Brendan Fraser‘s career was at its zenith in the 90s and early 00s, thanks to films like The Mummy, Bedazzled, guest appearances in Scrubs and King of the Hill, and more. But the beloved actor nearly added the Man of Steel to his resume, and fans can finally see what Brendan Fraser’s Superman would have looked like. Fraser screen tested for the leading role in J.J. Abrams’ Superman: Flyby. The film was scheduled to be released in 2004, but never made it into production.
The photo shows Brendan Fraser’s profile with the Blue Boy Scout’s iconic red and blue costume. Fraser looks jacked for the role, and was known as a leading action man at the time. Interestingly, the cape comes over and covers the front of the shoulders, a design choice which is rarely seen in the comics (it could act as a blanket in the Fortress of Solitude). Fraser also has the signature hairstyle of Superman, which is swished the opposite way as Clark Kent, with the iconic single curl coming down across his face.
It’s no doubt that Brendan Fraser could have made an excellent Superman, especially with hindsight knowledge of his screen test. Despite starring in some stinkers throughout his career, it’s fair to say that Fraser has rarely (if ever) turned in a bad performance. But the actor was unsure about taking on the role. Speaking on The Howard Stern Show last year, Fraser knew that being Superman would follow him around for the rest of his career. He said:
“I had to reconcile with ‘Okay, say you do get the job to be the Man of Steel, it’s gonna be chipped on your gravestone, are you okay with that? I mean, forever more known as the Man of Steel.'”
J.J. Abrams’ Superman: Flyby Would Have Been a Unique Origin Story
J.J. Abrams, one of the most beloved sci-fi directors working today, would have brought something unique to Superman: Flyby. The director wrote the script way back in 2002, before Brandon Routh’s Superman Returns (2006). Speaking to Empire over a decade ago (via GeekTyrant), the director said his Superman film would have focused on a young Clark Kent learning to limit his powers. “The thing that I tried to emphasize in the story was that if the Kents found this boy, Kal-El, who had the power that he did, he would have most likely killed them both in short order,” Abrams said. While that sounds like the start of a dark Zack Snyder story, he explained the Kents would teach young Kal-El to control his powers. Abrams explained:
“And the idea that these parents would see – if they were lucky to survive long enough – that they had to immediately begin teaching this kid to limit himself and to not be so fast, not be so strong, not be so powerful. The result of that, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, self-doubt and being ashamed of what you were capable of.”
Related
Brendan Fraser’s 10 Most Underrated Movies
With such a prolific body of work, it’s inevitable for some of Brendan Fraser’s projects to have escaped wider recognition.
As a result, Abrams’ version of the Man of Steel wouldn’t be Superman learning to be Clark Kent, it would be Clark Kent learning to be Superman. “Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent,” Abrams said. It is still unclear why Superman: Flyby was scrapped. However, the prevailing theory suggests the movie was too dark for executives at Warner Bros. — which is saying something for the studio that produced Man of Steel.