Superman Trilogy

So instead of writing RPG content, sometimes I write specs for superhero movies I’d like to see. Its a change of pace and breaks up some ideas that I’m tempted to turn into an adventure, but really should be more of a movie or TV show than game. This is my take on a Superman Trilogy that captures the best parts of superman, and brings some new takes on other aspects.

Foundations

Some guiding principles to get us started.

• Superman is proud of who he is. Kansas-ian?, American, Earthling, Kryptonian. He represents the best of those.
• Superman inspires us.
• Superman enjoys himself but is serious. The movie is fun, but Superman can be a bit of a stick in the mud.
• Superman is old school. He is the idealistic 1920-60s americana that never existed.
• Superman is fast and strong. The fights in Man of Steel are our reference point. Fast moving, hard hitting. But superman isn’t dark and angry. He has the curl and is a galoot. We are targeting Brandon Routh vibes put into Man of Steel fight scenes.

The music is old school. Horns and bands. Not modern, and not techno or dubstep. It should sound like John Williams did it.

We are not building a ___cinematic universe. If we need, we can do cameos or references to stuff, but this is standalone unless someone wants to add to it.

Movie 1 – Superman

Superman establishing franchise. No origin, but Clark is arriving in Metropolis and decides to become “something more”.

Act 1

• Scene 1 – Lois is a TV reporter on stakeout with cameraman Jimmy Olsen. They are trying to catch footage of late-night criminals that they suspect are working with the Luthor Campaign for President. Nothing major, but Jimmy can ask about calling it early because they have to get up early and greet the new guy. Lois can toss out “some bumpkin from Kansas hoping to make it big in the city. You know he will be 10 minutes early…”
• Scene 2 – DPN (Daily planet news, a CNN analogue) Lois and Jimmy are late, walking into a room where they meet Mercy Graves who is waiting for them. Shes cold/aloof/dismissive of their tardiness and gives a curt/brief intro to the man sitting at the table. Upright, wide eyes, Clark.
• Scene 3 – Clark and Lois initially butt heads. She sees him as yet another writer who is going to tag along, get in the way, and then quit to go “Start some blog about life in the city” or whatever. Jimmy and Clark can do a side chat when she rudely walks away leaving them together. He explains she’s been through this a dozen times, but genuinely cares. Shes on a story no one cares about going nowhere. She is convinced Luthor’s campaign is financing hate groups and using them to act as his thugs, and Jimmy thinks there might be something to it. But no proof.
• Scene 4 – Lois/Clark/Jimmy in backroom. Lois does a “Welcome to our Fortress of Solitude”. She Has secured an unused room in an under-construction floor being renovated and bribed the crew to ignore it for the next 6 months while construction has stalled. She undoes a padlock and has a crazy person yarn map on the wall. She lays out the plot for clark, and explains what she knows, what she suspects, and what she can prove.

• Scene 5 – Luthor is watching the secret meeting on a video wall. He calls over to Mercy. Apparently, he is secretly buying the network and plans to set Mercy as head ousting Perry. He won’t do it if she can’t shut that investigation down. Mercy says she just assigned “some bumpkin with nothing but small-town local affairs experience to slow her down”. Luthor says it’s not enough and asks her to send in a specialist. Luthor’s view of the cameras has all the video of the various other sites throughout the movie, and a few high tech easter eggs like a cloning lab and stuff too.

Act 2

• Scene 1 – Lois’s apartment. We start inside but hear them talking in the hallway. Clark is saying “Its 4AM, I can’t let you walk home alone” and Lois is giving the “Dude you’re new to the city, you’re in more danger than me, I appreciate the gesture, but you really didn’t have to.” She opens the door and goes in, and we film it like a slasher flick. Bloodsport is stalking her through the apartment, and we see Lois catch on slowly and turn with a taser. He gives the “time to drop the Luthor story”. She tases and is ineffective. Clark hears scuffle, and bursts in with super speed. Guy hits him with power, it does nothing, clark literally grabs him and throws him through the closed window. Lois gives the “dude you trashed my place” and clark is like “what I’m helping”.
• Scene 2 – Lois and Clark talk about his powers, what he can do and Lois has the idea that she’s got her own “masked hero” to fight Luthor’s “masked goons”. Clark can do a “No, villains wear masks”. Lois is over excited about all the stuff she can do and what this means. It’s 6AM, and Clark is like “We have to get some sleep” and then Lois will stop him with a “Wait, you’re going to leave my window like this?” And we get a power use montage of him fixing the window. Super strength to break stuff like paper, laser eyes to cauterize, speed to get supplies etc. He literally runs to the woods and grabs a tree, then lasers it into door shape, and the desert to melt glass and whatnot.
• Scene 3 – The next morning Lois and Clark are grinning and can’t help but constantly share secretive glances all day before Jimmy comments. You two are chummy, what changed (implied hook up)? Clark gets into it, but Lois cuts him off and says “I got attacked last night. Luthor sent a thug, but clark scared him off”. clark looks and Lois gives a glance to say, “not now”. Jimmy is all “that’s terrible, not great” and they do the “No, it means we are onto something. Let’s head back to the docks, I’ll bring my ‘lucky charm’ clark, and I bet it turns out different”. Jimmy isn’t sold, but agrees to meet them there tonight.
• Scene 4 – Lois shows up and Clark’s been waiting for an hour with coffee/doughnuts. Lois makes a comment about his first time? “You’re geared up like a TV show”. “You said after dinner, its 630!” and she can facepalm and toss out a Smallville crack. They joke, and she will say it’s best that Clark keeps his identity secret for now. No knowing whose compromised, even Jimmy. Plus, if it gets out, he’s the big story and who knows what they do to his friends and family. Couple hours go by and we see Lois drinking coffee, eating doughnuts and enjoying the add Clark brings. Then, clark jumps up. He heard something, and it was across town at a different warehouse. Jimmy’s been caught and being interrogated. Lois asks the address, and Clark says he has no idea. never been in town, but no time to wait. a mile west and head towards sirens.
• Scene 5 – Clark arrives at a gated off steel mill. Clark busts in and we do a cool fight against a bunch of grunts throughout the whole complex. Fights are like man of steel, super-fast, ragdolling people. It’s a super easy fight at first, but Luthor went all out and hired more assassins, and we meet Terra-Man, Riot, and Magpie. In addition to Bloodsport. Superman has to battle all 4 and while he is doing that you see Lois show up. She can comment “Luthor-Steel the heart of Old metropolis, and how Luthor’s family ‘Built this city, literally.’ Of course this is his ‘Secret lair'”. In the middle of the fight, we have Lois sneaking around and untying Jimmy. When Lois gets Jimmy untied, they make it to the main loading dock, trying to slip out and see Clark standing over the 4 bosses and just piles of thugs. Clark is panting and looks exhausted. The three of them slip out together “into the sunset”.

Act 3

• S1 – Jimmy, Clark, and Lois are back at Lois’ and they bring Jimmy up to speed. Jimmy is amazed and “almost forgot”. He was recording and has Luthor on tape. They are amped, and Lois talks about how he needs a mask again because she can’t have any more assassins showing up. They super-speed move her into Jimmy’s mom’s place. She does tailoring for dancers, and it’s full of costumes and outfits. While moving in, they are constantly back and forth about whether he needs a mask, but Clark comes out of the shower, and for the first time, he looks cut and noble. He’s in a towel, standing straight, and hair is slicked back/styled w/the curl and no glasses. Lois sees it and realizes he doesn’t need a mask. They grab Jimmy’s mom and she can “whip up just the thing”.
• S2 – While walking to the office, they are talking about presenting the evidence for the story to Mr. White. They go in, and run into Mercy, who caught them in the lobby and is playing along. She tells them to go prep for their presentation, and she’ll bring Perry along. She steps out and goes to Luthor, and we get another back and forth with the two of them. He can lay out his scheme and tell her to get them to “The Drop Site” so he can handle it. He also warns her and says they have dealt with the Merc’s in Metropolis, and he may have to call in outside help. Don’t underestimate them (we can see he is watching footage of clark in the prior fight but chose not to tell Mercy). Mercy catches them in a conf room where they have carted Lois’s crazy board and apologizes. “Mr. White has an appointment offsite, but this story is huge. Can you come with me, and we can present in person?”. They go down and jump in a car for transport.
• S3 – While on the road to the “Drop site”. Mercy is up front with a driver. The others are in the back two rows. Mercy will point out that it’s up the road a bit out of town, but not too far. Private retreat with some executives, very discrete hunting lodge. As they pull through the woods we come to a clearing and see a non-descript cabin. As they park, she radios ahead on an earpiece “We are here”. Clark’s hearing picks something up. He gives Lois and Jimmy “the look” and they tense up and unbuckle. She gets out, and loads of armed guys bust out of the house and the woods. Mercy flips and turns out to be a cyberpunk assassin with built in guns and blades, and bullets bouncing off. Clark grabs the bullets, and his outfit is shredded as he shields Jimmy/Lois. He grabs them and drops them a bit away in the woods saying “Stay here”. Lois grabs his glasses and fixes his hair, and Jimmy says a “go get em superman”. Once he’s gone, they look at one another and say, “The Story!” before running back the way they came from. Superman has another fight with folks here, and Mercy can almost go toe to toe, but the goons have grenade launchers and heavy arms making it tough. Mercy will even send a squad off for “the others”. Interspliced is a fight with Lois and Jimmy running/hiding from goons in the woods.
• S4 – We make it back and see Superman has Mercy subdued and most of the goons dealt with. The cabin is in ruins. Lois and Jimmy start gathering posterboard, pictures, tapes, etc. from the car and while they do, they see Superman standing over Mercy, before some mech suit blasts out of nowhere and smashes into him. This is Luthor in full mech and we get some “No one can say I won’t get my hands dirty”. Their fight is carried into downtown metropolis and bashing through buildings left and right. Superman is trying to protect the city or save people, but Luthor is doing stuff like dropping cranes over crowds of people and shooting at superman when he grabs them to save people. Meanwhile, Lois and Jimmy do a smash/finish on the Mercy-bot while she’s glitching out on the ground. Superman rips lex from the suit and Lex pulls the “What are you going to do? Take me to prison? I own the prisons. Tell the cops? I own the cops. Tell the mayor? I built this city. Superman pulls out the tape recorder, and gives him a “Me? I won’t do anything. They will” and we cut, to show that this is live and everyone has seen Luthor putting civilians in danger in a wild mech suit to fight some guy, plus his speech was just broadcast.
• S5 – News reels about disbanded Luthor campaign play in the background as we go to Lois, Jimmy, and Clark talking about what they do next. Clark can give an “Evil always lurks but I’ll be here” style superman speech. Then we cut to him flying above the planet looking at the horizon in his suit, which has been stepped up a bit with “super hero” fabric.
• Post Credits: A new Mercy-bot activates, and we see a room of them along with various other high-tech stuff pinging on with the Brainiac symbol on it. Luthor is in some bunker, talking to a lawyer (who isn’t present) saying “I won’t tell you where I am. I’m innocent. Get me off charges. I don’t need to be there. Handle it.”

Movie 2 – Brainiac

Superman’s been a hero for a bit now. But he can’t just fight bank robbers and regular humans all day.

Act 1

• S1 – Establishing. Supes is flying around stopping d-listers and splashing daily planet covers. We are showing that hes been supermanning a bit now, and its an established thing. Life is good.
• S2 – Lois/clark/Jimmy working on a “where is Lex?” story as a background task and we see them doing a crazy person board, working on articles, and planning a lot. We are establishing that hes not around anymore, and has apparently gone MIA after dodging the charges. Silent, on house arrest, but they don’t buy it. S1 and S2 are interspersed with quick highlight scenes.
• S3 – Clark ducks out like its routine, but this time some crook has high kryptonite and high tech weapons. He beats Superman like its nothing. We can go with Metallo, whose bit is he is a small time crook that superman arrested a few times in the montage. This time, hes a kryptonite cyborg though (John Corben). The kryptonite makes him dangerously insane and unpredictablee. This is also our first intro to it, and we see how it affects superman. Metallo gets away and Superman returns to lois and Jimmy shaken.
• S4 – Clark and Lois do research and realize its because Luthor was outfitting his thugs with some new high-end stuff. Never before seen. They regroup, realize its the kryptonite and Jimmy is able to sneak up and rip the kryptonite heart out. So superman can win (its exposed and barely attached, so not unreasonable for Jimmy to grab and run). Observer drone w/brainiac symbol flies off after filming the fight.
• S5 – While the crew are chatting about the rock and what this means back at Lois’s, Brainiac shows up in his spaceship with war of the worlds robots and attacks. They start to use lasers to tunnel around the border of the city. Hes going to take Metropolis for his collection “thanks to a tip from a friend. The greatest human city.”

Act 2

• S1 – Brainiac captures Superman. Kryptonite robots, a way more advanced and threatening version of Metallo just jump him and carry him away like hes nothing. We can do a bit where Lois and Jimmy are looking around for him, and see him being carried off.
• S2 – Brainiacs forces are starting to levitate the city, and in the midst floating parts of it up to his ship. Lois/Jimmy are helping people and trying to be a lady on the street news segment reporting live. We see the city shrink and float into a little bubble.
• S3 – Superman wakes up in an “Earthen zoo” with a normal scale brainiac observing. The zoo is a diner, and its actually got some terrified humans to run it. Brainiac explains he shrank the city itself and has it somewhere, but hes pulled a few specicimes like them for display. Superman tries to break free, but the neon lights of the diner are lit by kryptonite. Brianiac will toss out a “or would you be more comfortable in your homelands exhibit?” Turns out hes got Kandor in a “Kryptonian exhibit”. Does bad guy speech, and reveals that Superman is an alien, explains krypton, “final son of krypton” the whole thing. He’s also got Metropolis shrunken down elsewhere. The diner is really anacronistic. Like someone built a diner using photos of americana diners from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc all mashed together.

• S4 – Clark is depressed because hes not a human, hes kryptonian. This is where you think he might quit being superman. Shaken to his core, but a kid human diner patron gives a peptalk about being human enough for them.
• S5 – Big break out. Human ingenuity/sneaking/etc. Get him out of the cage, then he powers/sneak/escorts them through a pretty wild zoo full of gonzo aliens, sentient and otherwise. Superman has no powers to get out, but a woman is an electrician, and two dudes are engineers, and one guy has… a multitool?. The escape is a highlight of human ingenuity to get them out and we see them break free into his ship.

Act 3

• S1 – Breakout fails, brainiac catches them as they slink about and explore looking for escape pod. Superman’s powers are back, but apparently he can’t see through the walls here. Brainiac will offhand mention the lead lined walls blocking his kryptonian vision. Brainiac breaks out more kryptonite, and goes to throw superman into Kandor this time, but the pep talk kid can trip him or something so he falls into Kandor as well. Here we have a big battle in and around Kandor that spills into metropolis and other shrunken cities (cameos?).
• S2 – We cut to the humans who are playing with control panel trying to get him out. Inside, there is no krypton, and the fight is fair, and superman actually destroys brainiac, who will mention that it will take “only moments” for him to upload to a replacement shell back outside the city.
• S3 – Superman is brought out by the humans, but needs someone smart enough to operate the ship. Human points out they think they found a com link? and dialing it, they are suprised the last number was apparently Lex. Lex/superman debate and superman appeals to his “its humanity” and reveal the guys going to blow up the planet, after he’s settled. Lex agrees to hack the ship, and can return metropolis, but theres no where to dump the bottle cities.
• S4 – Brainiac returns, this time with a dozen fancy metallos. This time, superman uses the lead to protect himself from the kryptonite, and wins again. Brainiac will say something about not having time to perform the routine system upgrades after his last defeat Superman wins, and grabs “the mainframe that operates it all” and flies that to space, but lands the ship. While people are normalizing and returning home, superman throws brainiac’s mainframe into the sun, but not before we see it do a “Transmission recieved” upload screen on a display in some brainiac technology room somewhere.
• S5 – Superman returns and carries the ship off into the sky. We see him land in the artic, put it down, and it becomes his Fortress of Solitute to commune with his Kryptonian heritige. He adjusts color scheme, frees some creatures, and is seen making plans for the bottled cities.

• Post Credits: Luthor is s outfit with a new mech powered by kryptonite, and is souping up Mercy-es as well. He can say something about how he never thought “The Brainiac program was a threat to earth, just an intelligence gathering expedition, and at that it succeeeded wonderfully. It knew quite a bit about Krypton, and super-… kal-el.” Then the drone flies in and he puts the test footage in place to watch the fight with an “ah a field test”. “Oh, I know you…” and it pans to show footage of his face. Drop a couple of shots of a boom tube in the background that lex is “disecting”, but don’t comment on it. Just leave it as what he is playing with while the conversation happens.

Movie 3 – Darkseid

We need to see a villain who can meet or beat Superman in a fair fight. Darkseid is about as big as it gets.

Act 1

• S1 – Apokolips: Desaad – We’ve found it. Brianiac 13 has been destroyed, and his ship captured by primitives. DS – Raze the planet, and reclaim it.
• S2 – Superman is cruzing through the Fortress and hes got it running really nice and orderly. Lois is apparently so comfortable here that shes got a room and is wandering unsupervised, caring for the alien plants and creatures, and we see her tending to a wounded alien cat thing saying something like “Oh those are a predator for you, gotta keep you seperate” as a machine heals it up from a clearly fatal wound. Comes out she and clark are engaged.

• S3 – Boom Tube opens above the south pole, and legions of Apokolips pour out. Superman has repurposed some of brainiac’s defenses, which fire back but this is an onslaught. Clark has to get lois out but is struggling. She grabs a big laser thing and is running around blasting Parademons.
• S4 – Superman beats the “horde” but then Big Barda and the Furies (Stompa, Artemiz, Lashina) step out to survey operation. They see superman mowing down the parademons and step in. The four of them take out superman in a big epic battle, and he incapacitates barda but while he’s doing that, the other three slip away.
• S5 – We see the furies load up and take Brainiac’s ship. We see it fly away as we then zoom way in, to see Lois looking out a window.

Act 2

• S1 – superman/barda square up, but its kind of obvious her heart isn’t in it. They fight, and talk. She exposits the plan, the anti-life equation and all that. Also talks about how Darkseid keeps her on his leash because hes got her lover (Scott Free) captive. Superman stops fighting right away and they cut to them talking in Lois’s old apartment. Barda explains boom tubes, and Jimmy will pop in having overheard. He puts together that the only one on earth who might know or replicate is lex, and convieniantly while Supermans been at the fortress, he thinks he has a lead on where he is holed up. Barda can have a “Hey BTW your fiancee is probably dead” and Superman can say “I can tell you’ve never met Lois” comment.

• S2 – Superman, Barda, and Jimmy approach some cliffside ultramodern mansion, thats clearly a villain lair and Jimmy can make a “subtle” comment. As they approach, they rip apart a few robo-guards before Mercy shows up. Superman/Barda beat her and then we see a dozen more streak through the sky towards them. Big set piece flying battle tearing the place apart before Lex exits in his big suit and the stakes go up again. The whole time superman is trying to talk, but they don’t want to hear it. Jimmy is sneaking around the house dodging robo-guards and finds a secret elevator down into a bunker where he finds real Lex. Real lex has no concern and they chat while jimmy explains whats up and lex finds him completely non-threatening. He hits a button, and robots stand down, and Lex says comes out with a snarky “and I assume theres no where to send the bill” superman can smile and say just send it to “Antartica” or something with a “What, Ms. Lane’s appartment wouldn’t make it to you Clark?” Lex ejects the robo-lex from the suit, and climbs in before it quickly repairs itself completely. The mercys do the same, and he tells them to go on high alert patrol. Then he pulls out a motherbox and the 3 of them are teleported. Jimmy looks around awkwardly, and says he will hold down the fort.
• S3 – Lois has made her way to Armagetto, kept the gun and has slipped into commando/undercover rogue vibes (yes, apparently 15 min into it, and shes a post apocalyptic warrior woman), and we see that shes stepping into an ultra seedy bar (which twist, is revealed to be selling “water, clean water, and Pure as 3 distinct drinks”), trying to keep a low profile. Meeting with shady characters and at her wits end because apparently no one here has a spaceship. Guy explains that its not somewhere you can fly to, wouldn’t do her any good anyway. The only way off is a Motherbox. “Well where can I get one of those”. “Only place I can think of would be Darkseid’s Palace, and you don’t want to go there”.
• S4 – Superman, Barda, and Lex show up in Darkseid’s palace and are immediatley greeted by the Furies who got warning of the tube activating, and endless parademons. Big fight, this time they win easy with the new teams. One Fury runs to Darkseid and says that barda has turned, and allied herself with a terran and fully yellow sun charged kryptonian. Darkseid gives her the “only one?” and she knows to go handle it. We cut back and see her and dozens (cameo fest) of new-gods charging the trio for a big knock out drag out fight. We end on a trio back to back shot of the three standing on piles of parademons and fighting a ton of people.
• S5 – Lois is sneaking around the palace in vents like die hard (with a comment about the generals huntring trips were good for something afterall), and stumbles back into where they have the Fortress of Solitude. We see parademons swarming it, and we see DeSaad overseeing the operation. Hes demanding they tear down every atom of this place until they find the Anti-Life Equation. We know its here, and we will have it. As the parademons are just unloading every single thing out of the fortress, we see they are putting in a storage location. She seems to have a bright idea, and slips away. She ambushes whatever parademons are on guard with her gun and takes them out, before making her way to what looks like some of Brainiacs old battle armors. These should be some of the old style 90s toys where you ask “Why does superman have a motorcycle?” reworked with a bit of a modern look. Cameos for old nerds. Then we see her slip into a mech suit, like lex but more organic brainiac vibes than his bulky block ones. She goes at it with DeSaad, and starts an Ellen Ripley in the fortress on any parademons she can find. Its got a flamethrower arm to help with that.

Act 3

• S1 – Superman and crew are moving to go look for Lois when Darkseid appears. Superman v Darkseid. Superman is confident and bold. Stands there and tries to take him 1-1 head on. Apokolips laser eyes him and bends his laser eyes to get around superman who blasts his own at Darkseid as he charges burning right through him. Lex is shockingly not happy about this, and a bit terrified of darkseid over this. Barda can do the “no its darkseid” as superman charges in. After he’s lasered down, barda is running and lex is stammer bargening. Lois just walks into the room as it happens.
• S2 – They make space, and Barda and Lex are panicing, but Lois is pulling it together. Shes demanding they get his body, and says she found the Fortress. “You don’t understand, the technology there, its our only hope”. Barda will run decoy and Lex/Lois will grab superman and beeline to the fortress. See what they can do there. Barda and Darkseid get into a battle, and its clear he will win, but isn’t in a hurry. Plays to their advantage, as lex/lois are using their suits rocket boosters to fly there, blasting right through parademons and walls and whatever. Lex is marveling at it all, and we see him slip a couple things into pockets. Meanwhile Lois throws clark into the healer pod and puts him in a black Kryptonian healing pod suit. Lex will “Go find some other weapons maybe”. We should also see him place a few hidden tech pods around the fortress as he is going.
• S3 – Lois and Lex are furiously working to reactivate what they can, and we pan to Barda who has been broken and is being drug off by furies, with a comment about “granny will put you in line. Now where did the others get to” and he starts walking again.
• S4 – Darkseid walks to the fortress, and Lex will shout it out. Lois will ask if he can seal it up, and point to a control console. They are able to put it on lockdown and it starts shooting lasers as well. Darkseid is unconcerned, and starts banging on the walls. Its clear he will bust in after another blow or two. As he does, theres a flash as superman speeds by and tackles him. Darkseid vs superman. Superman is back, in black suit and he can give the “life on earth is like living in a paper house. But with you, I don’t think I need to hold back” speach. In the fight, we move all over Apokalpse and get to see the place. This is the real big let it go fight and superman is literally circling the planet as people are knocked back and around. While he’s gone, Barda comes back battered and beaten, she escaped and its a “We need to find the motherbox now” moment. They bolt off and get it. Superman is about to land what would be a killing blow (with all the normal speeches), but hears lois shouting “Clark we have it, come back, we have to go”. We see lex activating it while shes shouting for superman and its a slow mo-debate. Superman super speeds back, and jumps in as the countdown hits 0 and the whole fortress is shot back.
• S5 – The fortress returns to antartica, and superman/lex have a little macho talk. Barda is offered a chance to live here, but says she wants to see the culture that would give rise to those like them. Lois takes her to metropolis as a room mate. Lex flies home, where he finds jimmy, whose being hand and foot waited on by mercy-bots and floating in a pool. “Go Home” is all he says and the mercy-bots flip to attack mode and follow lex inside.
• Post Credits – Luthor is spying in the fortress and playing with new tech. Specifically a motherbox.
• Post Credits 2 – Barda and Lois do an 80s style shopping montage getting her earth clothes at a mall.

Cast

I put the actors I think could be a good fit for the various roles. Some I’m more into than others, and would love a debate. Particulalrly, I’m hard pressed on superman. Cavill and Routh are both solid, and would have been on my list, if they hadn’t already done it.

Main Cast

• Lois – Awkwafena but serious role with a little sarcastic humor
• Jimmy – Pueto-rican transplant. Mother immigrant, he grew up in metropolist. young guy, fun, nerdy, comic relief. Michael Pena type.
• Mercy – Tati Gabrielle
• Clark – Nicholas Hoult. In clark mode has to be dopey, mussed hair, stooped shoulders in baggy dress clothes. In superman mode cut, jacked, clean cut, tight suit.
• Lex – A Zuckerberg type running for president with far right stances. Cody Rhodes if he’d go bald.

Big Villains

• Brainiac – Needs to be able to play as big as our superman actor. Quiet, cold, calculating. Brad Garrett might be an off but good fit. Andre Braugher would also be great.
• Darkseid – Bigger than superman. Angry, older guy, tired. Arnold? If not, Dolph?

Named Henchmen

These 4 are a bit gimmicky, and we want someone who leans in and makes it fun, not taking it too seriously. Wrestlers and comedians will do that pretty well.

• Bloodsport – Stephen Amell (he did casey jones, and this is a similar vibe)
• Terra-Man – Theo Vaughn, hes got the accent and look for a weird space cowboy type.
• Riot – Guys a Frankenstein who clones himself a bunch. Needs to be a total weirdo. Genderswap this one and lets go with an Aubry Plaza type.
• Magpie – Peyton List

Supporting Characters

• Desaad – Bill Skarsgard
• Barda – Jade Cargill – WWE. She needs to stand next to our giant superman and be intimidating physically.
• Metallo – Paul Walter Houser – live action, but then doing voiceover for metallo.

Furies

Same as for the gimmicky 4 originally, the furies need to be big, muscular women who are a bit silly. and we lean into it, not away. This can just be a WWE tripple tag team.

• Stompa – Rhea Ripley
• Artemiz – Ivy Nile
• Lashina – Bianca Belair