Christopher McQuarrie Teases Failed ‘Man Of Steel 2’ With Henry Cavill Featured “Amazing Conflict” With Green Lantern

Before the DCU reset at DC Studios overseen by James Gunn and Peter Safran, starting on the big screen with their “Superman” reboot, Warner Bros. tried hard to recruit filmmakers to help with a sequel to “Man of Steel” when Henry Cavill was still in the role and Christopher McQuarrie (“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”) is talking his iteration that never got made alongside figuring out how to tackle a new “Green Lantern” movie.

In an in-depth chat with the podcast “Happy Sad Confused,” the filmmaker talked about pitching “Green Lantern” and “Man of Steel 2,” also how things eventually evolved to nearly having the two heroes in conflict after discovering how to approach the stakes and power-set limitations of the two iconic comic book characters.

READ MORE: Jason Momoa Finally Lands Lobo Role In ‘Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow’

“I’ll never tell, but boy, it was f***ing good, it was f***ing good…It was ‘Green Lantern’ that came to me, and ‘Green Lantern’ is a tough one; the power is very challenging. And I cracked it and it was fun, watching him learning to use that power and giving that power a flaw, so it wasn’t pure invincibility. The whole concept of Green Lantern is ring has to be re-charged…you only have so much battery life, and that can run out at an inconvenient time. That, for me, solved the Green Lantern problem. The costume is another thing.”

“But here’s the thing, I look at any superhero, and growing up, if you told me that there would ever be a ‘Captain America’ or ‘Thor’ [movie] that didn’t have me laughing hysterically at the character, that is proof, just check your certainty…don’t worry about the costume worry about the character and how do you give that character tension and stakes. Also, how do you do it with Superman?”

“And Henry [Cavill] had a take on that, and I suddenly realized how these two characters had similarities, which also allowed for an amazing conflict and amazing universe-expanding resolution. But I will tell you the first five minutes of my ‘Superman’…a sequence without dialogue that was a setup after you knew what exactly made Superman tick and exactly what Superman was afraid of, and why Superman made the choices he made, and it would have been epic,” McQuarrie teased his DC crossover sequel and involvement of Green Lantern.

“Superman is about hope, and it’s about being inspiring and that joy the character created. I don’t think you need to live in the shadow of [Richard Donner‘s] ‘Superman’ and John Williams’ score, but you have to recognize that movie captured better than any other, with respect to everyone who has followed, it captured the heart of that character. The problem with Superman when they are constantly trying to create bigger and bigger obstacles for a character with infinite power. Donner understood, Superman’s biggest obstacle was himself, followed potentially by Green Lantern. It’s all right there, guys, just sitting there waiting for somebody to make it.”

Funny enough, Gunn’s “Superman” reboot features Nathan Fillion‘s prickly Guy Gardner (an antagonistic Lantern who will show up in “Peacemaker” season two), and we’ll see both the DCU versions of Hal Jordan and John Stewart in the HBO Max series “Lanterns.”

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We’ll have to wait to see if that “conflict” between Superman and Green Lantern ends up happening in the future, as we’ll have plenty of established Green Lantern Corps. members at DC Studios’ disposal very soon. Gunn’s new “Superman” movie is heading to theaters in July, and we can’t wait to see Jason Momoa‘s alien bounty hunter Lobo going toe-to-toe with Milly Alcock‘s Kryptonian heroine in “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.”