Brandon Routh Will Play Superman Again in Upcoming ‘Arrowverse’ Crossover
Brandon Routh’s Superman was introduced with great fanfare in 2006’s Superman Returns, which was designed as a direct sequel to the first two Superman movies from the 1970s and ’80s starring Christopher Reeve. Routh himself got very positive reviews in his gig replacing Reeve, but the film itself was met with a more lukewarm reaction. Despite impressive effects and strong performances from Routh and others, the film didn’t become a smash; adjusted for inflation, it made significantly less than both Superman and Superman II. Instead of going ahead with a planned sequel, Warner Bros. handed the Superman series to Batman auteur Christopher Nolan, who produced Man of Steel in 2013. Routh never played Superman again.
That will soon change, though. According to Deadline, Routh will return as the Man of Steel in the next Arrowverse crossover series, Crisis on Infinite Earths, based on the famous comic-book series of the same name. All five DC TV series will be involved — and Routh will be joined by Tyler Hoechlin, who previously played Superman on Supergirl, and will once again play Clark Kent for this miniseries. Deadline reports the two will each play Superman “in different time frames”:
Titled “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the upcoming mega-crossover will unite the entire Arrowverse series franchise – Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman – in a five-episode epic that will span two quarters, with three episodes airing in December and the two concluding installments debuting in January.
Routh already plays an Arrowverse character; he’s Ray Palmer, AKA the size-changing hero known as the Atom, on Legends of Tomorrow. After debuting as Palmer on Arrow, he joined the spinoff and has been with the show for all four seasons so far. It will be interesting to see how they reconcile this crisis of multiple Rouths — and whether Hoechlin and Rouths Supermen get to interact. (In the original Crisis on Infinite Earths comic, Superman met his counterparts from many different Earths, so it’s definitely possible.)
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