Brendan Fraser on almost playing one major superhero: ‘I loved that screenplay’

Brendan Fraser is spilling secrets from the time when he was attatched to play Superman.

According to Deadline, the iconic role came calling for Fraser while he was “fresh off of the success of ‘The Mummy’ franchise”. A potential film based on the superhero was to be directed by J. J. Abrams.

The Oscar winning actor told Josh Horowitz while appearing on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, “I loved that screenplay. They let me read it. They locked me in an empty office in some studio lot, I signed an NDA. It was printed black on crimson paper, so you couldn’t photocopy it or sneak it out the door inconspicuously.”

“I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good screenplay,” he went on to add. Eventually, Fraser passed on the role due to nerves.

“You feel a little certain anxiety anyway when you’re going up on some big job, but I also remember thinking: ‘If I do get this job, then, well, I think Superman’s gonna be chipped on my gravestone,’” he admitted.

The George of the Jungle star also claimed that donning the iconic red cape “becomes part of your entire brand, who you are” and ultimately, he wasn’t sure that he was “ready to take that on then.”

Brendan Fraser chalked off the whole ordeal to a few words of advice from his Whole Lotta Sole director, Terry George: “What’s not for you will pass you by.”

It is important to note that a Superman film by J. J. Abrams is still in development and was even confirmed by James Gunn while he was promoting his own adaptation for DC Studios earlier this year. Per Deadline, “No plot for the film was revealed, but this Kal-El would exist in an alternate universe not connected to Gunn’s 2025 film.”