MAN OF STEEL was released 12 years ago this week. A reboot of the...
All The Right Movies@ATRightMovies
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Jun 09, 2025
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MAN OF STEEL was released 12 years ago this week. A reboot of the DC cinematic universe and Henry Cavill’s first appearance as Superman, the making of story is its own reward…
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The previous big-screen entry in the series had been Superman Returns in 2006. There were plans for a sequel titled Man Of Steel and director Bryan Singer and star Brandon Routh wanted to return but, disappointed with box-office returns, Warner Bros cancelled plans.
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Warners took pitches on how best to reboot the character. Comic book writers Mark Waid and Grant Morrison pitched stories, and director Matthew Vaughn wanted to make an epic trilogy that spanned Superman’s whole life. The studio weren’t convinced, though.
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Around the same time, Christopher Nolan was working on The Dark Knight Rises – the final part of his Batman trilogy. During production, co-writer David S. Goyer told him about an idea he had for how to reboot Superman.
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Goyer’s idea was to ground the character and focus on the fact he is an alien and the impact that would have on the world. Nolan liked it and, with his name attached as Executive Producer, Warners greenlit the film almost immediately.
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Nolan had no interest in making another Superhero film, so the search was on for a director. Ben Affleck was making a name for himself as a director at the time and Warners approached him. Affleck declined though, saying he had no experience in movies with visual effects.
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Guillermo Del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, and Matt Reeves were all considered before Nolan - having been impressed with Watchmen, another adaptation of a DC property – spoke to its director, Zack Snyder. He was hugely interested and came on board to direct Man Of Steel.
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Snyder’s first task was to find the new Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent. Matthew Goode, Armie Hammer and Matt Bomer were all considered but Snyder had somebody in mind – Joe Manganiello. He was on the verge of taking the role before HBO, who had him under contract, said no.
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Henry Cavill had auditioned to play the character when casting took place for Superman Returns, but lost out to Brandon Routh. He tested again for Snyder, dressed in the classic Christopher Reeve-style suit. Snyder said as soon as he saw him, he knew he had his man.
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In preparation, Cavill underwent an intense training regime. He was trained by Mark Twight, who worked with Snyder on 300. Snyder said Cavill had to look “like a freak” and Twight said he was aiming for a physique similar to Steve Reeves in Hercules.
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Cavill refused to take steroids or allow any digital enhancements to be added to his build and worked out for 4 months. His diet was 5100 calories per day and he undertook daily 2 hour cardiovascular and muscular workouts.
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Cavill said that hardest part was filming his two shirtless scenes. In advance, he went on a strict diet and cut his calories to 1500 per day for 6 weeks to cut his shape. After getting the scenes, Snyder gave him pizza and ice cream as a reward.
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Cavill also reportedly refused to shave his chest hair, citing the classic book The Death Of Superman as being a famous version of Superman where he had a hairy chest. Snyder was fine with it.
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In casting the female lead, Lois Lane, many actresses auditioned. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Natalie Portman, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Biel were all either considered or auditioned for the part of Clark’s love interest, and reporting partner.
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Snyder later said the part came down to two actresses – Amy Adams and Zoe Saldana. Adams had already auditioned twice to play the character twice before, and it was third time lucky as she won the part.
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Lois’ classic look is that she is a brunette. Adams – a redhead – expected to dye her hair but Snyder asked her to keep it as it was. Instead, Lana Lang (a redhead in the comics), was made a brunette (played by Jadin Gould).
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To play the part of Clark’s biological Kryptonian father, Jor-El, Snyder wanted an experienced head. Sean Penn and Clive Owen were both considered before Russell Crowe was cast. Crowe was jealous of Cavill’s physique, jokingly saying “I hated that SOB.”
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Crowe’s Gladiator co-star Connie Nielsen was considered to play his wife, Lara Lor-Van. The part firstly went to Julia Ormond but she had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Instead, Ayelet Zurer was cast.
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Baby Superman is adopted by the Kents when his pod lands in Smallville, Kansas. As his mother, Martha, Julianne Moore, Jodie Foster, and Sela Ward were considered, before Diane Lane was cast (despite being just 9 years older than Amy Adams).
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Clark’s adoptive dad is Jonathan Kent. Dennis Quaid, Kurt Russell, and Bruce Greenwood were all considered by Snyder before he offered the part to Kevin Costner, who accepted.
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The villain of the piece is General Zod, the vengeful Kryptonian who wants to terraform Earth. Viggo Mortensen, Daniel Day-Lewis and Edgar Ramirez all came up as contenders before Snyder auditioned and cast Michael Shannon.
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The look of Zod was inspired by another villainous Kryptonian – General Jax-Ur – from the 1996 TV show Superman: The Animated Series.
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Zod’s second-in-command is Faora, who had been renamed Ursa (played by Sarah Douglas) in Superman II. Gal Gadot was cast but had to pull out when she became pregnant. Antje Traue took her place, and Gadot would go on to play Wonder Woman.
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Autumn Snyder, Zack’s daughter who tragically passed away in 2017, has an uncredited appearance in the film too. She appears as a clearly-terrified Metropolis resident during the terraforming sequence.
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A lot of inspiration came from the comics. The idea that the S-symbol on Superman’s chest means hope comes from Mark Waid’s Birthright. As does the idea that Clark Kent is the real personality, and Superman is an act.
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Some lines are repeated, too. Jor-El’s monologue: "You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards. They will race behind you; they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun" is taken from Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman.
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There are nods towards Clark being a religious saviour, too. He says he has been on Earth for 33 years (making him the same age as Jesus Christ), and there is other religious imagery throughout: we often see Superman in a Christ-like pose.
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There was a deleted flashback scene where we would see the Kents take baby Clark to a paediatrician. Testing Clark’s hearing, the doctor would put a device into his ear, and Clark cried so loudly that he smashed all the windows in the surgery.
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The Director of Photography was Amir Mokri, and he and Snyder resisted pressure from the studio to film for 3-D. Snyder said he wanted the movie to be “a big movie experience” and shot on film (rather than digital) aimed at IMAX screenings.
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A new Superman theme and score was created by Hans Zimmer. To create an epic sound, Zimmer hired some of the best drummers in the world and had them all play the same beat. Names included Pharrell Williams, John Bonham, Danny Carey, and Sheila E.
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The costume designer tasked with creating a new Superman suit was Michael Wilkinson. He took inspiration from Frank Miller and Alex Ross comics, and the New 52 series. A change of note was removing the red trunks, which Snyder didn’t want to do, but agreed to.
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Over 1500 costumes were designed and, in creating the Kryptonian outfits, Wilkinson was inspired by Versailles aristocracy during the French Revolution. The designers used velvet and embroidery and screen-printed onto the fabric to create the highly detailed costumes.
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Production Designer Alex McDowell created the liquid-like Kryptonian technology. He described it as "geo-tech, scientifically advanced, and more organic than the styles on Earth. Kryptonians had perfected the ability to manipulate DNA, they built by biological means."
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The Visual Effects Supervisor was John Desjardin. Based on Snyder’s brief of wanting everything to “appear very natural”, Desjardin took inspiration from Battlestar Galactica and adopted the same documentary-style approach to effects work on the TV show.
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Some of the costumes were added digitally too. In action scenes, Superman’s cape was added in CGI, and the Kryptonian outer body armour was also composited in post.
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Going for realism, Snyder also hired Professor Christine Schreyer, an expert in anthropology, to create the Kryptonian language. She said the language is an object-subject-verb sentence structure, so "You Are Not Alone" in English would be "Alone You Are Not”.
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Filming took place in Plano and Chicago, Illinois under the codename title Autumn Frost (after Snyder’s daughter). The Smallville scenes were filmed in Plano, and the Metropolis scenes in Chicago. It was a badly kept secret and the Chicago Tribune leaked the details.
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There were reports that Christopher Nolan banned Superman Returns producer Jon Peters from the set. Peters was known for being eccentric, and had recently paid out $3.3m in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Peters said "My reputation scares these guys."
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Production Designer Peter Mitchell Rubin said the fantasy-style look of Krypton was influenced by 20th century Art Nouveau. Weta Digital (who had worked on Lord Of The Rings) created environments based on nature and plant life.
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The studio wanted to shoot our introduction to adult Clark in a studio, but Snyder insisted they shoot it for real, on a boat. Warners rented a boat called the Debbie Sue, named after Snyder’s wife. Cavill said he became pretty skilled at sailing the boat.
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Location scouts found what they thought was a perfect farmhouse in Plano, Illinois to stand in as he Kent family home. Snyder agreed but, on realising the farm grew soybeans, he asked for this to be changed to corn instead. Surprisingly, the family who lived there agreed.
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Laurence Fishburne was cast as editor of The Daily Planet, Perry White. He based his performance on his friend and CBS correspondent Ed Bradley, saying “[Ed] was the kind of guy who walked with kings, but had the common touch." He wore an ear piercing, like Perry.
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Most of the U.S. military that appear were played by actual soldiers, including those we see during the Smallville battle. Most of the equipment and vehicles on-screen are real including some weaponry, tanks, and helicopters.
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Jonathan Kent dies in a hurricane, which upset the National Weather Service as the characters shelter under an overpass. On the back of the movie, the NWS made a press release that, in the event of a real hurricane, people shouldn’t follow the example set by the film.
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We see some reference to the yet-to-come DC Extended Universe. A tanker in Metropolis has a LexCorp logo on the side, and a satellite has a Wayne Enterprises logo. These are references to classic Superman nemesis Lex Luthor and Bruce Wayne AKA Batman.
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During the Metropolis battle between Zod and Superman, there is a subtle Easter Egg/joke. A construction site sign says "Accident free for 106 days". Zod throws Superman into the sign, knocking off the 1 and the 6, so the sign reads "0 days".
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Goyer said he got one of his strangest ever studio notes about the final battle. He had an idea where Superman would use the pod he arrived in to destroy Zod’s ship. A studio exec said “But how will he return to Krypton?" Goyer said "Krypton blew up. You saw it."
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The original script had Superman sending Zod back to The Phantom Zone. Snyder decided he wanted to have Zod killed brutally instead, breaking the “Superman never kills” rule. Nolan disagreed but eventually acquiesced, giving the director final say.
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The denouement sees Superman talking to General Swanwick and discussing how they can work together. This conversation is largely based on a similar scene in Kurt Busiek’s comic book, Secret Identity.
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The film was released in June 2013, marking the 75th anniversary of Superman’s debut in action Comics. And the posters for the film were inspired by images from Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.
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Made for a production budget of up to $258m, Man Of Steel took $670m at the global box office, so was a hit. Warners quickly greenlit a series of movies on the back of it, including Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, and The Justice League.
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All The Right Movies@ATRightMovies
MAN OF STEEL was released 12 years ago this week. A reboot of the DC cinematic universe and Henry Cavill’s first appearance as Superman, the making of story is its own reward…
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