Superman could benefit from a queer edge.
Only a select group of actors have gotten to play Superman on the big screen in blockbuster live-action films and TV shows featuring the DC Comics superhero – and they’ve all been straight-presenting men.
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Luke Macfarlane revealed that his own agent told him that the DC hero couldn’t possibly be played by a gay man. “I can literally remember an agent once saying to me, ‘Superman can’t be gay’ – like just straight out,” the actor recalled. This was a very disappointing experience for Macfarlane, who wanted to audition for the role of young Clark Kent on Smallville but was clearly discouraged by his team.
The first actor to play Clark Kent in the movies was Christopher Reeve, who appeared as the Man of Steel in 1978’s Superman, 1980’s Superman II, 1983’s Superman III, and 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
In 2006, DC cast Brandon Routh for a new sequel in the original Superman series of films: Superman Returns. That new installment picked things back up from Superman II, which means that it disregarded the third and fourth sequels starring Reeve. Even though the movie received mostly positive reviews, it didn’t go on to have any continuity.
As Warner Bros. started out to build out its DC Extended Universe (DCEU) franchise with Zack Snyder, the studio decided to completely reboot the character of Superman with 2013’s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill as the titular character. Cavill reprised his role in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017’s Justice League, as well as in the “Snyder Cut” version released in 2021.
On TV, the most noteworthy live-action portrayals of Superman include George Reeves (Adventures of Superman in the 1950s), Dean Cain (Lois & Clark in the 1990s), Tom Welling (Smallville in the 2000s), and Tyler Hoechlin (The CW’s Arrowverse in the late 2010s and early 2020s).
Scroll through to find out which LGBTQ+ actors we’d love to see playing Superman a.k.a. Clark Kent in future movies and TV shows featuring the DC Comics superhero.