Watchmen Showrunner Damon Lindelof on Possible Man of Steel Sequel (Exclusive)

Henry Cavill is returning to the DC Extended Universe one way or another. While it has yet to be seen if Cavill’s new deal will result in Man of Steel 2, fans of Superman can’t help but think Watchmen scribe Damon Lindelof and mega-producer J.J. Abrams could finally collaborate on a film featuring the Last Son of Krypton; after all, the latter has a cushy new overall deal with WarnerMedia and the two creatives have been frequent collaborators for decades. ComicBook.com recently caught up with Lindelof ahead of the release of his Watchmen series on home media this coming week and according to the writer, he’s flattered to even be considered to write a story featuring one of the biggest superheroes ever created.

“It’s immensely flattering to even be considered for … I think that obviously he’s up there with Batman and the two kind of the big two. It’s incredibly daunting,” Lindelof tells us. “I think the challenge with Superman is always going to be what does Superman mean in the contemporary framework? For a character, for a culture that’s basically moved into this sphere of antiheroes, how do you make space for Superman who is sort of the original superhero?”

That’s when Lindelof points out the fact Abrams had previously written a script for a Superman feature all the way back in 2002. As the writer puts it, the studio was looking to pit Superman and Batman against each other long before the DCEU and Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice came around.

“But it’s interesting that you mentioned J.J. because long before I worked with him on Lost, J.J. actually wrote a Superman script that never got made for a variety of reasons mostly of which I think is like that Wolfgang Petersen was trying to make a Superman Versus Batman movie,” the writer adds. “They were also trying to do JLA. This was all before Chris Nolan came in and basically took over Batman, et cetera, but it all kind of just got lost in the wash. He’s had a long-term obsession with Superman. I guess what I would say is I would love to see a J.J. Superman movie, but I don’t have a take on the character that would be better than that.”

As it stands now, the only DC-centric project Abrams and his team at Bad Robot have officially been linked to is a Justice League Dark live-action series currently being developed for HBO Max.

Cover photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic