed ''Layer Cake'' (2004 ...
was being eyed by Warner Bros. to direct. In April 2018, it was reported that Christopher McQuarrie was considering directing the film but later dropped it. In May 2019, however, ''Polygon (website), Polygon'' reported that Vaughn is no longer in negotiations to direct, adding that the project was going to include some ideas Vaughn and
Mark Millar Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer and television producer who first came to prominence with a run on the superhero series '' The Authority'', published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. Millar has written ex ...
initially pitched in 2008 for their proposed ''Superman'' trilogy, whose first film would have taken place mostly on Krypton. In July 2019, McQuarrie revealed that he and Cavill had pitched a ''Superman'' film and a ''Green Lantern'' film for the studio, but they were rejected. In January 2020, James Gunn said that he was offered to direct a Superman film, which he declined in favor of directing ''The Suicide Squad (film), The Suicide Squad''. However, he denied the film was going to be a sequel to ''Man of Steel''. It was announced in October 2022 that a sequel to ''Man of Steel'' was back in development with Cavill returning as Superman and Charles Roven returning from the first film as a producer. In December 2022, reports surfaced that Cavill may not reprise his role, and that the sequel may be cancelled after Gunn and Peter Safran agreed to take over co-CEOs of DC Studios. Gunn acknowledged that there would be "major shakeups" and asking fans to wait, adding that the future of DC Studios was still under discussion. Less than a week later, Gunn confirmed the cancellation of a ''Man of Steel'' sequel, as well as Cavill's involvement, announcing that the next ''Superman'' film would be a reboot that focuses on the superhero's younger years.


See also

* List of films featuring extraterrestrials


References


Further reading

* Marrapodi, Eric.
Superman: Flying to a church near you
. CNN. June 14, 2013. * Greg Cox (writer): ''Man of Steel'' (2013), (Novelization)


External links

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