Michael Bay Was Once in Talks to Direct Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel Sequel

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie wasn’t the only director approached by Warner Bros. for a potential Man of Steel 2.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast last month, McQuarrie shared new details about his scrapped pitch for Man of Steel 2. His follow up would have opened with an emotional montage echoing that of Pixar’s Up, before centring on a conflict between Henry Cavill’s Superman and an undisclosed Green Lantern, two characters that McQuarrie cites as having “amazing similarities.” 

However, McQuarrie wasn’t the only director eyed to continue the Man of Steel story, with a new report from Michael Bay. According to two insiders, Warner Bros. Pictures heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy wanted Bay to direct a standalone, Cavill-led Superman film that was in active development in 2022.

Though the film was greenlit, it never moved forward. Although Bay did briefly dabble in the genre as a producer on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action reboots in 2014 and 2016, Man of Steel 2 would have been the first superhero directing credit for the director, who is best known for his work on high-octane blockbusters like Bad Boys, Armageddon and the Transformers franchise.

Amidst supposed confirmations and subsequent denials that Bay’s next project was a live-action take on Youtube series Skibidi Toilet, it seems pretty certain that we won’t be seeing the Man of Steel centred in an iconic “Bayhem” shot any time soon. Despite Cavill’s cameo in Black Adam, all plans for a solo Superman sequel were officially shelved following James Gunn and Peter Safran’s appointment as co-heads of DC studios. The DCEU, or DC Extended Universe, was ultimately scrapped in favour of a full reboot under their leadership.

James Gunn‘s Superman film serves as a launchpad for the new DC Universe, seeing David Corenswet don the famous red cape alongside Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, and, in his live-action movie debut, Krypto the Dog.

Superman is set for release in cinemas on 11th July.