7 Things You Never Knew About Christopher Reeve’s 1978 ‘Superman’
Now that James Gunn‘s Superman is out in theaters and a new era for the DC universe has begun on the big screen, it’s a great time for a deep dive into the production history of the film that started it all!
Here are 7 things you never knew about Superman: The Movie.
1 Christopher Reeve wasn’t even close to the first choice
Warner Bros./Everett Collection
It’s hard to imagine any adaptation of the caped crusader being played by Elton John of all people (no offense Elton) but that was almost the case. Well, not exactly — as the story goes, Elton was only “considered” for the part, along with boxing legend Muhamed Ali. Some notable names that were legitimately attached to the role in some capacity were fellas like Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman, James Caan and Jon Voight.
Luckily for everyone, after a lengthy auditioning process, Christopher Reeve won out over almost two hundred actors for the honor of wearing the red spandex — and we’re all very glad he did. He is perfect playing this character and set a bar that no actor has been able to reach since.
2 Marlon Brando ruined Rocky’s dreams
Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection
After the unbelievable success of Rocky in 1976, Sylvester Stallone was one of the hottest names in Hollywood — and he apparently lobbied hard for the role of Superman. None of this has been legitimately substantiated by anyone, but the rumor is Marlon Brando actually had final casting approval, and vetoed Stallone for being “too ethnic.” Ouch.
Stallone later went on Merv Griffin‘s talk show to say he had no respect for Brando as an actor or as a man. OOF. Superman‘s director Richard Donner has since slightly refuted the whole thing by maintaining he was dead-set on casting an unknown in the role. Either way, the whole situation feeds into a long running narrative around Brando that he was quite an unpleasant man.
3 Marlon Brando’s paycheck set records (at the time)
Silver Screen Collection/2013 Getty Images
Our third fun fact revolves around cash, moolah, dead presidents — specifically, the boatload of it that Brando walked away with for 12 days of work and roughly 10 minutes of screen time. His fee was so high at $3.7 million that he broke records at the time for the most money ever spent on a performance (which translates to $18 million adjusted for inflation in 2025, by the way).
You would think such an outrageous paycheck would compel the actor to give a bit more effort — but apparently it did quite the opposite. At this point in his career, rando was known for being a very lazy actor who rubbed his co-stars the wrong way with his on-set antics. Christopher Reeve famously went on Letterman to voice his displeasure with Brando.
This was probably exasperated by the fact that Reeves only earned $250,000 for his work on the first two films combined.
4 The greatest mustache prank ever pulled on a film set
Everett Collection
Marlon Brando wasn’t the only diva on set, though: the late, great Gene Hackman was also apparently quite stingy while filming as well — specifically with his hair, facial or otherwise. Which was a problem, because Hackman plays the notoriously always-totally-bald character of Lex Luthor. He blatantly refused to shave or wear even a bald cap for any of his scenes. After weeks of begging him to just shave his mustache, Hackman finally relented after Richard Donner offered to shave his own mustache off with him.
The story goes that mere seconds after Hackman was finished shaving, Donner looked him in the eyes, reached for his upper lip, and slowly pulled off a fake mustache to reveal his, I’m imagining, very amused smile underneath. Bravo, Donner, bravo.
5 The production may have contributed to the 1977 NYC blackout
Everett Collection
When he wasn’t playing fake mustache pranks on the top billed talent, Richard Donner was busy dealing with a shooting environment that seemed plagued with bad luck from the start — the most famous example being that the crew was filming on the same night as the 1977 New York City blackout.
Donner even joked years later that he thought their crew might have been responsible for shutting down the city because of all the equipment they were using to throw Chrisopher Reeve around on wires.
6 They shot the first and second films back to back
Everett Collection
The blackout wasn’t the only problem production had to face while filming — not by a long shot. The original plan was to shoot both the first film and its sequel simultaneously in about seven months, but due to all the craziness happening around them the shoot ended up being extended out to 19 months. The crew was worked to the bone, particularly Reeve and Donner who had to maintain a positive attitude on set through long work days.
The saddest part about all of this is that Richard Donner was actually fired towards the back end of production on the second film, and replaced by for reasons we don’t have time to get into here. New director Richard Lester went on to reshoot a majority of the footage Donner had shot, extending production even longer. I think it’s important to reiterate here, Marlon Brando only worked for 12 days. 12 days. No wonder Reeve was so pissed.
7 The author of The Godfather wrote the original screenplay
Warner Brothers/courtesy Everett Collection
Part of the reason the production was so troubled was that the script was going through constant rewrites, even during filming. The original script that was green-lit by the studio was actually written by the author of The Godfather, Mario Puzo. That version of the script was almost immediately scrapped by Donner, who, as a self proclaimed Superman fan, hated it.
Unfortunately for Puzo, it wasn’t really his original story that Donner received, and now that you can find the original write up online, you can see that he was incorrectly blamed for producing a bad story. Regardless, the whole thing was subsequently rewritten multiple times.
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