New Superman Movie Coming From The Rise Of Skywalker Team?

A new Superman movie could be in the works from the mind behind The Rise of Skywalker.

By Faith McKay | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

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Long ago, when J.J. Abrams was still working on his WB television series Felicity, he had wanted to make a Superman movie. Back then, no one took him seriously. Now, he’s a filmmaker with pull. YouTuber Grace Randolph claims Abrams is in meetings with writers about an upcoming Superman project. 

While she hasn’t shared anything more on what could be happening in those talks, there is quite a history of J.J. Abrams wanting to make a Superman movie. It was heavily speculated that Abrams was in talks to do something with Clark Kent a year ago. Back in June, there were rumors saying Abrams had officially signed on and that the project definitely involved Henry Cavill in the leading role. While this is another rumor dropped into the bucket, they do keep building toward a story where we’ll hear an official announcement saying J.J. Abrams is going to take the franchise on. 

There’s also a lot of recent history surrounding the caped hero and what his next steps could be. There have been rumors of a Batman and Superman movie, with Robert Pattinson and Henry Cavill in the starring roles. Of course, that naturally brings up images of the disaster that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, though they’ve promised it won’t be like that. Honestly, you have to imagine everyone involved has learned from that. 

If J.J. Abrams is in meetings, we have no guesses on whether he’ll be hiring a new actor to play the lead part or what kind of move he’ll be making. Could he be interested in doing a standalone Superman movie? Starting his own trilogy? Could it be the sequel to Man of Steel

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While no one can rule a Superman movie out, that doesn’t seem much like J.J. Abrams’ style. While there are sometimes conflicting stories about why Abrams didn’t direct The Last Jedi, a common narrative is that he never intended to. His vision was to do The Force Awakens, and then have a new filmmaker take on the next two projects. Reportedly, he was hesitant to return for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but ultimately came back after the second movie in the trilogy was met to such mixed reviews. He’d started it; he decided to finish it.

Many critics of J.J. Abrams’ work can likely agree that while his endings can be mixed, he does have strong beginnings to his stories. While the ending to his television series Felicity and Lost were controversial, they started off with hooks that compelled people to tune in. Early in his career, his 2011 standalone, Super 8, was well-liked by audiences. With his hesitancy to take on a second Star Wars project, maybe he isn’t as into making multiple movies in the same franchise. With the recent success of the standalone Joker, perhaps now is the right time for him to launch a standalone Superman movie. 

As for Henry Cavill, he’s said a few times that he’d be happy to continue playing Superman for years. So far, he’s gotten to play the role in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, and Justice League. If J.J. Abrams is picking up the character, will he bring Cavill along with him? We’ll be watching to see when Abrams is ready to let us in on what he’s up to.