Brandon Routh or Christopher Reeve in Man of Steel

[Dark Raven]

How do you think Man of Steel would've been with either Brandon Routh or Christopher Reeve (if he were alive and in his prime today) in the Superman role, if everything else had been the same? How would the portrayal have differed? Would the film have been better or worse? How would it have done at the box office?

And just as another fun speculation, what if Terrance Stamp (in his prime) had been Zod in MOS instead of Michael Shannon?

 

[Jochimus]

I really can't see it working as well as it did for Cavill and Shannon in MOS. The 1978 Superman and Zod worked with Reeve's and Stamp's respective acting styles, but I have trouble imagining Reeve pulling off such a relatively angsty Clark Kent, and for that matter I think Stamp probably would have come off as too aloof to make Zod as relatively sympathetic. As for Routh...well, he didn't really get to do much to distinguish his Superman from Reeve's as it is.

 

[doobie]

I can imagine Reeve playing MOS' Superman if he were somehow young now, but as a nice a guy as he is I don't think Routh has the emoting skills.

 

[sf2]

I can imagine Reeve playing MOS' Superman if he were somehow young now, but as a nice a guy as he is I don't think Routh has the emoting skills.

agree. don't think Routh has that "kick-ass" authoritive appeareance. we didn't see this side of him in SR.
and don't think Terrance Stamp can handle that kinda action. you know he is like the boss who is only good at giving instruction rather than doing the work himself. you get what i mean.

 

[Batmannerism]

No offence to the OP, it's a fair question, but I'm going to say neither. Routh, forget about him, not even in the same league as Reeve or Cavill, there's a reason he's not a household name after playing Superman

Now with the tone of MOS, I don't think it would have suited Reeve's tremendous presence and boyish charm. I'm not saying he's not great, and more importantly he
was a great Superman, but the particular tone and approach taken in MOS would not have suited him -just not the right man for the job.

If MOS had had a much lighter tone and a bit more humour, then Reeve would have nailed it.

So, there are probably quite a few guys today who could have pulled it off, but Cavill was the guy they chose. I think they chose right. The second best performance as Superman, IMO (and that includes Tom Welling and Dean Cain), he didn't have Reeve's warmth or charm, but you certainly feel he was a sincere, earnest Clark Kent, burdened by his great secret, and of course, we know he cares about his mom.
Also, we haven't seen Cavill as Clark Kent journalist -although when we do, the dynamic with Lois will be totally different (and a lot of Reeve's key Clark moments involved Lois).

IMO they picked Routh back in 2006, because he looked like Christopher Reeve.
They picked Cavill, because he looks like Superman. Reeve changed the way Superman looked, but when Cavill walks out wearing the suit in silhouette the first time, it's like Superman walked out of the comics (minus the trunks of course).

So, if I had to choose between Reeve or Routh, no contest, it's Reeve, but even then he'd be the wrong guy for MOS.