TV & Beyond on 2025-05-26 20:00:00

Henry Cavill’s run as the Man of Steel abruptly ended in a sequel-bait tease at the very end of “Black Adam.” But, obviously, that was never meant to be the endgame. In fact, the problem is that there were almost too many directions to take the character. Before Dwayne Johnson infamously tried and failed to change “the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe,” there was Zack Snyder’s expansive, intricate, and decidedly dark plans for Superman. Once that fell apart, however, WB/DC could’ve turned to a very different franchise filmmaker to resurrect the big blue Boy Scout … but, alas, that wasn’t meant to be.

While Christopher McQuarrie is currently enjoying a well-earned victory lap on the heels of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” a previous fork in the road could’ve led the multi-hyphenate down a much more comic book-y path. We’ve known since the release of “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” that McQuarrie was once interested in scripting a proper “Man of Steel” sequel for Cavill (who, of course, stole the show in “Fallout” with his mustache-twirling, arm-reloading villainy). The “Mission: Impossible” director even went so far as to pitch his concept of the film to WB, along with a written proposal for a related “Green Lantern” production.

None of this ever came to pass, clearly, but McQuarrie is now opening up about what could’ve been.

Christopher McQuarrie first had to crack the code on Green Lantern before figuring out Superman

David Decio as the Green Lantern member Yalan Gur flying through the air in Zack Snyder's Justice League

Warner Bros.

Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are busy basking in the glow of the eighth (and possibly final) installment of the “Mission: Impossible” film series with “The Final Reckoning,” but it was only a matter of time before the press tour brought the conversation back to the realm of superheroes. McQuarrie is certainly no stranger to the topic. We previously covered his interest in a proposed “Man of Steel 2” and a “Green Lantern” film back in 2018, though he had several good reasons not to commit to such a venture at the time. Now, he’s finally shedding some light on what his original pitch was for a “Man of Steel” sequel, how he cracked the code on a Green Lantern-centric project, and how the two would’ve ultimately come together.

While making an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, McQuarrie was asked how he would’ve left his stamp on DC. Initially playing coy, he slyly responded, “I’ll never tell. I’ll never tell, but, boy, it was f***ing good. It was f***ing good.” Not one to leave an audience hanging, he went on to explain that he approached the DC Universe through the Green Lantern Corps and their power-imbuing rings — another DC property that’s undergone its fair share of issues on the big screen over the years. According to McQuarrie, he managed to find the perfect entry point:

“Green Lantern was what had come to me. And Green Lantern’s a tough one. It’s a very tough one — the power is very challenging. I cracked it, and it was fun watching him learn how to use that power and giving that power a flaw, so that it was not pure invincibility. And it was all there […] The whole concept of Green Lantern is the ring has to be recharged. And that’s not a bug, that’s a feature. That’s the thing that made it — Yes, you have infinite power, but you only have so much battery life, and that can run out at inconvenient times. That, for me, solved the whole Green Lantern problem.”

Superman and Green Lantern are more alike than you think, according to Christopher McQuarrie

David Corenswet as Superman and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor talking in Superman (2025)

Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.

So, what about Superman? James Gunn is just about ready to unveil his new take on the Man of Steel (David Corenswet) and the Green Lantern Corps (featuring Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner), but there was once a possibility that Christopher McQuarrie could’ve beaten him to the punch on both counts. Later in the podcast, McQuarrie went on to describe how one recurring hurdle for both Green Lantern and Superman ended up providing his ‘lightbulb’ moment. Referencing the challenge of making Green Lantern’s notoriously tricky outfit work in live-action, McQuarrie explained why this was precisely the wrong mindset to have:

I realized, don’t worry about the costume, worry about the character. And how do you give that character tension and stakes? Also, how do you do it with Superman? And Henry [Cavill] had a take on that, and I suddenly realized how these two characters had amazing similarities, which also allowed for amazing conflict and an amazing universe-expanding resolution.”

McQuarrie is alluding to conversations he had with Cavill on the set of “Mission: Impossible — Fallout” (via Comic Book) and how they would’ve eventually dovetailed into a full-fledged movie exploring all of these issues at once. As if that wasn’t enough to whet our appetites for a movie that will never happen, the filmmaker went on to tease what would’ve been the opening sequence for his “Superman” flick … and it would’ve been cut from the same cloth as Disney/Pixar’s “Up,” of all films:

“But I will tell you, the first five minutes of my ‘Superman’ movie, which was — you remember Pixar’s ‘Up’, a sequence with no dialogue that covered that character’s [motivations] … the first five minutes of the [‘Superman’] movie was a setup, after which you knew exactly what made Superman tick and exactly what Superman was most afraid of and why Superman made the choices that he made. And it would’ve been epic. It would’ve been epic. In five minutes, the scale of the movie would’ve been absolutely extraordinary.”

You know what? I would like to live in the alternate universe where this blockbuster, written and maybe directed by McQuarrie, actually happened. Barring that, though, this one where the writer/director has finished a string of “Mission: Impossible” movies with Tom Cruise ain’t so bad, either.

Gunn’s “Superman” hits theaters July 11, 2025.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-26 20:00:00

Christopher McQuarrie first had to crack the code on Green Lantern before figuring out Superman

Superman and Green Lantern are more alike than you think, according to Christopher McQuarrie

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