Arrowverse Boss talks Superman Returns Sequel on CW

Brandon Routh, who played Superman in Superman Returns, played the legendary superhero again in Crisis on Infinite Earths on The CW. Fans have wanted to see more of the actor ever since. His sincere performance and perfect look made his Superman in Crisis one of the best movies ever made about the character. Hence, it wasn't a surprise when Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow creator Marc Guggenheim casually said that he had talked with Routh about possible ideas for a follow-up. The comments were quickly picked up by the entertainment press and spread wide.

Take a look at this: There was supposed to be a follow-up, but Routh told ComicBook.com in 2021 that he had "looked into" it, but nothing has happened since then. Going by Guggenheim's first comment and the follow-up he made on Substack, it looked like these were most likely the same "talks."

Guggenheim added to what he had said earlier in the post. The following poster and some computer renders of the outfit textures were also given to me by him.

Like most people, I have a complicated relationship with Twitter/X. On the one hand, Elon Musk has turned what had been a terrible hellsite into an even worse hellsite. On the other hand, I truly enjoy interacting with many of the fans who are still on the platform. In recent weeks, I've made more of an effort to be responsive to the various questions and requests I occasionally get from followers.

One such follower asked if I had any promotional photos of Brand Routh as Superman from the Crisis on Infinite Earths event that I showran. Thinking nothing of it, I posted what I had on my Dropbox and casually mentioned — because I thought it was a fun little nugget — that Brandon and I had talked about some kind of "sequel series" for his version of Superman.

Well, that little comment kinda went viral. A friend of mine, a comic shop owner, texted me that suddenly his Facebook feed was nothing but articles about the comment — some of which exaggerated said comment into a "possibility" (there is none that I can reasonably conceive of) or even "talks" (which haven't happened, unless you count Brandon's and my little chats).

I share because it's (a) an amusing anecdote that demonstrates how even the most innocuous of comments can, occasionally, go viral; and (b) a great example of how much love there still is for the Arrowverse. I don't often write about the latter in this newsletter because I want it to be forward-facing as opposed to backwards-looking, but I really am humbled by and grateful for all the passion fans still have for our little endeavor. Accordingly, I may resume sharing some nuggets from the archives if there's demand for them. Feel free to sound off in the comments.