When James Gunn’s Superman hits theaters next year, it might for a moment feel like you’re seeing more than one Man of Steel up on the screen. That’s because, as reported by Variety, the son of the late Christopher Reeve, Will Reeve, shot a cameo scene for the Superman film this week in Cleveland, Ohio. Will Reeve, the youngest of the late Superman star’s three children, is the spitting image of his dad. So it’s sure to be a touching moment when he and David Corenswet share the screen in the DCU movie. Will Reeve is actually a journalist and ABC News correspondent, so his Superman cameo will fittingly be that of a TV reporter who meets the Last Son of Krypton.

Locals caught the filming of many scenes from the Superman movie, including Will Reeve’s appearance on set. In the past week, we’ve seen David Corenswet in costume on set, not only as Superman but also as Clark Kent. This version of Clark has a curly mop of hair and thick glasses. The Clark Kent disguise actually makes us believe that people would believe that Superman and Clark are two different people. Also spotted on set is Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane and Nicholas Hault as Lex Luthor. We’ve also seen Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), wearing his comics-accurate costume. But seeing Christopher Reeve’s son appear in the Superman production is definitely a very fun surprise.

Aside from the upcoming James Gunn film, Will Reeve will appear, along with his two siblings, in the documentary Super/Man. This new film chronicles their late father Christopher Reeve’s rise to fame as Superman, which led to three sequels. His acting career came mostly to a halt after a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995. The incident left him paralyzed from the neck down. Christopher Reeve would become an advocate and spokesperson for those suffering from similar injuries until his death in 2004. It’s safe to say his son’s appearance in Superman will be a more fitting tribute to Christopher Reeve than his CGI recreation in The Flash. Super/Man releases later this year, and Superman hits theaters in July 11, 2025.

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Since 1948, less than ten years after his comic book debut, there have been several iterations of Superman on the screen, both big and small. Some have been all-time greats. Others, considerably less so. With the debut of David Corenswet as the new Man of Steel in James Gunn’s Superman, we’ve decided to rank all the live-action Superman costumes thus far. (There are 15 of them, believe it or not… and that’s not counting the guy dressed as Superman from the 1939 World’s Fair, or the one from the ’60s Broadway musical.) We’re sticking to film and TV here.

15. Tom Welling (Smallville, 2001-2011)

At the very bottom is someone who played Clark Kent longer than anyone, but sadly, never really got to play Superman. Despite the supposed “no tights, no flights” rule on Smallville, for ten long seasons, we waited for Tom Welling’s Clark Kent to finally suit up as the Man of Steel. And when he finally did in the series finale, it was utterly disappointing. It’s all just Clark ripping his shirt open? That’s what fans waited for? The final episode should have delivered a full suit, even if only for mere moments. We supposed the ‘S’ shield looks good, if we have to say something nice. It is technically a Superman costume, so it ranks on this list. But it ranks at the bottom… barely.

14. Nicolas Cage (The Flash, 2023)

Nicolas Cage was slated to play Kal-El in Tim Burton’s Superman Lives back in 1998, but for various reasons, that film never happened. 25 years later however, Nic Cage got to suit up as Superman for a brief cameo in The Flash where, as he was meant to do in the Tim Burton film, he gets to fight a giant spider. While it was fun to see Cage as Superman, the suit was all wrong then, and it’s all wrong now. An obvious rubber muscle suit for Batman makes sense, but on Superman? Totally ridiculous. The ‘S’ shield is disproportionately big as well, but that’s not too bad. It’s the horrible rubber suit look of it all that kills it.

13. Kirk Alyn (Superman serials, 1948-1950)

Actor Kirk Alyn was the prototype for what a live-action Superman would look like after starring in two Saturday afternoon serials in the late ‘40s. The suit in Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman were basically true to the comics, but sadly, also extremely cheap-looking. The designers couldn’t even get the ‘S’ shield to look fully sewn on in many shots. And sometimes close up, you can tell the top part of the costume is just a sweater. Plus, the boots just look like athletic socks. It’s not like Superman wasn’t already a national icon by this point, known throughout the world. He deserved better.

12. Tyler Hoechlin (Supergirl, Crisis on Infinite Earths, 2016-2019)

The first time actor Tyler Hoechlin appeared as Superman was on the second season of Supergirl on the CW, and that suit was …a choice. It’s not bad per se, but the designers made some decisions that made it feel very un-Superman in places. The gold clasps on the shoulders are weird for Supes, the belt has no real design to it, and there’s too much unnecessary detail in the torso area. We get the show wanted to differentiate from Henry Cavill’s Superman, who was still in films at the time. But this wasn’t it. Luckily, they improved on it for his own series Superman & Lois.

11. Henry Cavill (Zack Snyder’s Justice League, 2021)

From a pure design standpoint, Superman wearing black and silver is fashion-forward and fetching… for another character, however. Maybe a Superman analogous character like Omni-Man in Invincible or something like that would be perfect for it. But, Superman is definitely defined by his colors, and removing them makes him feel less like the global icon he is. Sorry, but these are Batman’s tones, not Kal-El’s. So is this a bad costume? Not really. But it’s not what we want from a Superman costume, much less the “main” costume, so it ranks here.

10. Henry Cavill (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2013-2016)

The costume for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel (later reused in Batman v Superman) has a lot of things going for it. The cape is vibrant red, long, and regal. The ‘S’ shield is a tad more stylized, but recognizable and cool. And the texture of the suit itself adds details that are missed. But no red trunks, and not even a red belt to break up all that blue? It looks kind of like a big onesie. And we’re not even sure what those patterns on the hips are. Speaking of all that blue, it’s just too dull a blue, almost blue/gray. It’s not the worst, but it’s far from the best.

9. Tyler Hoechlin (Superman and Lois, 2021-2024)

The second Superman suit for Tyler Hoechlin is from his one headlining series, Superman & Lois. It’s a much bigger improvement on the Superman costume he wore in the Arrowverse shows, with a much better neckline, no clasps for the cape, and a much improved red belt to break up the blue. Still, the blue is way too muted, almost dirty looking, in typical modern superhero costume fashion. Why are costume designers so afraid of Kal-El’s traditional bright blue?! Still, the rest of it all works well enough that it ranks this highly, but not as highly as Hoechlin’s next suit.

8. Tyler Hoechlin (Superman & Lois Flashback costume, 2021)

In the first episodes of Superman & Lois, we get flashbacks to the Man of Steel’s early days as a hero in Metropolis. He’s wearing a very low-key, homemade version of his comic book costume, complete with red trucks, bright blue and red colors, and an ‘S’ shield that looks just like the ones from the classic 1940s Fleischer Studios cartoons. As Clark tells a kid in the episode “My mom made it.” Sadly, this was too old-fashioned for modern audiences outside of brief flashbacks, but this suit absolutely nailed the assignment.

7. Henry Cavill (Justice League, 2017)

Henry Cavill’s Superman costume has gone through a few iterations in 3 ½ films. In the original cut of Justice League, when he returns from the dead, he’s a much more upbeat version of himself, with a new suit to match. The new costume is much the same basic design as the Man of Steel one, only the colors are much brighter. On the downside, there are white highlights for every muscle, which is just overkill. (We get it Henry, you’re way ripped). Still, this is a decent Superman look that should have lasted longer than just a brief ending of a lame movie and a post-credits scene in Black Adam.

6. Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, 1993-1997)

Dean Cain was Superman/Clark Kent for four seasons on ABC’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran from 1993-1997. The show was working from a much bigger budget than the syndicated Adventures of Superboy, but far less than the Christopher Reeve movies previously. The suit basically looks great, but the spandex fabric is a bit too shiny, and the fit is kind of off at times. So it gives it a Halloween costume feel. Also, the ‘S’ shield is just too big as well. Overall though, it’s pretty decent. It evokes classic Superman enough. It just evokes it in a strip mall Halloween store kind of way.

5. Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, 2006)

This one is almost there. It’s so close to nailing it completely. Only worn once by actor Brandon Routh in 2006’s Superman Returns, this costume is meant to be an outfit worn by an older version of Christopher Reeve’s Superman. We love certain things about it—the shade of blue, the boots, and the fit of the trunks. But the maroon over the bright red and the too-small ‘S’ shield emblem on the chest are both big demerit points. Although, we do like that it was the first raised ‘S’ shield, and not just one made of fabric. It’s still a great Superman suit, but misses the mark on a few key points.

4. Brandon Routh (Crisis on Infinite Earths, 2019)

Brandon Routh got a do-over for his Superman well over a decade after Superman Returns on the CW Arrowverse crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths. He played an older Kal-El in that event, one heavily inspired by the Superman of the comic series Kingdom Come, one beset by personal tragedy. He essentially wore that costume, lifted straight from the comics, and it looks amazing. Yes, the black instead of yellow feels very off-brand for Superman, despite its comic book origins. Luckily, by the end of the crossover, the black becomes bright yellow, and makes this version of the costume a true all-timer. Too bad it was only used in this TV event.

3. George Reeves (The Adventures of Superman, 1952-1958)

He wasn’t the first live-action Last Son of Krypton. But George Reeves’ version is what most people think of when they say “the original Superman.” Although mostly seen in black and white for ‘50s television sets, the creative team actually shot the series in color. And the color version of the costume is pretty great, even by today’s standards. The ‘S’ shield is perfectly sized, and the red and blue are just the right hue. Maybe the cape is too short (it was in the comics then, too), and the trunks do look a bit like adult diapers. But that’s really our only complaint. This costume is pure Superman, even seventy years later.

2. John Haymes Newton, Gerard Christoper (Superboy, 1988-1992)

Chances are, you’ve never even heard of this syndicated series from the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, which was extremely low-budget. It often looked like a random sitcom of the era in fact. Running four seasons (and with two different lead actors), Superboy was produced by the Salkind family, who produced the original four Superman films. Because of this, the costume folks made sure the outfits for both John Haymes Newton and Gerard Christopher looked nearly identical to that of Christopher Reeve’s suit. It wouldn’t be shocking if it were a spare costume from one of the films. The show was pretty bad, but the costume? We can’t lie, it was pretty spot on.

1. Christopher Reeve (Superman I-IV, 1978-1987)

To this day, no matter how many people play Superman on screen, when you say the name “Superman,” they’ll think of Christopher Reeve. That’s not just because he filled the suit so perfectly in 1978’s Superman: The Movie and its three sequels (he did), it’s also that the suit itself is practically perfect. The colors, the cape length, the ‘S’ shield emblem placement—all of it is spot on. The suit looks straight from the pages of the comic books, and made everyone believe a man can fly. And even though it was the ‘70s and the material wasn’t as sophisticated as a movie from today, it still looked miles better than later costumes made from space-age fabrics. It remains the standard, and probably always will.

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It’s one of the coolest scenes in The Flash (and DC film history), period. Towards the climax of the film, when the multiple versions of Barry Allen are traveling through the Speed Force in an attempt to change history, or not change it, we see various timelines bleeding in. And all of them are familiar to fans of the long history of shows and movies based on DC Comics characters. This DC Multiverse scene offers cameos of some of the most iconic actors to ever play members of the Justice League, including several who are no longer with us. And we are gonna break down all the DC multiverse cameos in The Flash right here.

Superman (George Reeves)

Although not the first actor to play the Man of Steel (that would be Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in the 1940s serials), George Reeves became an icon in The Adventures of Superman TV series, which ran from 1952-1958. A show that then ran for several decades after in syndication. Although several episodes were shot in color, they filmed most in black and white. And so, the DC Multiverse version we saw in The Flash of George Reeves’ Last Son of Krypton was seemingly in a black-and-white universe. We’re not sure if it’s logical, but it sure feels right.

The Flash, Jay Garrick

One of the more perplexing DC cameos in the Multiverse scene is the original Flash, Jay Garrick. As DC Comics fans are aware, he was the speedster of DC Comics’ Golden Age, operating from 1940-1952 in the comics. The Jay we see here was shot in black and white. Just like the George Reeves Superman. It looks like this was actor Teddy Sears, who played the fake Jay Garrick from the CW Flash series. He turned out to be the villainous Zoom. But why not John Wesley Shipp, since he was the real Jay Garrick in the show? Not to mention, the first live-action Flash, period. We don’t know the answer, but whoever the actor is, that is definitely the original Golden Age Flash running through the Multiverse.

Batman (Adam West)

If you blink you might miss him, but the original cinematic Batman, Adam West, appears in the Multiverse scene. And yes, thanks to the 1966 Batman movie, which was a spin-off of the TV series, that means West was the big-screen Caped Crusader over two decades before Michael Keaton. We didn’t notice Robin there with him, which is a shame, because it’s hard to imagine Batman ’66 without him. But the so-called “Bright Knight” is definitely there in his blue and grey tights, fighting the good fight.

Superman (Christopher Reeve)

For an entire generation, the late Christopher Reeve was the ultimate Superman. First appearing in Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman: The Movie, and its three subsequent sequels, Reeve’s portrayal is still thought of as one of the greatest superhero performances on screen. In his appearance in The Flash, it looks like he’s brought to life via archival footage and CGI. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, fans clamored for Reeve’s Superman and Keaton’s Batman to appear in a movie together. And now, that collaboration is sort of real.

Supergirl (Helen Slater)

Sasha Calle was not the first cinematic Maid of Might. No, that honor goes to actress Helen Slater, who played Kara Zor-El/Linda Lee in the very campy 1984 movie Supergirl. And later, Slater played the CW Kara’s adoptive mother on the TV series Supergirl. It was set in continuity with the Christopher Reeve Superman films. Although sadly, the pair never appeared on screen together…. until now, that is. Thanks to The Flash, the Kryptonian cousins fly together past the Metropolis skyline at last, thanks to some digital trickery.

Superman (Nicolas Cage)

In the biggest shocker of a cameo in The Flash, Nicolas Cage appears as Superman. And he’s fighting a giant spider too. As fans may know, they cast Nic Cage in Tim Burton’s Superman Lives way back in 1997. The film’s producer Jon Peters wanted his version of Superman to fight a giant spider. A giant spider he managed to work into his next film, Wild Wild Wet. Director Kevin Smith famously shared this story, which went viral. But that movie never happened. Now, at long last, Nic Cage gets to wear the cape and tights of the Man of Steel in The Flash. We can’t wait for the inevitable action figure.

Sadly, not every iconic live-action DC hero could make the final cut. Director Andy Muschietti admitted that there were plans for Marlon Brando’s Jor-El from Superman: The Movie, as well as some of the villains from Batman ’66, like the Joker and the Penguin. Perhaps the most brutal cuts were the removal of Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman and Grant Gustin’s Flash. (The latter feels especially egregious, given the nine years he put into playing the role on TV.) Maybe we’ll see them in a future “Extended DC Multiverse Cut” of The Flash. After all, the world is no stranger to longer versions of DC films finding a way to happen.

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After months of rumors, Warner Bros. animation revealed that DC’s popular Injustice franchise is getting its own animated adaptation. It’s the story of an alternate world where the Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane, only to see Clark Kent become a mad tyrant. And it’s coming on October 15 as a DTV film. A new trailer for Injustice recently came out, and it looks super faithful to the source material.

But an Injustice fan trailer from YouTuber Darth Blender has also just come out. And it somehow improves on the animated one. All they had to do to make it more awesome was to add in some Christopher Reeve, Michael Keaton, and Lynda Carter. This is similar to the ’90s Justice League mashup trailer that came last year. (Although shouldn’t that have been ’80s? We digress). You can watch the full Injustice ’80s Mashup Trailer right here.

It’s always fun to see the classic versions of DC’s Trinity “team-up” as the JLA. But the best part of this mashup trailer is that “despot Superman” of Injustice is actually all culled from scenes from Superman III. For those of you who have not seen that 1983 masterpiece, there’s a whole bit where synthetic Kryptonite splits Superman into two. Kinda like that Star Trek episode where William Shatner splits into “evil Kirk” and “good Kirk.” Only less subtle.

Warner Bros.

Anyway, this Superman is only “evil” in that he wears a dirty version of his costume. And he drinks a lot. He’s also just an overall jerk. All the cheesy “bad Supes” footage was used to significant effect in this fan trailer, we must say. Christopher Reeve was having just way too much fun playing bad Superman, and it’s the best part of that movie. We’re happy to see it find new life. There’s also a Snyder-verse version of the Injustice trailer. But isn’t Snyder’s dark DC Universe basically just another version of Injustice anyway? You can watch that one by clicking here. At least it has more Harley Quinn.

Darth Blender was also responsible for the recent Masters of the Universe: Revelation mashup trailer. That one blended the 1987 live-action He-Man with Kevin Smith’s Netflix show. Before that, the Avengers: Infinity War and Star Trek mashups were also the bee’s knees. And their Marvel retro mash-up is also fantastic. To check out more fun trailer mashups, be sure to head on over to the Darth Blender YouTube channel.

Featured Image: Darth Blender

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Long before the MCU or the DCEU, the world’s finest big screen superheroes were Superman and Batman. This is due to the massive success of Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie in 1978, and Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989. Now, it’s time to revisit the worlds where Christopher Reeve is the Man of Steel, and Michael Keaton is the Dark Knight. DC Comics has announced new digital first series Superman’78 and Batman ’89, both coming this year. You can check out the first artwork for both series  below.

Batman ’89

DC Comics

Continuing the twisted adventures of DC’s Dark Knight from Tim Burton’s seminal classic Batman movies movies, Batman ’89 brings in screenwriter Sam Hamm (Batman, Batman Returns) and artist Joe Quinones (Dial H for Hero) to pull a number of threads left dangling by the prolific director. The gothic mentality behind the world, while still rooted in a sense of realism, helped inform many of DC’s global fans’ first impressions of the Dark Knight’s Gotham.

In the new Batman ’89 comic, Hamm and Quinones will help usher in the return of Selina Kyle/Catwoman and will debut a new Robin. Plus, Quinones has a vision for Harvey Dent/Two-Face that is as close to movie magic as a comic can get. Could this be our Billy Dee Williams’ Two-Face? It only took 32 years! It will be interesting to see if the Robin will be based on Marlon Wayans. The actor was meant to play Dick Grayson in Batman Returns.

Quinones shared some of his concept art for the series on Twitter, and one of the characters looks like Prince’s Joker from the Batdance music video!

Superman ’78

DC Comics

Robert Venditti (Hawkman) and Wilfredo Torres (Batman ’66) will collaborate on Superman ’78 to tell stories set within the world Richard Donner and Christopher Reeves created in Superman: The Movie. In Superman ’78, bystanders are surprised and delighted by Superman’s abilities. And Lois Lane doesn’t (yet!) know that Clark Kent is secretly Superman. Inspired by Donner’s timeless style of superhero storytelling, in Superman ’78 Venditti and Torres will show fans that a man can truly fly. Hopefully this comic will give fans things we never got before in those classic films. Perhaps villains like Bizarro and Brainiac.

Superman ’78 and Batman ’89 will debut with six digital chapters each on July 27. New chapters of each comic book will debut for the following six weeks. The 12 chapters of each new series will also publish as six printed comics between August and October. Hardcover collections will arrive in October (Batman ’89) and November (Superman ’78). This is similar to how DC rolled out Batman ’66 and Wonder Woman ’77 a few years back. We know that we can’t wait to return to the versions of these characters that made the DC Comics heroes cinematic icons.

Featured Image: DC Comics

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Forty-two years ago, Superman: The Movie landed on theater screens, ultimately becoming the first comic book superhero blockbuster. Director Richard Donner struck gold with this adaptation, which starred the perfectly cast Christopher Reeve as the Man of Steel. It remains the template for how to do a perfect superhero origin story on film, influencing everything from Spider-Man to Wonder Woman. But it didn’t just change superhero movies forever; it also fundamentally changed Superman in his original home of comic books too.

Seven years after the movie broke records, DC rebooted their entire comic book line with the event series Crisis on Infinite Earths. X-Men artist/writer John Byrne revamped the character in a back-to-basics approach. He jettisoned many aspects that had accumulated around the Last Son of Krypton’s mythology, like super powered pets and miniaturized alien bottle cities. When Byrne revitalized the iconic hero, he took several cues from the 1978 blockbuster film. Here’s all the ways that Richard Donner’s timeless classic influenced the comic book hero going forward.

Presentation of the Planet Krypton

DC Comics

In the original comics, the doomed planet Krypton was an Art Deco sci-fi utopia, à la Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers. The citizens just looked like any typical mid-century Americans of the era, only with flying cars and jet packs. This aesthetic lasted in all depictions of the planet for over 45 years.

Richard Donner conceived of Krypton as a cold and alien world. In the film, the planet’s surface was desolate, as if if ravaged by a long-ago nuclear war. The Kryptonians seemed aloof and scientifically advanced, almost without emotion. A far cry from the previous comic book version.

Warner Bros. / DC Comics

When DC Comics rebooted their universe and Byrne reinvented Superman on the page, he made his Krypton far more like the one from the big screen. It’s not an exact match; movie Krypton was an ice world, while the new comics’ Krypton was something of a desert planet. But it was still more akin to the cinematic version than anything that had come previously. The comics also adopted another of the movie’s innovations: the Superman “S” symbol being an actual Kryptonian glyph representing the House of El.

Smallville

DC Comics / Warner Bros.

The comics introduced the little town of Smallville, Kansas as the home of teenage Superboy Clark Kent’s adventures. He and his superdog Krypto saved the idyllic all-American hamlet from aliens and supervillains alike. For the big screen, Donner kept the Smallville location intact, but removed Clark’s heroic career as Superboy that went along with it. This aspect of his backstory was then transferred to the comics in 1986; Smallville remained Superman’s boyhood hometown, though was no longer home base for a youthful superheroic career.

Lois Lane

Warner Bros. / DC Comics

Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane was never a damsel in distress, even when she first appeared on the page in 1938. But as the ’50s and ’60s rolled on, Lois became a lot more focused on wooing Superman that being a fearless journalist. In fact, her own comic series was called Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane, more or less reducing her character to just one personality trait: being guy crazy.

But Margo Kidder imbued Lois with a big city gal “I’ve seen it all” energy. Superman: The Movie portrayed her as the newspaper’s number one reporter. Kidder’s Lois might have been in love with Superman, but she was heroic in her own right. This take on Lois influenced Byrne’s mid ’80s reinvention of the character, and later, the TV series Lois and Clark and Superman: The Animated Series.

Lex Luthor

Warner Bros. / DC Comics

For decades, Superman’s arch nemesis has been evil genius and mad scientist Lex Luthor. From creating death rays and doppelgängers, Luthor’s goal in life was to eradicate the Man of Steel. Why all the hate? When the two were friends as kids in Smallville, one of Lex’s experiments gone awry accidentally caused a lab fire. To put out the fire, Superboy utilized his super breath. This somehow left Lex bald, and he vowed revenge. Yes, this caused a lifetime of enmity.

DC Comics

For Superman: The Movie, Richard Donner ditched this whole motivation for Kal-El’s foremost enemy. The filmmaker reimagined him as a twisted capitalist with no moral compass. Luthor’s plan in the film was essentially to make money off a murderous real estate deal. Goofy as Gene Hackman played him, he was clearly shown to be someone of means at one time. How else does one get a luxury underground lair? For Luthor’s post-Crisis reboot, DC decided they’d double down on the “evil rich guy” idea for Luthor. They reinvented his as the CEO of the multi-million dollar company LexCorp, and that version of Lex has more or less stuck ever since.

The Phantom Zone Criminals

DC Comics / Warner Bros.

Since the ’50s, the Phantom Zone has been the ethereal dimension where Krypton housed its worst criminals. There were many, many escaped Phantom Zone convicts in the comics; they often traveled in groups of three. When creating the Phantom Zone criminals for Superman: The Movie, screenwriter Mario Puzo picked the name of one of the comics’ villains, General Zod. This would become Terence Stamp’s character.

DC Comics

In the old Silver Age comics, Zod looked totally different than his eventual onscreen persona. The other two Kryptonian criminals, Ursa and Non, were created just for the film. But starting in 2007, the other two jumped to the pages of the comics. And Zod and his cohorts would resemble their big screen counterparts from there on out. The multiple Phantom Zone baddies were broken down into three distinct characters, and it’s remained that way ever since.

In the case of movies and TV shows based on comics, the tail always wags the dog. Millions of people see the movies and TV shows, so the comics are often changed to reflect that. But this practice truly became the norm after the success of Superman: The Movie. And we think the Man of Steel benefited greatly from the film’s massive success.

Warner Bros.

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With the DC FanDome event coming up, many fans are wondering if there will be a secret announcement for a new Justice League project of some sort. A continuation of Zack Snyder’s Justice League? An animated revival? Well, here’s one Justice League project that it won’t be, but we desperately wish had been. A DC fan and YouTuber named AListProductions has created a trailer for the Justice League movie that never was, “hitting theaters in the summer of 1993!”

This fantasy JLA movie has the Joker (Jack Nicholson) teaming up with Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), and Christopher Reeve’s Superman, Michael Keaton’s Batman, and TV’s Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) and Flash (John Wesley Shipp) team up to stop their deadly plans. You can check out the full trailer down below:

There are a bunch of great touches in this trailer. The start of it blends John Williams’ iconic Superman: The Movie theme with Danny Elfman’s theme from Batman. Which, in our humble opinion, are still the two best superhero movie themes of all time. Also, the old Warner Brothers logo inclusion is a wonderful little detail. Even if that logo was already out of use by 1993, nevertheless the vibe feels right.

AListProductions

Sadly, back in the day, none of the studios would have thought to make a superhero team up movie like this. But thanks to this fan made trailer, we can’t help but wonder what could have been. If only there had been some forward thinking thinking Warner Brothers exec. One who had pulled out all the stops, and called Christopher Reeve and Lynda Carter out of capes and tights retirement. A brilliant person who’d team them up with Batman. It might have given Jurassic Park a run for its money in 1993. Or, at the very least, made more money than Last Action Hero did!

Featured Image: AListProductions

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Look, in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s the latest reminder that the Justice League/Superman mustache debacle was really weird.

The story of Henry Cavill’s “missing” facial hair in Justice League was already infamous before anyone saw the movie. After Zack Snyder left following a family tragedy and Joss Whedon came on as director, the film needed major re-shoots. There was one problem: Cavill was filming Misson: Impossible – Fallout and his character had a world-class mustache Paramount wouldn’t let him shave. Not wanting to delay the film’s release, and with seemingly no other choice, Warner Bros. decided to digitally remove Cavill’s mustache. And it was a disaster. The further away we get from the whole ordeal the weirder it seems, especially when you watch this video that replaces Henry Cavill’s entire face with another famous Man of Steel, the late Christopher Reeve.

The YouTube channels derpfakes is back with another great video that uses an artificial intelligence program that makes it possible to seamlessly replace one actor’s face using photos and images of another. This worked incredibly when it put Harrison Ford’s face onto Alden Ehrenreich’s in Solo, only that made us appreciate Ehrenreich’s performance even more. We’re still impressed this time around, but we’re also more confused than ever why Cavill’s mustache posed such a problem in Justice League. This was made possible by a single A.I. program without the incredible resources, time, and money of a major Hollywood studio.

Seriously, if it’s possible to digitally edit Christopher Reeve’s face into the movie and have it look this good, how much better would Superman have looked in Justice League if they had simply replaced Henry Cavill’s face with younger Henry Cavill’s face? Couldn’t this A.I. program have replaced all those poorly edited “missing” mustache scenes with shots from Man of Steel or Batman v Superman?

That would have been a lot less weird than giving him the world’s worst shave.

Featured Image: derpfakes/Warner Bros.

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