Superman Director Pitched Film in Five Minutes

Though some time has passed, director Christopher McQuarrie of Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning still feels a sting when recalling his now-legendary Superman pitch. The filmmaker, widely recognized for his contributions to the Mission: Impossible series, his screenplay for 1995’s The Usual Suspects, and directing 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, recently shed some light on his post-Man of Steel concept—though not the full story.

“The details will stay with me, but I’ll say this—it was exceptionally strong. My idea revolved around Green Lantern, a character that’s notoriously difficult to adapt. The powers themselves present a real creative challenge,” McQuarrie shared in a recent conversation with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

“Eventually, I figured it out, and the process was really enjoyable. I focused on showing him learn to wield that power—and introducing a critical weakness, so it wasn't just limitless ability... The Green Lantern ring’s need for recharging isn't a drawback—it’s essential. ‘You possess near-infinite power, but your energy reserve is finite.’ That limitation can lead to dramatic moments when it runs out at the worst possible time. For me, that solved the core problem with Green Lantern.”

McQuarrie then quipped, “Then there’s the suit. Someone else can tackle that one.”

Above all, the writer-director approaches storytelling through the lens of character development.

“Here’s how I see it: growing up, if someone had told me there would be serious, compelling takes on Captain America or Thor, I would’ve laughed. And that’s the point—never be too sure,” he explained in the interview.

“When you dismiss an idea, you're not really rejecting mine—you’re rejecting your own preconceived notion of it, just as I once did. So I learned to focus less on the costume and more on the character. How do you give that person real stakes and tension? And how do you apply that to Superman?”

McQuarrie went on to share that Henry Cavill, who played Superman at the time, offered his own perspective on the character, which completely shifted McQuarrie's vision for a Man of Steel sequel. “It suddenly clicked—these two characters had incredible parallels,” he told Horowitz. “That similarity also created room for powerful conflict and a resolution that could expand the entire universe.”

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He even hinted at how the film might have opened. “I can tell you this: the first five minutes of my Superman movie would've been something like the opening of Pixar’s Up—a wordless sequence that tells a complete story,” McQuarrie described.

“In just the first five minutes, you would understand what drives Superman, his deepest fears, and the reasons behind his choices. It would have been epic; in those few minutes, the scale of the film would've been absolutely staggering.”

McQuarrie is undoubtedly a dedicated superhero fan, yet he has yet to direct a feature in either the MCU or the DCU. That said, he reportedly contributed uncredited script work to 1997’s Batman & Robin and 2000’s X-Men, so he's no stranger to comic book adaptations. It’s a shame we never got to see his version of the Man of Steel.

James Gunn’s rebooted DCU is naturally charting a new course, as seen in this July’s upcoming Superman film.