TRANSFORMERS Director Michael Bay Was Eyed To Direct MAN OF STEEL Sequel Starring Henry Cavill

TRANSFORMERS Director Michael Bay Was Eyed To Direct MAN OF STEEL Sequel Starring Henry Cavill

Following Henry Cavill's short-lived return as Superman in Black Adam, plans were put in place for a Black Adam sequel. Now, it's been revealed that Transformers helmer Michael Bay was eyed to direct.

By JoshWilding - Jun 02, 2025 11:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Man of Steel
Source: The Wrap

Earlier today, we shared some insights into exactly how much is riding on the success of Superman this summer. There was a time when the DCEU was going to continue, though, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hoped the franchise would revolve around Black Adam

That was a critical and commercial flop, but a post-credits scene finally welcomed Henry Cavill's Superman back into the fold. The actor shot a cameo for The Flash, but that was cut when Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to run DC Studios.

The DCEU was rebooted as the DC, and Cavill was dropped. Now, David Corenswet will play a new version of the iconic Kryptonian in Gunn's Superman reboot. The decision to start over meant that early Man of Steel 2 plans were scrapped, and many of you might feel that was for the best based on this news. 

According to The Wrap, "Before Gunn and Safran's hiring, Warner Bros. Pictures chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy briefly tried to get a standalone Henry Cavill-led 'Superman' film going in 2022, with Michael Bay eyed to possibly direct, according to two insiders."

Bay is best known for bringing his unique brand of "Bayhem" to five live-action Transformers movies. He also counts the likes of Bad Boys, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and 6 Underground among his directing credits. 

Bay wasn't the only filmmaker Warner Bros. considered for a Man of Steel sequel. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie hoped to reunite with Cavill after they worked on Mission: Impossible - Fallout together.

"I will tell you, the first 5 minutes of my Superman movie was...you remember Pixar's Up? [It was] a sequence with no dialogue that covered that character," the filmmaker revealed in a recent interview

"[It] was a set-up, after which you knew exactly what makes Superman tick and exactly what Superman was most afraid of and why Superman made the choices he made," McQuarrie added. "It would have been epic. The scale of the movie would have been absolutely extraordinary."

"I'll never tell. I'll never tell, but boy was it f***ing good. It was f***ing good."

For what it's worth, Bay has never seemed overly interested in superhero fare, so it seems doubtful he'd have wanted to direct a Superman movie. The same year he was considered for this gig, he said, "It's not that I'm not interested in Marvel. As Ridley Scott says, the most complicated thing for a director and the most fun thing for a director is to build the world."

"I'm not the guy to go into Lucas' Star Wars and do Star Wars Five. That's not me. I'm not the one to come into Iron Man Seven. I'm not the one to do Batman 10. I want to do my own thing," Bay noted. "I would love to do a superhero thing but I want to do it on my own terms and create my own world."

Still, we're sure you'll agree that it's fascinating (and perhaps a little frightening) to imagine what Man of Steel 2, by way of Michael Bay, might have looked like had it become a reality. 

SUPERMAN Character Descriptions Confirm That Baby Joey Is [SPOILER]; Reveal The Name Of Luthor's Soldiers
Related:

SUPERMAN Character Descriptions Confirm That Baby Joey Is [SPOILER]; Reveal The Name Of Luthor's Soldiers

New THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Poster Released; Tickets Officially Go On Sale Tomorrow
Recommended For You:

New THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Poster Released; Tickets Officially Go On Sale Tomorrow

DISCLAIMER: As a user generated site and platform, ComicBookMovie.com is protected under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) and "Safe Harbor" provisions.

This post was submitted by a user who has agreed to our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. ComicBookMovie.com will disable users who knowingly commit plagiarism, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement. Please CONTACT US for expeditious removal of copyrighted/trademarked content. CLICK HERE to learn more about our copyright and trademark policies.

Note that ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.

1 2
THEKENDOMAN
THEKENDOMAN - 6/2/2025, 11:53 AM
Bloody hell.

I can see the [frick]ing 180-degree shot.

This would have been [frick]ing different.

For [frick]s Sake
CaptainFlapjaks
CaptainFlapjaks - 6/2/2025, 12:05 PM
@THEKENDOMAN - and people complained about superman and the collateral damage in man of steel. Imagine bays collateral damage and how superman dealt with that.
THEKENDOMAN
THEKENDOMAN - 6/2/2025, 12:14 PM
@CaptainFlapjaks - 😂😂😂

[frick]ing good point 😂😂

Metropolis will [frick]ing seize to exist by the [frick]ing time he is done 😂😂😂
Arthorious
Arthorious - 6/2/2025, 12:24 PM
@CaptainFlapjaks - the explosions would look more like fireworks
WruceBayne
WruceBayne - 6/2/2025, 12:30 PM
@CaptainFlapjaks - I hate that complaint. What were people expecting two superpowered individuals to do when fighting? Especially since one of the individuals was trying to murder the WHOLE planet.
Just like killing Zod, what was Superman supposed to do, lock him up? Kryptonite wasn’t discovered until the ships crashed so there wasn’t any weapons to use against Zod.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/2/2025, 1:00 PM
@THEKENDOMAN -

"I can see the [frick]ing 180-degree shot."

I could see it too.
THEKENDOMAN
THEKENDOMAN - 6/2/2025, 1:43 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - and it would had been [frick]ing epic 👊🏿
theBlackSquare
theBlackSquare - 6/2/2025, 11:54 AM
Jees, and people say the Gunn suit looks bad...
TheLobster
TheLobster - 6/2/2025, 12:01 PM
@theBlackSquare - that’s because it does
theBlackSquare
theBlackSquare - 6/2/2025, 12:18 PM
@TheLobster -you think it does. And many agree with you. But I’ll take Gunn’s any day of the week.
JurassicClunge
JurassicClunge - 6/2/2025, 12:22 PM
@theBlackSquare - nope, Gunns suit looks worse lmao 🤣
kylo0607
kylo0607 - 6/2/2025, 1:11 PM
@theBlackSquare - Uhm, Gunn's suit is really bad lol.
TheLobster
TheLobster - 6/2/2025, 1:40 PM
@theBlackSquare - over Cavill’s? That’s hilarious but do you my guy lol
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/2/2025, 11:56 AM
Well , I’m glad that didn’t happen…

Don’t get me wrong , I have liked/enjoyed some of Bays work but he’s completely the wrong fit for Superman imo given his style & spectacle over substance approach.

I wouldn’t mind him being given a shot at something like Lobo though.
Patient2670
Patient2670 - 6/2/2025, 1:13 PM
@TheVisionary25 - At one point, Bay was supposedly in talks for a Lobo movie. It apparently fell apart when he said he'd do it for a lower budget because it had to be R rated.
I actually like a bunch of his movies as well. I think his work usually looks fantastic, but he's never been much of a story guy (The Rock, excluded). Much like a latter day George Lucas- never let a script get in the way of your VFX. LOL!
McMurdo
McMurdo - 6/2/2025, 12:00 PM
No shocker there lol
NicolausCopernicus
NicolausCopernicus - 6/2/2025, 12:01 PM
Eh,I still want to see his Lobo movie.
ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 6/2/2025, 12:04 PM
Well, at least it would have been so chaotic and nonsensical that I couldn't pay enough attention to have been insulted by it
TheJok3r
TheJok3r - 6/2/2025, 12:04 PM
10 years between MOS and this sequel, and the best they could do was Michael Bay ?
Nomis929
Nomis929 - 6/2/2025, 12:05 PM
HELLS YEAH!

User Comment Image
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/2/2025, 1:02 PM
Come on Warner Bros., let Michael Bay make an Elseworlds Justice League movie!

💥💥💥💥💥💥
💥💥💥💥💥💥
💥💥💥💥💥💥
Pictilli
Pictilli - 6/2/2025, 12:05 PM
Good riddance to both.

Gunn was always the best choice
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 6/2/2025, 12:06 PM
I couldn’t imagine anyone worse for the job
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/2/2025, 1:04 PM
@Twenty23Three -

J.J. Abrams

Rian Johnson

The Doctor Who showrunner

The Rings of Power showrunners

Ava Duvernay

Jordan Peele

4 to 40 other woke lib activists
Twenty23Three
Twenty23Three - 6/2/2025, 1:15 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - oh good… you’re still kicking about
KennKathleen
KennKathleen - 6/2/2025, 12:08 PM
User Comment Image

User Comment Image
RockReigns
RockReigns - 6/2/2025, 12:08 PM
“Superman, can you tell your dog Krypto to stop lubicating on me?” - Michael Bay’s Brainiac

Steel86
Steel86 - 6/2/2025, 12:08 PM
The same difference from Zack. Bay is all style no substance. Visually would've been really kool but the story trash.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/2/2025, 12:09 PM
@Steel86 - to be fair , probably but it depends on who the writer was

The execution might not have been great though
Steel86
Steel86 - 6/2/2025, 12:20 PM
@TheVisionary25 - Bay is very similar to Zack in that no matter who the writer was he's not going to be strick to that script and add and subtract throughout the filming process. For Superman in general if the studio would have hired a really good writer then insisted that the script they signed off on was adhered to with Zack or a Bay then we would have a perfect marriage because both directors are visual artists.
thedrudo
thedrudo - 6/2/2025, 12:09 PM
McQuarrie would have been interesting tbh
Irregular
Irregular - 6/2/2025, 12:09 PM
I'm glad that didn't happen.
TheShellyMan
TheShellyMan - 6/2/2025, 12:12 PM
Story wise would suck, but action-wise. 🔥
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/2/2025, 12:16 PM
It's a shame if we had just watched Black Adam we'd be getting MOS sequels
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/2/2025, 12:18 PM
@0bstreperous - For the record I consider BVS and JL as MOS sequels I mean direct Superman centered
SteviesRightFoo
SteviesRightFoo - 6/2/2025, 12:17 PM
Jesus, cavill really was cursed in this role from day 1
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 6/2/2025, 12:20 PM
Well sure AF happen that never happened, last thing we need is a Superman movie with corny bathroom jokes.
AC1
AC1 - 6/2/2025, 12:31 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - The real question is, would Michael Bay's Superman piss icicles or fire? It's the question on every fan's mind!
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/2/2025, 1:09 PM
@ModHaterSLADE -

Would we bet $5,000 James Gunn will never allow that in his corny elseworld reality.

"Eyes up here!"

Is this said by:

A. Lois

B. Eve

C. Cat

D. Superman
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 6/2/2025, 2:17 PM
@AC1 - Lol
1 2

Please log in to post comments.

Don't have an account?
Please Register.

View Recorder