Matthew Vaughn Discusses His Failed SUPERMAN Trilogy Pitch and Wants Taron Egerton To Play Lex Luthor

Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn sat down for an interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast to talk about a few things recently, and one of the subjects that came up was his scrapped Superman trilogy.

Before we get into that, the director said that he has been in touch with DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, but as of right now, there’s no project on the table for him. That’s okay because Vaughn has been keeping busy making super fun movies, and he really doesn’t need to be making DC films.

Before Zack Snyder made Man of Steel, though, Vaughn was planning a Superman trilogy with Mark Millar. He opened up about that project saying:

“Mark and I sat down and plotted out a three film trilogy, pitched it to Warner Bros. before ‘Man of Steel’… we pitched how to do a trilogy of Superman movies and Warners said they weren’t interested. That’s as far as it went.”

Vaughn shared that his Superman trilogy would’ve harkened back to the tone of Richard Donner’s 1978 Superman and it would’ve included villains such as Lex Luther, Zod, and Braniac. The filmmaker explained the story he was looking to tell, saying:

“I think Donner nailed it. Wonder Woman worked very well because it was basically a Donner/Superman film but reimagined as Wonder Woman. I would’ve done a modern version of Donner. Our big idea was that Krypton doesn’t blow up. It does eventually. The dad was right, but he got his timing wrong. When Superman is grown up, suddenly there’s a mass exodus and all hell breaks loose. That was our main idea.”

That would have been a very different and interesting take on Superman. The next Superman movie we’re getting is from James Gunn with Superman: Legacy. In regard to that, Vaughn says that his Kingsman star Taron Egerton would be great as Lex Luthor. As far as rumors of Egerton playing Wolverine, Vaughn said the actor would be much better as Luthor.

“He’d be better as Lex Luthor. He’d be an amazing Luthor. He shouldn’t be Wolverine. I don’t think he’s right for it. You got to really go back to the comic. Hugh is brilliant as Wolverine, but I’d go back to the what the comics are… [he’s] small, grizzly, tough guy. Hugh has made it so iconic that if you go into that version… no. Taron would make an amazing, intelligent villain.”

Vaughn’s concept for a Superman trilogy could’ve been a pretty wild movie. I’d be curious to see how that would‘ve turned out, but it’s something that just wasn’t meant to be.