What Could Have Been: Superman 5 

Imagine a Worlds Finest movie with Christopher Reeve and Michael Keaton

Superman would have had an entirely solid film series if Richard Donner stayed on and had his way, without the Salkinds clashing with him. He planned to make 4 movies

Anything with Christopher Reeves as Superman, and I’ll watch it, dude was immaculate in the part

In the best sense, in his character, words and deeds, Christopher Reeve never really stopped playing Superman.

That shot of Reeves’ Superman smiling to the camera always warms my heart

Wish we could gotten another Superman movie with Christopher Reeve in Superman 5. Rest in peace Christopher Reeve. Christopher Reeve will always be the best Superman ever

Superman 4 not only hurt Christopher Reeve's career it hurt my feelings because of how terrible it was.

Nobody came anywhere close to Reeve's portrayal of Superman. He embodied the part in every way, even offscreen. He was perfect.

In an alternate universe, Chris Reeve, Henry Cavill and Brandon Routh starred in Superman: No Way Home

Superman 4 achieves one thing: it makes me appreciate Superman 3.

I still lament the fact that we haven't yet gotten a live-action Superman film with Brainiac as the main antagonist.

The comic Superman 78 did this story for the most part and I had no idea that was supposed to be a movie! That’s awesome.

RIP Christopher Reeve, the Superman.

It’s funny how your tastes change as you mature. I’m 39 but I remember 11 year old me always renting Superman 3 and Superman 4 on VHS the most and always thinking Superman 1 was “the boring one.” Obviously I now realize the original is a masterpiece but 3 and 4 still have that special place in my heart.

The script for Superman 4 is online, and it’s actually pretty decent. If it had a bigger budget and better effects, it would have made a decent movie. Not as good as the Richard Donner films, but right under it

After his terrible accident Christopher proved he was a real Superman, R.I.P. Christopher, you were the best.

Reborn sounds awesome and it would have been a great send off to Christopher Reeve's Superman.

I agree that last shot of Reeve as he flies off is the parting shot. RIP.

I wasn't born in the same time as Reeve's Superman, but I grew up with his movies. He was the one to make me love the hopeful character that he is. And after him, I named my daughter, Kalel; which means Light of Hope, in Kryptonian. So, thank you for my childhood, Christopher Reeve. May you rest in peace. Thank you, Superman.

In Man of Steal it wasn't a "glitch". It was a deliberate homage to Reeve.

It’s a shame that Cannon didn’t give Superman IV the financial respect it deserved.

If they used the Death of Superman story for Superman V, they could have recast Reeve to pass the torch when he comes back to life. Maybe saying he is younger when he came back. Another mistake was Nuclear Man should have been called Bizzaro the whole time in part IV.

The biggest surprise out of this was... the storyline actually sounded pretty good

Wow, the Superman 5 script sounds incredible! 🎉

I just have to say. This has become my favorite channel on RU-vid. The content the quality and details, I instantly watch anytime I get a notification and it makes me relive these glory days of movie, shining a light on details I never knew. Keep it up!

Superman 3 was my fav of Reeve's run, sad to hear he didn't like it. The fight in the junkyard and Superman correcting his bad deeds afterward was iconic.

Wow the Superman 5 script would've been an amazing movie.

It would be great if WB made a Superman movie, where Christopher Reeve, created by AI, and cutting-edge special effects, was obviously the protagonist. Of course, a very high budget film, without skimping on anything, what it would cost them to pay to revive the Man of Steel in his maximum splendor and a film script like never seen before. Dreaming is free 👍👍👍

I believe that without Reeve's Superman films we'd have never got Batman films. Without Batman we wouldn't have got Blade. Without Blade, Marvel wouldn't have gone ahead with X-Men or Spider-Man. And without those franchises we never would have got Iron Man and the MCU. Reeve's legacy is superhero movies.

It's actually sad to know that Superman IV: The Quest For Peace had the best of intentions to be a good movie and yet it let people down. I'll bet that Superman V would have been a big box office success that focuses on the Superman VS. Brainiac arc if it were made back then, but since it got cancelled and never had the green light to be brought to the big screen, we never got to see what could have happened. Though the script for Superman Reborn is actually interesting but at the same time, most entertaining since it seems to give out that sense of how the movie would have been the best of intentions. Aside from that, interesting video. 💙

Great video! I love Superman, and I’m grateful to Chris Reeves for doing the Superman movies, and I was thrilled when he appeared on Smallville, with the fabulous Tom Welling! I would’ve liked to have seen a big screen Superman starring Tom Welling.

Christopher Reeve is my Superman

I already know this is going to be another extremely entertaining banger from you! You are cooking like usual I bet 🔥 👨‍🍳

Superman 5 sounds awesome! They could still use this script.

While I was hardly a Smallville fan, I made sure to watch Reeve’s first appearance as Virgil Swann. His scenes with Tom Welling were absolutely wonderful. Welling brought his A-game for those scenes as he was sharing screen time with the Greatest Ever Superman and it made for excellent television.

Fun Fact: Matt Borner, Joe Manganiello, Armie Hammer And Zac Efron Were All Considered For The Role Of Superman Before Henry Cavill Was Cast

All of these scripts were ahead of their time today this would be made for sure

I consider Richard Donner the father of the Superhero genre for films he proved you don’t need to make a movie campy to make it a box office success if you play it straight it will be a success like Tim Burton’s Batman and Singer’s X-Men produced by Donner’s Company ironically. It’s also crazy knowing Donner’s production company is where a then unknown Kevin Feige got his start to learn from Richard and then go on to establish the MCU so I say Richard Donner deserves his flowers may he rest in peace

Elements of this script were used in the Superman '78 comic book.

Poor Reeves. He seemed like a really good guy and he was excellent as Superman. He deserved better. I also feel the same way about Caville! Two great supermen, two superman careers that should have been epic, although thankfully Caville has remained healthy, unlike Reeves.

Christopher Reeve will ALWAYS be my Superman. RIP, LOVE YOU & THANK YOU

I remember seeing the first Nuclear Man in a magazine from back then... there were stills featuring him and i was surprised to see he was nowhere to be found in the film when it came out.

Superman Reborn sounds awesome!

I enjoyed your use of clips from other media to allude to what these events might have looked like. Great job on this video.

Thanks for the amazing video ❤

It's both interesting and frustrating that *Brainiac* has almost been on the big screen as *Superman's* villain. But it always fails, and thus, sadly, *Brainiac* never gets his proper big screen debut.

It seemed that Brandon Routh was not playing Superman. Rather, he was playing Christopher Reeve playing Superman. So, we kind of got A Superman five

I remember reading about the upcoming movie the death of Superman shortly after the comic came out. It was so sad because shortly after the accident happened. That's when we all knew Superman wouldn't be a thing anymore. What's wild is that I never heard about the Burton movie until a few years back, I'm sure it was in the news too, everything was always, but that particular project I just missed. Back in those days you had to watch the news from different networks and read lots of magazines, talk on the BBs to get all the info you can and of course talk amongst friends. Sure you could search BBs, but it took a little effort not like nowadays. Even with the prodigy movie database, you had to really know what you were searching.

Great job! This was great!!

The new Supes movie is shooting 20 min from me. Glad they're bringing him home! (His creators were from Clevland)

Every time you upload its a highlight of the day, thank you for the content you've been providing us movie enthusiasts and fan!

It's telling that the 45 yr old version of this character is the most beloved and accepted all these yrs.later. Simply its because Reeve, Donner, and Tom Mankiewicz ( completely forgotten and under appreciated) understood tge most basic concept of Superman. He's a hero. Who always tries to do the right thing. Donner's and Mankiewicz 's creativity and writing captured the essence of the Silver Aged Superman to perfection. They understood who and what Superman is. And Reeve's ability to easily assimilate the character of Superman and Clark Kent as well at the same time was pure gold. A fantastic story , a brilliant director and writer, An incredible leading man, a cast of iconic right off the comics page supporting actors. A Soundtrack in top 5 of all time. I truly feel bad for any younger generation fan who was not able to experience this movie when it first came out ( I was 6). But to go through that time , and see that movie, well before CGI, and the internet, and just old school movie magic can't be explained. Nor ever duplicated. What a fantastic time to be a kid, or even a kid at heart.

Awesome content! Keep it coming!

Thank you for all your wonderful videos :)

Yes my suggestion made it to a video! Love the channel and keep it up!

Thanks for bringing this to my attention

Is Really Sad That This Movie Never Got Made, I Wish I Was in a Timeline When This Movie Actually Got Made

You did it again Thanks for this awesome video I consider the full story of Superman '78 to be like the Superman V we could've had

I cannot wait for Superman Legacy.

That was great. Thanks.

this was an excellent video! im totally going to look up the Superman Reborn script! im not even a Superman fan in particular but i do have fond memories of the first 2 films!

Another great video, man Superman Reborn with Christopher Reeve would’ve been amazing. Would love to see a video done by you on Robert Zemeckis’ cancelled Yellow Submarine remake.

I would’ve loved a Batman v Superman movie in the 90s with Chris Reeve and Mike Keaton

Oh buddy this is awesome.

Thank you for the fantastic breakdown of Quest for Peace! Always wondered gow that movie just...exists

Super edit

Happy you’re back feels like u took two years off😂 amazing video !!!

I Still Can't believe they actually were Considering Nicholas Cage for Superman..That Would've been Terrible 🤦‍♂️

Gods Be DAMNED… Dude! Where did you come from and why am I just NOW discovering this channel?!?? FRAK-tastic in every way!!

3:17 Disney right now lol,but great vid as always man keep it up. 🔥

This actually sounds like it would've been a pretty good movie. Brainiac really should've been in Superman 3. How has he not been in a Superman movie yet. Here's hoping Superman Legacy has him.

A well researched video

This is crazy. I wonder if Superman 5 really could have happened. Again, great video 😎

A couple of facts I would argue are incorrect. What you have to remember is that the Salkinds are independent producers, in the case of Santa Claus The Movie, they didn't lose money on that film as the film was pre-sold to distributors and they made all their money back but it was the distributors who lost cash in some territories. In the UK Santa Claus did very well however. As the Salkinds lost a lot of money on Christopher Columbus (Ilya and his father fell out big time) they were in a tight spot and sold the Superman rights to Jon Peters not Warner Bros (explained in the Superman Lives documentary). Im not sure if Peters still owns the right as his name is not attached to Superman Legacy but he was an executive producer on Superman Returns and Man of Steel. It would take to the mid 2000s for Warners to revolve all the ownership rights with the Salkinds as Superman 1-3, Supergirl and the Superboy TV Show were in the hands of other distributors worldwide. A good example of this is when the first DVDs arrived of Superman 1-4, in the states they got a boxset with all the films but Internationally Warner's could only release Superman 1 & 2 as a set as the ownership rights hadn't been resolved. But in all you've done some good work here and visualised a lot of the material for Superman Reborn and what it could've been.

Let’s hope James Gunn’s Superman will finally be a triumphant return for the Man of Steel

Very cool script! Brainiac is definitely one of the best Superman villains ever and he certainly deserves to be in a film someday. Also thank you for giving proper respect to Christopher Reeve! He has such an amazing legacy!

I was laughing in joy at the non Superman scenes you were using😁

This brought a tear to my eye...

Thax, now I feel I've seen Superman 5!

Great video as always. Good to have you back. I don’t man. Movie sounds a bit rough to me

Your closing comment was really heartwarming. Cheers.

This story actually sound very interesting :) Hopefully we will see a live action Brainiac soon ....

the building they filmed at in the Uk was Milton Keynes train station

Wow, Superman 5's script actually sounded really good. I don't think with the state of VFX in the 90s it would have been doable, but I'd love to see that movie made nowadays

1st been waiting on this

Christopher Reeve was an Angel. No one will ever even come close.

SUPERMAN 4 The Quest for PEACE was the first movie I ever saw in a theater. Perhaps perfectly good timing. I was introduced to the character of SUPERMAN. ❤ He changed my life dramatically!! So sad we never saw SUPERMAN 5. Nuclear Man was an interesting character.

there was a 'superman 5' its was called "Superman returns" and it was a great movie, the issue with it was it was not catered to a generic audience but to the comic fans

A lot of cool information here, and it's interesting to see how much the Superman Lives project borrowed from this. I suspect it would have suffered the same budgetary issues as Lives, even removing the Salkind issues from the equation. But it sounds very ambitious and I'm sure a smart team and another script pass would have resulted in a great movie.

Miss him so much . . Mean while waiting for Superman Legacy

3:19 is Disney right now lol,great vids as always tho man keep it up

I was stationed in Germany Superman come out in 1978 and I loved it, years later when my kids saw it they loved dressing up as superman

I keep imagining a world where Christopher Reeve Superman has a crossover with Michael Keaton's Batman's.

The script for Superman 5 seems awesome. I totally would've had a blast watching it

You should make a what could have been on the R Rated Scooby doo movie. Great video btw

A version of this can pretty much be seen and read in the comic Superman '78, one of the best things DC put out in the last few years. It's really cool.

I've put Superman The Movie and Superman II on my Max list and watched them repeatedly.

YESSSS!

To be a kid back then in the theatre seeing that last shot of the first Superman Donner film....🙂

Love your channel - just waiting for you to blow up