Opinion seems to be sharply divided on Superman Returns. Personally, I enjoyed it a great deal and thought that Brandon Routh managed to portray a geeky Clark and a conflicted but powerful Supes with real conviction.
Sadly, its somewhat underwhelming box-office performance was always going to make it hard for Bryan Singer to remain at the reins for a sequel and with Christopher Nolan on board as a producer for a reboot, it seems likely (as with the upcoming Spider-man relaunch) that it will be a new cast and crew all round.
I think this is a real shame as whatever other problems Superman Returns might have had, Routh certainly was not one of them. Routh clearly also hopes that he will survive the upcoming cull, as he laid his cards on the table in an interview with Empire at Comic-Con and said he would love to remain on board.
Perhaps this one can be filed under “Routh wants it but none of those actually making the decisions have said a word yet”, for the time being. It might be inevitable that a reboot will involve recasting Superman, so as to break with Returns completely, but for the time being I’m rooting for Routh.
Whether he gets to come back as Superman or not, we’ll definitely see Routh soon as one of the seven evil exe’s that Scott Pilgrim must battle in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. You can catch a glimpse of Routh in the trailer here.
