When Superman Returns flew into cinemas back in 2006, it was the Man of Steel’s first big screen outing in nearly 20 years. A quasi-sequel to the earlier film franchise headlined by Christopher Reeve, Bryan Singer’s movie – which starred Brandon Routh in the lead role, alongside Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor – received broadly positive reviews, but underperformed at the box office.
Many attributed this to the blockbuster’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime, coupled with its relatively small number of action sequences – none of which involved a superpowered brawl. Detractors have also suggested that Singer’s decision to set Superman Returns in a “vague continuity” with the Reeve-era movies was a crucial mistake as well, confusing newcomers and series devotees alike.
Nevertheless, Superman Returns’ reputation has improved over the past 13 years. Fans have expressed particular admiration for its faithful characterization of Superman, the strong performances by the cast, the breathtaking plane rescue set piece, and Singer’s reverential approach to the source material.
It’s true that Singer and his team incorporated numerous references to Superman’s cinematic legacy into their own film, particularly Superman: The Movie and Superman II. As you’d expect, they also managed to sneak in several homages to the Man of Tomorrow’s decades-long comic book history, as well.
While some of these creative touches are easy to notice, others are so subtle it would require Superman’s famed X-Ray vision to spot them – which is why we’ve pulled together this list of 20 Hidden Details In Superman Returns Only Super Fans Noticed!
Adventures of Superman Cast Cameos
When it comes to Superman’s small screen exploits, most fans today likely grew up watching Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman or Smallville. But older followers of the Man of Steel will have fond memories of the 1950s series The Adventures of Superman.
Superman Returns boasts a couple of surprises for those audience members weened on Adventures: cameos by surviving cast members Noel Neill and Jack Larson. Neill – who also played Lois Lane in two film serials – portrays Gertrude Vanderworth, while Larson has traded in Jimmy Olsen’s camera to pull beers as Bo the Bartender.
Aquaman Appears (Kinda)
Long-time allies on the page, Superman and Aquaman finally teamed-up on the big screen in 2017’s Justice League. But funnily enough, technically, this wasn’t the first time the two superheroes shared a cinematic moment together.
Eagle-eyed viewers will note that when the Last Son of Krypton visits his son Jason in his bedroom near the end of Superman Returns, the kid is wearing Aquaman-printed pyjamas. It’s not exactly the most riveting crossover in cinematic history, but it’s a cute nod to the comics all the same.
The Same Kryptonite Discovery Site
In Superman: The Movie, the chunk of Kryptonite Lex Luthor uses to neutralize the Man of Steel originally landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Considering that Superman Returns is essentially a follow-up to that film, it doesn’t come as a shock that Luthor acquires more of the deadly green space rock from a similar source.
When the devious mastermind steals a meteorite sample containing Kryptonite from a Metropolis museum, close inspection of the accompanying label reveals that it was recovered from (you guessed it) Addis Ababa!
Super Scrabble
Superman’s arrival in Superman Returns is suitably dramatic: he crash lands his alien spaceship in the field just outside the Kent farm in Smallville!
Just prior to this, his adopted mother Martha is shown playing Scrabble in the farmhouse living room – and several of the words she’s spelled out reference characters and concepts from Superman lore.
While some of these are fairly broad – “alienation” is a theme that regularly surfaces in the mythos, including in Returns – others are more specific, like a tip of the hat to Superman II villain General Zod.
Recreating The Cover Of Action Comics #1
The cover of Action Comics #1 – the comic book in which Superman made his debut way back in 1938 – is easily the most famous in comics history.
Featuring the Man of Tomorrow smashing a gang of hoodlums’ car against a rocky outcropping, this image has been mimicked (and parodied) countless times in the 81 years since the issue first hit shelves.
Even Superman Returns gets in on the act, with the shot of Brandon Routh’s Superman hefting Kitty Kowalski’s car overhead designed to evoke this iconic visual.
Luthor's Old School Prison Uniform
In Superman Returns, the walls of the Daily Planet are lined with newspaper covers alluding to real and fictitious events in world history – including Lex Luthor’s arrest. In the photo of Luthor plastered on that cover, he’s clad in an anachronistic black-and-white striped convict outfit and not the orange prison uniform you’d expect an inmate to be issued in 2006.
There’s a reason for this: Lex wore similarly dated jailhouse attire in Superman II, so costume designer Louise Mingenbach is simply keeping in-step with established visual continuity.
Crew Member Cameos
It’s not just actors from past Superman productions who make cameos in Superman Returns – several crew members also crop up in minor roles, too. Most prominently, screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris play the students muscled out of the museum by Luthor’s goons during the film's heist sequence.
Less obvious is production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, who can be briefly glimpsed portraying a reporter reacting to the shock-waves shaking the Daily Planet building during the major Metropolis-based set piece.
A Miniature Superman II Moment
One of the more (in)famous moments in Superman II sees Kryptonian baddies General Zod, Ursa, and Non demolish sculptures on Mount Rushmore, replacing them with their own likenesses. It’s clearly a scene that left an impression on Bryan Singer, as the director has included a nod to it in Superman II.
Pay attention when Luthor’s experiment destroys the train set – you’ll notice that there’s a model Mount Rushmore caught up in all the small-scale carnage. One of the faces on its tiny faux-granite surface is destroyed, similar to how Zod and co. left its full-sized counterpart.
Richard Branson's Cameo
The Man of Steel officially arrives back on the scene in Superman Returns when he comes to the aid of an imperiled commercial space flight.
It’s a jaw-dropping action set piece – Superman not only has to rescue the rocket, but wrangle the jet plane attached to it, too – so it’s easy to overlook a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by Sir Richard Branson!
That’s right: the billionaire entrepreneur (and real-life commercial space travel pioneer) Branson puts in a brief turn as a shuttle engineer – a nice instance of art imitating life.
Gotham Is Namechecked
In today’s world of shared cinematic universes, audiences expect references explicitly linking different superhero films together. However, Superman Returns predates this trend, and so there isn’t really any connection between it and Batman Begins, which premiered a year earlier.
Even so, Bryan Singer still decided to pay lip service to the Dark Knight in his Man of Steel outing, as a way of honoring the characters’ extensive shared history in the comics. This small reference is dropped during the news report covering Superman’s global do-gooding spree, where Gotham (Batman’s hometown) is mentioned alongside other, real-world cities.
Superman's Super Soles
When it came time to oversee her own take on Superman’s iconic costume, costume designer Louise Mingenbach made a few modifications to the Man of Steel’s familiar outfit. The most notable of these was the removal of the yellow S-shield from Superman’s cape, which was relocated to his belt, instead.
That’s not the only instance of the shield motif cropping up somewhere it hadn’t previously been seen before. Careful scrutiny of the soles of the Man of Tomorrow’s boots reveals that their tread pattern incorporates several of shields as well!
Metropolis' Real-Life Location Confirmed
There’s a famous quote (commonly attributed to famed comics scribe Frank Miller) that Metropolis – the fictional city in which Superman operates – is New York City during the day, while Batman’s home turf Gotham is the Big Apple at night.
Superman Returns adheres to this concept, with Lex Luthor’s map (along with the latitude/longitude coordinates supplied by one of his henchman) placing Metropolis squarely in New York State. As production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas relates in The Art of Superman Returns, squeezing the fake city in alongside its real-life counterpart necessitated that half of New Jersey be eliminated!
A Superman Lives Shout Out
The Superman franchise famously stalled for nearly 20 years following the release of box office bomb Superman IV: The Quest for Peace in 1987. During the decades of development hell that followed, several productions came this close to entering principal photography, with Tim Burton’s Superman Lives the most notorious of the bunch.
While that film never saw the light of day, its title at least made it onto the big screen in Superman Returns. While the Man of Steel’s life is hanging in the balance, a potential Daily Planet headline reads “SUPERMAN LIVES” – a shout out to Burton’s aborted flick.
Dialogue From Superman: The Movie
It’s impossible to overstate the extent to which Superman Returns serves as a love letter to Superman: The Movie (and, to a lesser extent, its sequel Superman II). Richard Donner’s 1978 film influenced just about every aspect of Returns, including the casting, production design, score and screenplay.
Indeed, several lines of dialogue – including Lex Luthor’s real estate-related remarks and Superman’s observations on the relative safety of air travel – are either direct or paraphrased quotes cribbed from Donner’s acclaimed earlier effort.
Superman's Vital Statistics
In a neat instance of efficient storytelling, Superman Returns contains a scene where Lois Lane and her fiancé Richard White discuss Superman’s powers and weaknesses – bringing audiences up to speed in the process.
Along the way, they also cover the Man of Steel’s vital statistics, which will sound familiar to anyone who grew up watching Superman: The Movie.
That’s because the height and weight statistics Lois outlines aren’t those of Returns star Brandon Routh – or even the comic book incarnation of the character – but rather those attributed to Christopher Reeve’s Superman in that film!
The Metropolis State Slogan
We’ve already covered that Superman Returns openly situates Metropolis in the same geographical region occupied by New York City in reality.
But were you aware that the movie’s production team took things a step further, and even devised a slogan for Metropolis State?
It’s true: in the handful of scenes where car license plates are visible, the phrase “The First State” adorns each prop – except in a few instances where actual NYC plates with “The Empire State” were used (presumably by mistake).
Photos Of Pa Kent
Since Superman Returns is set in the same continuity in Superman: The Movie, the Man of Steel’s adoptive father, Jonathan Kent, has already suffered a fatal heart attack when the story starts. But that doesn’t mean Pa Kent doesn’t factor into proceedings entirely.
On the contrary, photos of the kindly farmer – as portrayed by now-deceased veteran actor Glenn Ford in Superman: The Movie – were used as set dressing on the Kent farm set. One picture in particular was originally slated to appear more prominently in Returns, however the footage was ultimately cut for pacing reasons.
Classic Credits
Superman: The Movie boasted an impressive opening credit sequence for its day, with distinctive zooming animated text overlaid over otherworldly deep space environments.
Unsurprisingly, Superman Returns’ credits scene emulates that seen in its predecessor, with only a few minor stylistic alterations (and the use of CGI) setting the two apart.
For those interested, the main points of divergence are the use of red text when the names of stars Brandon Routh and Kate Bosworth are displayed, and the occasional inclusion of joined lettering.
Luthor's Wig Collection
Kevin Spacey’s take on criminal mastermind Lex Luthor in Superman Returns is markedly different to Gene Hackman’s interpretation seen in Superman: The Movie. While still prone to indulging in the odd bit of scenery-chewing villainy, Spacey’s Luthor is a less comical figure who largely eschews the flamboyant wigs rocked by the Hackman version.
Nevertheless, Returns establishes that Luthor still owns (and sometimes wears) a number of outlandish hairpieces. Of these, a couple evoke those seen in Superman: The Movie – representing yet another connection between the two films.
A Retro Sound Effect (Literally)
Wherever possible, Bryan Singer did his darnedest to ape the visual and audio elements first showcased in Superman: The Movie in Superman Returns.
At the same time, the huge technological advances in film-making that occurred between 1978 and 2006 meant that the director needed to drastically overhaul how pretty much all of the Man of Steel’s powers were portrayed…except one.
The one superhuman ability Singer didn’t tinker with? Superman’s super hearing, which is represented by the same peculiar, vaguely tinny sound effect utilized in Superman: The Movie!
–
What are some other hidden details in Superman Returns? Let us know in the com