Several years ago, it was rumoured that Warner Bros wanted to hire Christopher McQuarrie, fresh off of his Mission: Impossible sequels, to helm Man of Steel 2, which would have allowed Henry Cavill to reprise his role as Superman. While appearing on the HappySadConfused podcast, McQuarrie revealed that it was supposed to revolve around a conflict with Green Lantern and “boy, it was f**king good.”
He elaborated, saying the key to Green Lantern was giving his power a flaw. “The whole concept of Green Lantern is that the ring has to be recharged. Yes, you have infinite power, but you only have so much battery life, which can run out at inconvenient times. That, for me, solved the whole Green Lantern problem,” adding, tongue-in-cheek, “the costume is another thing.”
As for Superman, “Henry (Cavill) had a take on that, and the two characters had amazing similarities that would have allowed for amazing conflict.” McQuarrie also shared that he had an “epic” opening worked out that would have been similar in style to Pixar’s Up.
“The first five minutes of the movie were a setup after which you knew exactly what made Superman tick, what he was most afraid of, and why Superman made the choices that he made, and it would have been epic. In five minutes, the scale of the movie would have been extraordinary.”
All is not lost, though. McQuarrie stated that he tried to leave the audience leaving Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning with the same feeling he would have tried to evoke with his Superman movie—the feeling of hope. He went on to praise Richard Donner’s Superman movies for being the only ones to acknowledge that, at the end of the day, Superman’s worst enemy is himself.
It’s too bad we never got to see McQuarrie’s version, as who knows what might have come of the DCU had it been made.
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