Superman returns! Again. Twice over, actually.
Deadline is reporting that both Tyler Hoechlin’s CW Superman and Brandon Routh—currently playing the delightful Ray Palmer, a.k.a. The Atom, on Legends of Tomorrow—will suit up as the Man of Steel for this fall’s climactic Arrowverse crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths, a take on the seminal DC Comics super event that shaped the DC multiverse as we know it.
Routh said of the news, “Honored, humbled, grateful, and still pinching myself.” And it’s not a jokey reference to Routh’s cinematic outing as Clark Kent back in 2006's Superman Returns, either—well, not just a jokey reference.
This isn’t Ray Palmer putting on Clark’s spare spandex, but Routh actually playing Superman: or rather a Superman, from a different time/place than Hoechlin’s take on the character. Whether it’s a future version of Hoeclin’s Superman, a Superman from a different multiverse, or indeed even the actual straight-up Superman Returns Superman making an appearance remains to be seen. It wouldn’t be the first time the CW have used a crossover to offer a sneaky link to the DC movies!
We’ll no doubt learn a lot more about the Crisis to come at the CW/DC panels at Comic-Con, kicking off with Arrow in San Diego tomorrow afternoon, July 20.
Update, 7/20/19 7:10 p.m.:
Brandon Routh just announced on the Arrow panel that he’ll not only be suiting up as Superman in the crossover…but Kingdom Come Superman.
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