In art, as in life, it’s all in the timing. Consider the fate of Henry Cavill’s Superman: Though Cavill appeared as Kal-El/Clark Kent in five DC Extended Universe live-action films (or six, depending on which ones you think count), there was never a sequel to 2013’s “Man of Steel.” Sure, 2016’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” is essentially the follow-up to that movie, especially as it brings back Cavill, several supporting characters, and director Zack Snyder. Yet “BvS” is undeniably an overstuffed film, splitting its focus between the two titular characters while attempting to set the table for the DCEU. Fans, defenders, and all-around enjoyers of “Man of Steel” long hoped for a proper sequel to “Man of Steel,” expecting the DCEU to operate similarly to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which several characters would get solo franchises while occasionally turning up in universe-wide crossover films. The lack of a sequel to “Man of Steel” feels, in retrospect, like Exhibit A of how the DCEU mistreated Cavill and Superman. Heck, “Wonder Woman,” “Aquaman,” and even “Shazam” got a couple films under their belts before the universe folded!
Now that the DC characters are under new management in the form of James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Studios, the hopes for another Cavill Superman film are well and truly dashed. Adding a little insult to that injury is the recent news that the upcoming sequel to Gunn’s “Superman,” which is to be called “Man of Tomorrow,” will apparently be using a villain that at one point was to be used in the unmade “Man of Steel 2.” As an illustration on the script cover posted by Gunn on Instagram heavily implies, the villain of “Man of Tomorrow” is to be the alien cyborg Brainiac. According to a post-mortem for Cavill’s tenure as Superman from The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, then-new Warner Bros. executives Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy aimed to make “Man of Steel 2” before Gunn and Safran took over, and even went to the trouble of hiring “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight, who reportedly wanted Brainiac for the villain. So, while “Man of Tomorrow” won’t be anything like a “Man of Steel” sequel, it could still provide a small glimpse of what might’ve been.
Brainiac has almost made it into a Superman sequel on multiple occasions
Of course, a Brainiac appearance in “Man of Tomorrow” only seems to be the plan for now, and could easily change. One reason for that may be that Gunn is simply trolling with the script post, and the film might involve a different villain (or villains) entirely. Another is that, ironically, Brainiac has traditionally been a bit of a white whale for “Superman” on film. To be fair, he’s a strange character: As per his punny name, he’s a supergenius that has the ability to potentially outsmart Superman, yet he also has a Silver Age of comic books-like penchant for shrinking cities and putting them into bottles. In other words, his function as a foil for Kal-El isn’t as sharply or quickly defined as Lex Luthor, General Zod, or even Doomsday.
Because of this, Brainiac has a history of nearly appearing in a “Superman” sequel since the early 1980s. Apparently, producers Ilya Salkind and Pierre Spengler were considering Brainiac for “Superman III,” only for that film to create a supercomputer nemesis for the Man of Steel instead. During the wacky and troubled pre-production process for the abandoned “Superman Lives” project, which was to star Nicolas Cage and be directed by Tim Burton, Brainiac was a major part of several of those script drafts for the film. Then, a few years after the release of “Superman Returns” in 2006, writer Michael Dougherty revealed that he was keen on using Brainiac for the sequel to that movie – a sequel which also never materialized.
All of this raises the question: Will “Man of Tomorrow” be another “Superman III,” a movie in which Brainiac almost appears but is replaced or jettisoned? Or will the sequel mark the first time that the character will be put on screen in a live-action theatrical “Superman” adventure? We’ve got plenty of time to think about it, as “Man of Tomorrow” won’t hit movie theaters until July 9, 2027.
