Kevin Smith has revealed that Warner Bros. was interested in none other than Harrison Ford to play Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, in his episode of Strange Adventures.
"Our Perry White? I was going for John Goodman," Smith told co-host Marc Bernardin on an episode of Fatman on Batman. "The powers above had different thoughts. Not my idea, but somebody was just like, 'Could be that Harrison Ford is interested.'" He also revealed that he wanted Nicolas Cage to play Superman/Bizarro opposite Ford's curmudgeonly newspaperman. Cage was famously cast as the Man of Steel in the Smith-penned Superman Lives, Tim Burton's ill-fated film from the '90s.
The episode Smith was co-writing with Supergirl's Eric Carrasco and hoping to direct centered on Perry White and Jimmy Olsen after being kidnapped by Bizarro and taken to Bizarro World. Smith said he wanted Xolo Maridueña to play Olsen. Known for his role as Miguel Diaz on Netflix's Cobra Kai, Warner Bros. cast Maridueña as Blue Beetle in the upcoming HBO Max film instead.
According to Smith, Cage would have played a very "gee, shucks," George Reeves-esque Superman who slowly devolves into Bizarro over the course of the episode. Though he was not permitted to use major characters like Superman and Lois Lane, Smith said the episode would have included off-camera teases of both. Reading from the script, the writer-director described a post-credits scene featuring a friendly meeting between Bizarro and Superman in the arctic.
"Closer to see [Bizarro] is trudging through the snow, not hovering. He's walking, his feet finally touching the ground. This is his penance. This is his exile," Smith read. "A few yards behind Bizarro, iconic red boots hit the snow. Like a point guard touching down from a three-point shot. Hell yeah! We know from those boots this is finally, finally the real thing. The Man of Steel."
Warner Bros. canceled Strange Adventures following a string of other axed projects, including HBO Max's Batgirl. Announced in 2019, the show was planned as an anthology series in the vein of Black Mirror, consisting of one-hour-long "cautionary tales" showing the dark side of superheroes and their powers. The Arrowverse's Greg Berlanti was an executive producer on the show, along with Sarah Schechter and showrunner John Stephens.
Though it did not yet have a release date, Strange Adventures was set for release on HBO Max at the time of its termination.
Source: YouTube