‘Superman Returns’ at 20: Is it a sequel? Is it a reboot? Two decades on, we’re still not sure

It’s a contested field, but John Williams’ majestic “Superman” theme is up there with the best the composer’s ever written. Almost five decades on, that stirring orchestral march remains synonymous with Krypton’s most famous son, still more than capable of making grown men want to run out of telephone boxes (remember those?) while ripping their shirts open.

It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that Bryan Singer couldn’t imagine using any other music when signed up to direct “Superman Returns”, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this weekend.

“From day one, Bryan said he wouldn’t even greenlight the movie if he couldn’t use the John Williams music,” composer John Ottman told IGN at the time of release. “That’s how important it was to Bryan. I had moments of wanting to evolve the theme a little bit and alter it slightly, but Bryan was against any modifications at all, even down to the last flute flourish.”

But the filmmaker’s devotion to Richard Donner’s classic 1978 “Superman: The Movie” (still undoubtedly the best “Superman” movie) stretched way beyond replicating that famous score — a homage James Gunn repeated in his own Man of Steel reboot last year. Because, for better and worse, “Superman Returns” is an unashamed love letter to the film that made us believe a man could fly all those years ago.

“Smallville” may have been flying high on TV, but the early ’00s had hardly soared for DC on the big screen. The success of “Blade”, “X-Men” (also directed by Singer), and “Spider-Man” had turned Marvel into Hollywood’s pre-eminent source of comic-book blockbusters, and the Distinguished Competition was playing catch-up.

They were also licking their wounds following infamous stinkers “Batman & Robin” (1997) and “Catwoman” (2004), and the DC renaissance wouldn’t truly begin until Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed “Batman Begins” in 2005.

There had been attempts to bring Supes back to theaters for the first time since 1987’s disastrous “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace”. Tim Burton, who’d directed the ridiculously successful 1989 “Batman” reboot, was attached to “Superman Lives” in the ’90s, while “Das Boot”/”Air Force One” helmer Wolfgang Petersen spent several years developing a standalone “Batman v Superman” movie, working from a screenplay by “Seven” writer Andrew Kevin Walker.

Then Brett Ratner was all set to direct “Superman: Flyby”, scripted by a certain JJ Abrams, until he left the project in March 2003, citing difficulties casting the lead role — not to mention his desire to make “Rush Hour 3” — as reasons for his departure. “Charlie’s Angels” director McG briefly picked up the cape, but by July 2024, Warner Bros had handed the Fortress of Solitude keys to Singer. Singer subsequently departed the X-Men threequel, which was ultimately directed — after a bizarre game of Hollywood musical chairs — by Ratner, before he made “Rush Hour 3”.

Working with “X2” writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris, Singer jettisoned those previous treatments to craft an all-new — albeit nostalgic — take on Superman. Conveniently, the trio pretended that the disappointing “Superman III” and “Superman IV” never happened, instead picking up the story five years after the events of “Superman II” — aka the one where Clark and Lois Lane fall in love, Superman renounces his powers, inexplicably gets them back, and makes Lois forget the whole affair.

It turns out that Superman (and, naturally, Clark Kent) has been away ever since, exploring the remains of Krypton in the hope of finding survivors of his race. In the meantime, Lois has moved in with the nephew of “Daily Planet” editor Perry White, had a kid called Jason, and written a Pulitzer Prize-winning article entitled “Why the world doesn’t need Superman”. She, and planet Earth, have apparently moved on.

The world’s greatest criminal mastermind has not, however, so Lex Luthor comes out of retirement to defeat the Man of Steel once and for all. His dastardly scheme involves using Kryptonian tech to build an all-new continent off the coast of Metropolis — even after all these years, he’s still obsessed with real estate.

“Superman Returns” is a movie of contradictions. While it’s technically a continuation of the Christopher Reeve series, it’s also a reboot. So even though, in Superman and Lois’s timeline, only five years have passed, the film is set in 2006 rather than 1985. There’s also an entirely new cast.

Although established names like Nicolas Cage, Brendan Fraser, Josh Hartnett, and Jude Law had been linked with previous incarnations of Superman, Singer opted to cast an unknown, just as Donner had done with the peerless Reeve. Brandon Routh actually makes a decent Superman — heroic, yet understated and touchingly melancholic — but never gets a chance to do much as Clark Kent.

As Lois, meanwhile, Kate Bosworth certainly didn’t deserve the excessive criticism she received at the time, yet is miscast in an underwritten role that lacks the screwball energy of Margot Kidder’s performance. But it’s Kevin Spacey (who’d won an Oscar for his performance in Singer’s “The Usual Suspects) who feels most out of place as an overly vicious Lex Luthor, no match for the timeless, ridiculously charming Gene Hackman version.

Even in the pre-social media world of 2006, “Superman Returns” was attracting negative hype long before it flew into theaters. The darker red of Superman’s cape and reduced size of the House of El logo proved particularly controversial, as Singer eschewed the primary colored hues of the Reeve outfit for something more muted and more in keeping with the “realistic” superhero uniforms of the era.

And when it landed, it turned out to be very different from what many fans had wanted. Indeed, anyone expecting all-out action — or the giant robot spiders that would, infamously, have featured in Burton’s “Superman Lives” project — was left massively disappointed by this reflective character piece. “Superman Returns” was less a film for kids and teens than adults who’d grown up on the Donner movie. As such, saving the day often takes a backseat to themes of lost love and paths not taken.

“I think that ‘Superman Returns’ was a bit nostalgic and romantic, and I don’t think that was what people were expecting, especially in the summer,” Singer told Empire in 2016. “What I had noticed is that there weren’t a lot of women lining up to see a comic book movie, but they were lining up to see ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, which may have been something I wanted to address.”

In the film’s big reveal, Jason (Tristan Lake Leabu) is revealed to be Clark’s son, and he throws a piano at a bad guy to prove it. But the more interesting storyline is actually the love triangle between Superman, Lois, and Richard White (“X-Men”‘s James Marsden). It would have been so easy to make Richard a bad guy, but here he’s thoroughly decent and — while he needs a seaplane to fly — just as heroic as his Spandex-clad love rival. By the end of the film, it’s clear that he — not Clark/Superman — is the right man for Lois.

Continuing a long tradition of “Superman” movies with ropey endings, it isn’t plain sailing getting to that point. Because Lex had the evil foresight to lace his island with kryptonite, Superman finds himself on the verge of death (requiring a human rescue), yet still finds the strength to fly the entire landmass into orbit — another exertion he recovers from remarkably quickly. It’s also worth mentioning that, at one point, Lois and Jason are saved by a fax — how very 2006.

“Superman Returns”‘ $391 million box office take made it the ninth highest grossing film of the year, coming in behind “The Da Vinci Code”, “Casino Royale”, “Cars” and — in an intriguing twist of fate — “X-Men: The Last Stand”. It was a respectable return, yet not enough for Warner Bros, who opted not to make a sequel.

It remains, however, a memorable experiment in nostalgia, making some brave creative decisions without ever standing on its own two feet. Besides, whatever else anyone says about it, it’s still bookended by the greatest superhero theme tune ever written.

“Superman Returns” is available to stream on HBO Max in the US, and Netflix and Prime Video in the UK.