Before Brandon Routh portrayed a fantastic Superman in the not-so-fantastic Superman Returns, it seems director Bryan Singer wanted a different actor for the role; Jude Law. During a visit to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the actor elaborated on why he chose not to play the iconic role of the Man Of Steel. "This was a while ago, so you remember they were rebooting Superman, not this last time with Henry Cavill, they did it once before, um, (in 2004), yeah, when I was obviously young enough to play Superman. So I was approached and at the time I don't know, I just, it didn't float my boat you know, like I just really didn't want to go there, um. First of all, I'm an Englishman and I felt like, I don't know, it just didn't seem to fit, and I was always worried about the outfit and I just didn't fancy it. This director was very keen to meet and impress it upon me and I was actually out in California and he said 'Look, you just have to try the suit on. The suit's amazing, and we've revamped the suit', and I was like okay, send the suit over. Send the suit over."
It seems a little odd that Law was reluctant due to being an Englishman, and a little ironic considering we now have the English Henry Cavill in the role. Once the suit had been delivered to Law's hotel room, there was only one step left. "So there's a knock on my hotel room, there's a guard, a big guard, right, and this lady from the wardrobe and they bring the suit in, and I'm like 'I'm not going to try the suit on in front of you', I was like I'm going to go in the bathroom, right. So I take the suit into the bathroom and I'm putting it on and then I look round, I'm in the mirror and suddenly...I'm Superman, right. I though this, and the music kinda comes in like da, da, dada duh duh, right, I stood there and then I had this picture of that, me in that costume on posters all over the world and I was like 'No Way' and I unzipped it. But I was Superman for two minutes, that's enough."
While Law certainly would have been an interesting choice, Routh ended up receiving praise for his role, despite the movie not making a dent with audiences. Would you liked to have seen Jude Law as Superman? Sound off below!
About The Author:
Matt is a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, and has been a fan of superheroes since he picked up his first comic book issue as a child. While he works as a professional musician, Matt has a massive passion for comic books, films and heroes, along with participating in discussion and debate with the CBM community.