Summary

Superman Returns carried a $270 million budget, bringing the superhero to life with a hefty budget.
The film included a $10 million deleted scene called "Return to Krypton" that was completely finished.
Despite making $391 million worldwide, Superman Returns received middling reviews and killed hopes for a sequel.

Superman Returns hit theaters in 2006, hoping to bring the DC hero back to the big screen. Before Superman Returns, the hero was known in live action for Christopher Reeve's Superman films and shows like Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which aired in the 1990s. The world has since seen Henry Cavill's take on the character in Man of Steel and Justice League, with James Gunn set to introduce the latest live-action iteration of Superman with David Corenswet this summer.

In the middle of them all is the one-off film Superman Returns. Brian Singer garnered notoriety for kicking off Fox's X-Men film franchise in the early 2000s, directing the first two films before departing the series. Singer left X-Men when he was allowed to direct Superman, with Brandon Routh tapped to don the hero's cape and tights, along with an ensemble set to reinvigorate the character's screen presence, and with lofty goals often comes significant stumbles. In the process of trying to bring Superman back to the silver screen, the movie created one of the most expensive deleted scenes of all time.

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By Timothy McClelland

Superman Returns Came With A Hefty Budget And Lofty Goals

Singer's clout, combined with the popularity of Superman, resulted in the production of the newest film receiving a hefty budget. Superhero films often come with inflated budgets to cover costs needed for the sheer size and scale of the production and the shots they hope to accomplish. Superman Returns carried a $270 million budget, w hich could be even bigger when combined with marketing costs, aimed at kicking off a successful superhero film franchise.

Superman Returns looked to have all the right pieces in place. It had a proven director in the comic book superhero realm, the writers of X-Men 2, and a cast that included Routh alongside James Marsden, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Frank Langella. The movie even utilized Marlon Brando's performance as Jor-El in 1978's Superman to add connective tissue while allowing their iteration to thrive independently. Like any movie, the production of Superman Returns had its problems and successes, but unlike others, part of the film's lofty budget was flushed away for a pricey scene that was never used.

A "Return To Krypton" Sequence Was Finished And Cut, Costing $10 Million

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The plot of Superman Returns sees the character having been established on Earth, serving as a legacy sequel to the first two Christopher Reeve Superman films. The movie opens with Superman returning to Earth after spending years away. He had gone back to his home world, Krypton, which was destroyed, looking for others like himself, and is now back from the lengthy trip. He is weak upon his return, which is never fully explained in the final version of the film. However, an entire sequence was filmed and completed with VFX, explaining Clark's return to Krypton and why he is so weak.

The deleted scene, "Return to Krypton," shows Clark traveling around the planet's remnants, finding nothing but kryptonite. The kryptonite weakens him, prompting him to set a course for home but leaving him severely weak. With the Earth's sun far from his current location, he is unable to heal from the kryptonite exposure over the course of his return trip. This scene was cut from the movie, with Superman Returns opening after these events.

Whether the scene would have helped the movie remains debatable, but it became notorious for the wrong reasons. The scene, which runs over five minutes, features almost nothing but VFX shots and Routh's Superman in semi-tangible environments. It is fully completed, as none of the elements are temp graphics, with the final moments meant to lead directly into the film's opening credits. However, the scene was ultimately cut because the studio felt it was too somber in tone and a downbeat opening for the movie. By that point, though, the work had been done and the "Return to Krypton" sequence had cost the production a reported $10 million.

Superman Returns Had More Problems Than Budgetary Flubs

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Spending $10 million on a scene that never gets used is never good when it comes to recouping costs. Superman Returns made a reported $391 million worldwide, which didn't quite meet the studio's expectations. Combined with the middling reviews, the movie killed any hope of a follow-up. With that, Superman returned to the drawing board and didn't get another film release until Cavill's Man of Steel in 2013.

Superman Returns was criticized for several things, including acting. Performances like Spacey's Luthor and Parker Posey's Kitty Kowalski received particular scrutiny. The movie also had pacing issues, running 2 hours and 35 minutes, with time dedicated to plot points fans didn't care to see, like Lois' son likely being Clark's child. The action also felt lackluster when it popped up, making the viewing experience an uneven mess for most audiences.

Given that Cavill's Superman also suffered issues, the hero has a shaky history at the theater. James Gunn hopes to correct this with his take on the hero, as his goals for DC's comic book properties may be even bolder than those surrounding Singer and Routh's doomed outing. Still, even with changes made to Gunn's soon-to-be-released film, he's unlikely to have cut a $10 million sequence from the finished project. This scene remains a bizarre legacy held by Superman Returns, touting one of the most expensive deleted scenes in cinema history.

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