Superman: Matthew Vaughn Reveals Wild Twist He Pitched DC That Was Rejected

Matthew Vaughn has carved out a career crafting his own signature action-drama genre films, like Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kick-Ass, Layer Cake, and Stardust. However, Vaughn did take a brief detour into the blockbuster superhero movie genre in the 2010s; he bounced around several projects before ultimately stepping in to make the prequel/reboot X-Men: First Class for Fox. However, Marvel wasn’t the only comic book movie universe Vaughn played in; as he’s re-iterated in a new interview, there was a time when he was interested in doing a Superman movie for DC! 

“So I… am a Superman nut and so is Mark Millar and I sat down with Mark and we plotted out a three-picture deal… trilogy film, and um pitched it to Warners,” Vaughn explained to Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz.  

As Vaughn continued to explain the situation, he clarified that his Superman Trilogy with Mark Millar was conceived “before Man of Steel… So we pitched how to do a trilogy of Superman movies and they, Warners, said they weren’t interested and that’s as far as it went… [it] never came back around.”  

What Was Mathew Vaughn’s Superman Movie About? 

“I think Donner nailed it,” Vaughn said. And I think Wonder Woman worked very well because it was basically a Donner Superman film, but re-imagined as a Wonder Woman film. Yeah, I would’ve done a modern version of… the Donner [film]…” 

“Our big idea was a twist that Krypton doesn’t blow up. It does eventually… the dad was right, he just got his timing wrong. So when Superman’s grown up, suddenly there’s a mass exodus then all hell breaks loose. And that was our idea.” 

Zod, Braniac, and Lex Luthor are all name-dropped as villains that would’ve featured into Vaughn and Millar’s Superman Trilogy, with the filmmaker noting that “Lex Luthor was the main villain until Krypton explodes, and it all goes [makes a downward hill motion].” 

Vaughn’s Superman Trilogy sounds like it would right up there with Tim Burton’s Superman Lives and Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel in splitting fans over divergences from the usual canon and characterization. But that was in Wild West heyday of the DCEU – what about now? 

Matthew Vaughn Has Spoken With DC Studios & James Gunn

“DC have reached out, and Gunn and Peter we’ve been talking – they’re great. But James you know he ring-fenced Superman.”

When asked if other projects in the DCU Chapter One slate would be of interest to him, like The Authority, Vaughn said that he would “never say never,” but that he’s currently busy and content with the freedom to make his own original projects. So for now, getting him behind a DC project seems more like wishful thinking than a likely possibility. 

Superman: Legacy in development for release in 2025.