Brendan Fraser reflects on losing Superman role in JJ Abrams scripted DC film

In the early 2000s Warner Bros. took over JJ Abrams write a Superman movie. That movie would be called Superman: Fly over and every young actor in Hollywood was auditioning for the lead, including Brendan Fraser.

At some point in the multiverse, a version of this film was made with Fraser as the Man of Steel. But this is a film that unfortunately we will never see. Fraser never got the role and the film never came to fruition. Reflecting on that moment when he was ready for the role and how he stacked up against the likes of Paul Walker. frazer said:

“Everyone in town was reading for Superman. Like, again, we’re testing I think six or seven guys in 2002/2003. Paul Walker, I remember Paul Walker was before me. They were like the usual suspects.”

While a guest on The Howard Stern Show, Fraser said he realized that getting the role of Superman would be “an incredible life-changing opportunity,” he also explained that “he had to reconcile with, ‘Okay, say that you get the job to be the Man of Steel, it’ll be chipped on your gravestone, is that okay? I mean, forever more known as the Man of Steel.’” He added:

“There was a sort of Faustian bargain involved. I think inherently, I didn’t want to be known for just one thing because I’ve been proud of diversity my entire professional life and I’m not a one-trick pony.

Regardless, Fraser was disappointed that he missed the opportunity:

“I felt let down that there was an incredible opportunity and it didn’t materialize. It had a lot to do with some shenanigans and studio politics. And probably, inherently, in my audition. I think that’s why you take the test…they might see that I was only there 98%.”

Superman: Fly over it was an origin story that “included Krypton besieged by a civil war between Jor-El and his corrupted brother, Kata-Zor. Before Kata-Zor sentences Jor-El to prison, Kal-El is cast to Earth to fulfill a prophecy. Adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent, he forms a romance with Lois Lane in the Daily Planet. However, Lois is more interested in exposing Lex Luthor, written as a government agent obsessed with UFO phenomena. Clark reveals himself to the world as Superman, bringing Kata-Zor’s son Ty-Zor and three other Kryptonians to Earth. Superman is defeated and killed, and visits Jor-El (who committed suicide on Krypton while in prison) in the Kryptonian Heaven. Resurrected, he returns to Earth and defeats the four Kryptonians, while the script ends with Superman going to Krypton, leaving a cliffhanger for a sequel.

Earlier speaking about story details, Abrams said:

“The thing I’ve tried to emphasize in the story is that if the Kents had found this kid, Kal-El, who had the power that he had, he would most likely have killed them both in short order. And the idea that these parents would realize — if they were lucky to survive long enough — that they should immediately start teaching this kid to limit himself and not to be so fast, not to be so strong, not to be so powerful. The result of this, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, insecurity and ashamed of what one is capable of. Extrapolating that to adulthood made for a fascinating psychological profile of someone who wasn’t pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent. That he had become the kind of character who is unable or unwilling to accept who he was and what his fate was for him.

“The idea in the film was that he becomes Superman because he realizes that he must finally possess his strength and what he’s always been.”

Warner Bros. and Abrams were developing Superman: Fly over around 2002. When the project was shelved, the studio ended up moving forward with a different take on the Man of Steel, and that was by Bryan Singer Superman returnswhich he launched Brandon Routh like superhero.

Do you think Brendan Fraser would have made a good Superman!?