Christopher Reeve believed Richard Pryor’s casting and SUPERMAN III’s comedic tone were the reasons it failed

When you have a film franchise, there will inevitably be stronger and weaker films in the series. Some will make more money than others, some will become fan favorites, and some are kind of lineup dudes. For what concern Superman movies range from the 70s and 80s starring the late, great Christopher Reeve, the first two are great and the last two are questionable. According to Reeve, the third film has a casting choice and comedic direction to blame.

The plot of the film reads:

Computer programmer Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) is hired by financial tycoon Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn) to take control of a weather satellite and wipe out Colombia’s coffee crop. When Superman (Christopher Reeve) thwarts the plan, Webster has Gorman use the satellite to locate kryptonite, the Man of Steel’s deadly weakness. But an unknown element missing in kryptonite, replaced by Gorman with tar, causes an unintended side effect when presented to Superman.

According to /Film, in his 1999 autobiography Me againReeve wrote that the director of the film, Richard Lesterwas excited to do Superman III fun and heartfelt that casting Richard Prior it was a plus. Reeve totally disagreed. He said comedian Richard Pryor was only hired because he asked to be in the film while he was appearing on a talk show:

“One night on the Johnny Carson show, Richard Pryor was excited about the Superman movies and said how much he’d love to make one. When they heard about it, [the film’s executive producers] they were excited by the idea that they could get Pryor to play some sort of comic villain in “Superman III.” They approached him and received an instant yes. David and Leslie Newman, the only remaining screenwriters from the original crew, were brought on board to write a film that has become more of a Richard Pryor comedy than an actual Superman film.”

Reeve continued in the book by describing a scene from the film that was simply overblown cartoon:

“The Newmans wrote a scene in which Pyror, wearing skis and sporting a pink tablecloth as Superman’s cape, hurtles down a small ski slope atop a skyscraper. He tumbles down the side of the building and lands – miraculously unharmed – in the middle of traffic on a busy road, then walks out to the sidewalk, oblivious to all the car horns and pedestrians staring.I personally found this all in poor taste.

Reeve then added how much he missed working Richard Donner. But he added that Superman III had at least one notable scene. The Kryptonite cigarette eventually forks Superman into separate good and evil beings, and the two fight. Reeve liked it, writing:

“I missed Donner tremendously and what we had created just two years earlier. I loved the sequence where Superman has become an evil version of himself and tries to kill Clark Kent in a car junkyard. That scene is unique; rest of ‘Superman III’ was mostly a misconception.”

While not the strongest of the Superman films, it hasn’t dimmed fans’ conception of Reeve as the Man of Steel. He is still considered one of the best, if not the best, to ever wear the cape.

What do you think of the Superman film franchise? What is your favorite movie?