I’m not sure that anyone but Mark Millar (and perhaps the director with whom he’s been working) thought that a Mark Millar-scripted Superman sequel was likely to go anywhere, but his plan for the big blue cheese was so audacious that I had a little hope that WB might actually bite.
Essentially, Millar has wanted to script a massive three-film Superman arc that would begin a thousand years ago on Krypton and end with Superman as the last being on a dying Earth overseen by a red sun. No chance at all that WB would go for that, especially after Watchmen, but seeing one of the world’s most recognizable characters go from birth to death in a gigantic film trilogy has a lot of appeal.
No one really knows what WB is doing with Superman, up to and including execs at the studio. Will they go with the stated intention to Dark Knight-ify, or take a cue from Iron Man and stay true to the character’s lighter roots? Regardless, Millar isn’t terribly optimistic about his chances.
On his own message board, he said a couple weeks ago:
Warner’s talked to us and a few other writer/ director teams, but
things seem to be in stasis right now. As far as I understand, nothing
is happening with Superman at the moment and so the director and I are
just working on another project. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t,
no biggie. Kick-Ass [now being filmed by Matthew Vaughn] taught me that creating your own stuff can be at least as much fun and you don’t have to answer to anyone.
I have no particular love for the character, but it continues to be weird watching DC and WB spin their wheels with what seems like one of the easiest sells in the comic book and tentpole movie biz.