Superman Returns star Brandon Routh will be portraying the Man of Steel one more time. Routh will be donning the Superman costume in The CW's Arrowverse crossover event "Crisis on Infinite Earths" later this year. Following the news of his comeback to the role, Routh revealed that he originally believed he would star in multiple Superman movies.
“It’s an opportunity for me to kind of say hello and goodbye to the character in a way I didn’t get to the first time,” Routh told Entertainment Weekly. “Being a young individual of 24, 25, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this for years and make multiple movies.’ And that of course didn’t happen. I’m just very honored to be able to do this one last time.”
Routh originally portrayed the Man of Steel in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns in 2006. He had signed a deal for multiple films and Warner Bros. had already planned a sequel for 2009 before the release of the first movie. Superman Returns didn't do nearly as well at the box office as expected, falling short of $400 million worldwide. The domestic earnings could not cover the production budget of the film, and Warner Bros. considered it to have underperformed at the box office.
A Superman Returns sequel never happened despite the movie receiving fairly positive reviews from critics, and Routh moved on to pursue other roles.
Now Routh will be playing an alternative-universe Superman alongside Tyler Hoechlin's Superman in the five-part "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover inspired by DC's 1985-86 universe-reshaping comic book event of the same name. Currently, Routh has the role of Ray Palmer, the Atom in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, as part of the CW's Arrowverse.
Slated to air in Fall 2019 on The CW, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" currently has no announced air date. Three episodes are slated to air this December, with the concluding shows subsequently coming out in January.