Superhero origins can be a tricky thing to adapt. On the one hand, they’re often crucial parts of a character’s story — however, the more popular superheroes have had their origins told and retold so many times over the decades that audiences just want to hurry up and get to the good stuff already.
Such is the case with Batman, whose latest cinematic outing — The Batman starring Robert Pattinson — seems to be skipping the origin story and jumping straight to Bruce Wayne’s early days as a crimefighter. By now, anyone who’s interested in Batman already knows the story of how Bruce Wayne lost his parents and became a superhero, just as everyone knows how Superman is an alien who was sent to Earth as a baby to escape his homeworld’s destruction. As such, the next time Superman gets a movie adaptation, it would be best for it not to dwell on his backstory.
A Familiar Tale
Although Superman has been a pop culture icon since 1938, his career in film has been surprisingly short. Aside from some obscure film serials in the 40s and 50s, there have only been three portrayals of Superman in modern film. First, there is of course Christopher Reeve, who appeared in four Superman films between 1978 and 1987. The original 1978 Superman has become the archetypical iteration of the Man of Tomorrow’s origin story, covering everything from the destruction of Krypton to Clark Kent’s childhood in Smallville, from Superman's arrival in Metropolis to the start of his rivalry with Lex Luthor. Superman then disappeared from the silver screen until 2006’s Superman Returns. Though it featured Brandon Routh in the lead role, the film was intended to be a continuation of Superman II, offering an alternate timeline for the Christopher Reeve films. As such, the Reeve and Routh Supermen are technically the same character, making a recap of his origin story unnecessary.
After a 7-year absence, Superman once again returned to film with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, featuring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent. Essentially, Man of Steel is to Superman as Batman Begins is to Batman, depicting an expanded account of Clark’s journey to becoming Superman. It’s only at the very end of the movie that the traditional status quo is established, with Clark becoming active as Superman while working as a reporter at the Daily Planet. However, the promise of this familiar status quo never really comes to pass — the next film, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, features a very dour take on Superman who is forced to split the protagonist role with Batman, and ends up dying by the end of the movie.
Justice League, in both its theatrical release and the Snyder Cut, features very little Superman, with him remaining dead for the majority of the movie and only joining the Justice League for the final stage of the battle with Steppenwolf. And unfortunately, this seems to be the end of Henry Cavill’s career as Superman. He spends his first movie becoming Superman, dies in the next one, and is dead for most of the last one. As a result, Cavill never truly gets the opportunity to just be Superman as we know him. Snyder spends his films either building up to the Superman mythos or subverting it, but never truly exploring it.
A New Direction
Currently, very little is known about Superman’s next big-screen adventure, which has Ta-Nehesi Coates attached as screenwriter with J.J. Abrams as a producer. It was confirmed last year that the film will take place in its own separate continuity, with a Black actor taking over the role of Clark Kent for the first time in movie history. No info on the movie’s story has been released, aside from rumors that the film will be a period piece set sometime in the 20th century. But while the exact nature of this next Superman film is a mystery for now, it could very well be the change of pace that the character needs. Both of Superman’s previous film continuities have taken the time to cover Superman’s backstory before delving into his career as a hero. However, the next film could easily skip right to Superman’s time as an active crimefighter, immediately establishing the status quo fans know and love.
Throughout Superman’s film history, only the surface of his comic book mythos has been scratched. Out of all his many arch-villains, only Lex Luthor, General Zod, Doomsday, and Darkseid have ever been featured on the big screen — and technically Bloodsport as well, even though he and Superman have yet to appear on screen together. The likes of Brainiac, Bizarro, Parasite, Metallo, Mongul, Lobo, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and more have yet to make their film debuts, even as Batman and Spider-Man have had the majority of their iconic rogues featured on film.
By skipping Superman’s well-trodden origin story and getting into the meat of his hero career right away, the next Superman film would be free to explore new stories that no big-screen adaptation has told before. Superman’s backstory is certainly one of the most compelling and iconic origins in comic history, so it’s understandable why filmmakers would want to revisit it. But Superman’s story is a very long one, and it’d be nice to focus on some of the later chapters for a change.