Brendan Fraser Reflects on Missing Out on Playing Superman in J.J. Abrams’ Canceled ‘Superman: Flyby’

During an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Horowitz asked Fraser about the movie that would have been called Superman: Flyby, which was set to be directed by Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand helmer Brett Ratner, asking if he had ever worn the actual superman costume during his screen test for the role. Fraser said he had been given a costume for the test, and went on to reveal how tight security was around the project.

“Oh, I loved that screenplay. They let me read it. They locked me in an empty office in, I don’t know, some studio lot. [I] signed an NDA. It was printed black, on crimson paper, so you couldn’t photocopy it or sneak it out the door inconspicuously.”

According to Fraser, the script for the movie was very good. He continued:

“I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good screenplay. It really was. But, yes, I was considered. I did do a screen test. I did wear the big guy’s suit.”

Brendan Fraser Worried the Effect Playing Superman Would Have on His Career

With great power comes great responsibility…someone said that, apparently. In another comic book universe, Fraser was feeling the resonance of that statement very much when the option of potentially becoming the new actor to play Superman was on the cards. As he explained:

“If I think about it, I can remember feeling… you know, you feel a little certain anxiety anyway, when you’re going up on some big job. But I also remember thinking, ‘Hm, if I do get this job, then, well, I think ‘Superman’s gonna be chipped on my gravestone,’ you know? There’s an element of, ‘You are that for the rest of your days. Your career.’ And that’s not a bad thing. I’m not saying that’s gonna kill me anytime soon, but, you know, it is something that becomes part of your entire brand. Who you are.

“I don’t know if I was ready to take that on then. I mean, I felt I was, because, you know, big opportunity and excitement, et cetera, et cetera. But, I don’t know. Like [director Terry George] once said, ‘If it’s not for you, then it’ll pass you by […] and it wasn’t for me.”

While that role passed him by, Fraser is currently in the middle of a career resurgence, having won an Oscar for his lead role in The Whale, starred in Martin Scorsese’s epic Killers of the Flower Moon, and now being set to return for a fourth movie in The Mummy franchise. Has not playing Superman hurt Fraser’s career? Certainly not, and perhaps it has actually helped him not be forever known as “Superman star, Brendan Fraser.”