Christopher McQuarrie Reveals Scrapped Plans for ‘Man of Steel 2’ and ‘Green Lantern’

Director Christopher McQuarrie has opened up about his long-lost plans for Man of Steel 2 and a Green Lantern reboot, both of which were pitched to Warner Bros. after the release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout in 2018.

McQuarrie, who had just worked with Henry Cavill on Fallout, wanted to reunite with the actor for a new Superman film. He also pitched a connected Green Lantern movie, hoping to kick off a fresh, character-driven approach to the DC universe.

When asked about his Superman concept during an interview with Josh Horowitz, McQuarrie didn’t give away much, but his excitement was clear.
“I’ll never tell. I’ll never tell, but boy was it fing good. It was fing good.”

He went on to share more details about his Green Lantern idea, explaining how he tackled the character’s power set and weaknesses:
“Green Lantern is a tough one… I cracked it, and it was fun watching him learn how to use that power and giving that power a flaw, so it was not pure invincibility.”

McQuarrie emphasized how the ring’s need to recharge gave the story natural tension:“Yes, you have infinite power, but you only have so much battery life, and that can run out at inconvenient times… That, for me, solved the whole Green Lantern problem.”

When it came to Superman, McQuarrie and Cavill had a shared vision that linked the two heroes through both their similarities and their potential conflict.
“Henry had a take on that, and I suddenly realised how these two characters had amazing similarities, which also allowed for amazing conflict and an amazing universe-expanding resolution.”

Though Warner Bros. reportedly approached McQuarrie again when Cavill briefly returned for Black Adam, the project never moved forward. Around that time, James Gunn began work on a new Superman script, ultimately leading to a full DC Universe reboot with Gunn at the helm.

McQuarrie also teased how his version of Man of Steel 2 would’ve started.
“I will tell you, the first 5 minutes of my Superman movie was… you remember Pixar’s Up? [It was] a sequence with no dialogue that covered that character,” he said.
“[It] was a set-up, after which you knew exactly what makes Superman tick and exactly what Superman was most afraid of and why Superman made the choices he made. It would have been epic.”

Though these films never came to life, McQuarrie’s passion for the characters suggests that if the opportunity ever came again, he might just return to the superhero world.

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