Editorials > Singer Not Likely to Direct Man of Steel, Routh in Question, Too

The big news of the day is the rumor circulating that Brandon Routh may not reprise his role as Superman in the potential sequel to Superman Returns, tentatively entitled Man of Steel. The rumors come as a combination from two different sources. The first is Anne Thompson over at Variety, who simply says,

It is highly unlikely that Bryan Singer will return to shoot the next Superman movie. (The director is finishing up Tom Cruise's Nazi film Valkyrie, and prepping The Mayor of Castro Street). The next Superman we will see on the big screen will not be Brandon Routh, but a younger Superman among a cast of youthful superheroes in The Justice League. That movie will likely not be shot, however, until after the WGA strike is resolved.

She doesn't cite a source, but then again, Variety usually is our source. 

Meanwhile, the folks over at LatinoReview mention… 

Kelvin knew about Brandon not being the new Superman for weeks and weeks now, but made a promise to the DC people that he wouldn't break the story. Variety has now confirmed what we've secretly known for a while and Brandon Routh will be replaced in the stand alone sequel by whomever is cast as Superman in the upcoming Justice League of America movie.

Apparently after getting some "ball-breaking" at the hands of "other sites" the writer at LR felt the need to clarify his article and issued one astoundingly confusing sentence:

The article does not state that whomever is cast as Superman will also be the same actor to carry on the stand alone Superman sequel, but we've heard otherwise.

It's like some sort of logic puzzle.

EDIT: But I finally get what they're saying. As a commenter has pointed out, it should be noted that Thompson does not say that Routh will not appear in the Superman sequel, just that whoever is cast in Justice League will be the next Superman we see on the big screen. LR contends that this new JL person will replace Brandon Routh, but so far they're the only ones telling that story. We shall see.

-David Morgan