Brendan Fraser Auditioned For Superman

It’s been revealed that Brendan Fraser auditioned for the role of Superman back in the early 2000s. However, he didn’t end up getting the role.

Fraser revealed this during an interview with SyFy, in which he was asked about the rumours that he almost played Reed Richards in Fantastic Four.

The Whale actor revealed that that particular rumour wasn’t true. However, he did reveal that his audition for the movie that would have been Superman: Flyby was very real.

Here’s what Fraser had to say about it:

I auditioned for Superman. I even wore the suit. It was cool, it was pretty cool. I mean, I didn’t get the job. It went away. Brett Ratner was a bit ‘woo hoo’ in those days, and that’s well documented. And that was a script J.J. Abrams wrote but it never got made. And it was freaking Shakespeare in space. It was so cool. It was worlds colliding and, it was really, really cool.

Brendan Fraser auditioned for Superman back in the early 2000s

Credit: Universal Pictures

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Wow. It sounds as though J.J. Abrams’ script for Superman: Flyby was really, really good. It sounds as though Fraser was very much taken by Abrams’ take on the Man Of Steel.

Abrams actually spoke about his vision for Superman a few years back, and it sounds as though he might be one of the very few people in Hollywood that really understands the character. Here’s what he had to say on the matter during an interview (via SlashFilm):

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. 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. Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent.

Who had become that kind of a character who is not able or willing to accept who he was and what his destiny was. The idea in the movie was that he became Superman because he realized he had to finally own his strength and what he’d always been.

Why can’t Hollywood get Superman right?

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It’s a shame that we’re never going to get to see Brendan Fraser star as the Man of Steel in J.J. Abram’s Superman: Flyby. This story is going to go into the ‘what could have been’ folder when it comes to the character.

We almost got Tim Burton’s take on the character portrayed by Nicolas Cage, which never happened. Let’s just hope that James Gunn’s take on the character is a good one and that the movie does end up being made.

What do you make of this news? Do you think that Brendan Fraser would have made a good Superman? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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