It’s been quite some time, but *Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning* director Christopher McQuarrie still carries a bit of emotional weight when reflecting on his now-mythical Superman pitch. Known for his work across the *Mission: Impossible* series, writing *The Usual Suspects*, and directing *Top Gun: Maverick*, McQuarrie recently revisited the topic during an interview with Josh Horowitz on the *Happy Sad Confused* podcast.
When asked about his post-*Man of Steel* concept, McQuarrie remained coy, saying, “I’ll never tell. But boy, it was f—king good.” He did reveal that he had also pitched a *Green Lantern* idea around the same time, which he believed solved one of the character’s biggest storytelling hurdles. “Green Lantern’s a tough one. The power is very challenging,” he explained. “And I cracked it, and it was fun. And watching him learn how to use that power — and giving that power a flaw, so it was not just pure invincibility... The whole concept of Green Lantern is the ring has to be recharged. That’s not a bug, that’s a feature. ‘Yes, you have infinite power, but you only have so much battery life.’ That can run out at inconvenient times. That, for me, solved the whole Green Lantern problem.”
With a chuckle, he added, “The costume is another thing. And you can figure that out.”
McQuarrie’s approach to superhero films centers on deep character exploration rather than surface-level spectacle. “Here’s the thing. I look at any superhero, and growing up if you had told me that there would ever be a Captain America or Thor that did not have me laughing hysterically at the character. And that is proof—just check your certainty man,” he said.
“When you dismiss an idea, you’re not dismissing my idea, you’re dismissing yours. You’re dismissing your concept of it, the same way I was dismissing mine. So I realized, don’t worry about the costume, worry about the character, and how do you give that character tension and stakes—and also how do you do it with Superman.”
He further revealed that Henry Cavill, who portrayed Superman in the DC Extended Universe at the time, brought a perspective that reshaped McQuarrie’s vision for a potential sequel. “I suddenly realized how these two characters had amazing similarities,” he told Horowitz. “Which also allowed for amazing conflict and an amazing universe-expanding resolution.”
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McQuarrie even gave a glimpse into what the opening sequence might have looked like. “I will tell you, the first five minutes of my Superman movie—which was, imagine Pixar’s *Up*, a sequence with no dialogue that covered that character’s \[story\],” he described.
“The first five minutes of the movie was a setup after which you knew exactly what made Superman tick and exactly what Superman was most afraid of—and why Superman made the choices he made. And it would’ve been epic. In five *minutes*, the scale of the movie would’ve been absolutely extraordinary.”
Though McQuarrie has yet to direct a full Marvel or DC feature film, he contributed uncredited writing work to *Batman & Robin* (1997) and *X-Men* (2000), proving his long-standing connection to the world of comic book heroes. Fans can only dream of what could have been with his version of the Man of Steel.
Meanwhile, James Gunn’s rebooted DCU is taking a completely new direction with the upcoming *Superman* film set to debut this July.
