The Unmade Man Of Steel 2 Would Have Featured Brainiac As The Villain
Remember when it was revealed that a sequel to "Man of Steel" was actually being kicked around at DC Studios? Well, as it turns out, it featured a very prominent Superman villain that fans have been asking for years — at least, it would have featured him if James Gunn and Peter Safran didn't want an entire reboot of the DC Universe. According to a new report published in The Hollywood Reporter, the treatment for "Man of Steel 2" by "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight allegedly would have had Brainiac as the baddie Superman has to battle next.
If you know anything about Superman's history and his roster of bad guys, you'll understand how much of a big deal Brainiac's appearance would have been. While he's appeared in shows like "Smallville" and "Krypton," he has never appeared in any movies featuring Superman, although scrapped plans to introduce the villain date back as far as 1985's "Superman III." He is far overdue for his big-screen debut and the fact that he almost got it might be a hard pill to swallow for some fans.
So, why exactly did this treatment eventually fall apart? Gunn and Safran's appointments as co-heads of DC Studios certainly did the trick, as the duo has begun redoing the franchise from scratch. However, it didn't get saved because there were technically no deals for "Man of Steel 2" — sources at THR claim that only a verbal agreement for potential future projects was made.
Hitting the reset button
That being said, there is always the possibility that Brainiac will get his time to shine in this new DC Universe being curated by James Gunn and Peter Safran. The duo's new era is poised to be a total reboot of the DC film slate, meaning that pretty much every character is now theoretically possible to adapt for the big screen. It also can't be lost on the DC Studios co-heads how popular the character is, especially with Gunn's apparently-vast knowledge of DC characters. Seriously, nobody who hasn't read tons of DC comics would put characters like Peacemaker or Polka-Dot Man in their big team-up flick. Perhaps the upcoming young Superman film will end up having Brainiac as the main villain, or maybe he will end up in an entirely different project.
Still, it's very bittersweet knowing there was a good chance that the character would have made his big debut, had massive corporate changes not gotten in the way. Steven Knight is also a great writer, so the idea of the "Eastern Promises" scribe writing such a complex and interesting character would have been really cool. It's a shame that we didn't get to see "Man of Steel 2" come to fruition, and hopefully, the apparent adaptation curse looming over Brainiac ends up getting broken as the new DC Universe fully kicks off.