J.J. Abrams Talks “Superman Flyby” and “Man of Steel”

Posted March 22, 2013 by Mikeoldboy

Some people may not know this but J.J. Abrams happens to be a major Superman fan. So much, in fact, that he actually released a treatment for “Superman Flyby”. Sadly, the film will probably never see the light of day, but with the treatment released we get a look inside Abrams plans for the Man of Steel.

Abrams himself describes his ideas in an interview with Empire Magazine.

The thing that I tried to emphasize in the story was that if the Kents found this boy, Kal-El, who had the power that he did, he would have most likely killed them both in short order, and the idea that these parents would see – if they were lucky to survive long enough – that they had to immediately begin teaching this kid to limit himself and to not be so fast, not be so strong, not be so powerful.

The result of that, psychologically, would be fear of oneself, self-doubt and being ashamed of what you were capable of. Extrapolating that to adulthood became a fascinating psychological profile of someone who was not pretending to be Clark Kent, but who was Clark Kent. Who had become that kind of a character who is not able or willing to accept who he was and what his destiny was.

The idea in the movie was that he became Superman because he realized he had to finally own his strength and what he’d always been. I don’t know if that’s what Zack and Chris [Nolan] are doing, but it looks like that’s part of the idea and I could not be more thrilled to see that movie. That to me was always the way to go.

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This truly doesn’t sound too far off from what Nolan and Snyder are currently trying to do with their “Man of Steel” film. The trailers already show us the more serious nature that the film is going to take. This is a bit of a departure from earlier interpretations of Superman that seemed to always paint him as wholly good. It will be very interesting to see the somewhat darker, less fantastic side of the Superman mythos.

“Man of Steel” hits theaters June 14th 2013.

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