Why Does Superman THRIVE on TV & Struggle on the Big Screen?

It’s one of those questions that keeps coming up every time a new Superman project gets announced: Why can’t they get Superman right on the big screen anymore? The 1978 Superman: The Movie is still held up as a gold standard, but since then, the character’s cinematic track record has been—let’s just say—mixed at best.

But is that totally fair?

Let's unpack it.

Superman Thrives on TV… Right?

Sort of. At least, that's the perception.

You’ve got Smallville, which ran for 10 seasons and more than 200 episodes. You’ve got Lois & Clark from the '90s, which had a solid fanbase. And now Superman & Lois has found success by leaning into a more grounded, family-drama format. But here’s the thing—none of these are really about Superman in his full power and iconic glory. They all come with serious constraints.

Smallville famously had a “no flights, no tights” rule. That show was about Clark Kent, the farm boy slowly discovering who he is, with Superman only appearing in the final minutes of the final episode. Not even exaggerating. The show intentionally dodged the full Superman mythos to keep things manageable on a TV budget.

Lois & Clark? That was more of a workplace romantic comedy with a Superman twist. It had charm, but let’s be honest—it didn’t feel epic. It was never trying to. It was trying to get middle America to tune in every Sunday night.

Superman & Lois, the most recent entry, leans hard into family drama, teen angst, and season-long villains. It’s a compelling show in its own right, drawing inspiration from series like Friday Night Lights, but again—Superman is secondary to the structure. The show works because it avoids having to deliver a weekly blockbuster-level threat.

So no—Superman doesn’t really work better on TV. He’s just been carefully restructured to fit on TV. Big difference.

🎬 So What Went Wrong With the Movies?

Let’s talk about those movies. Because when Superman hits the big screen, it’s almost always messy—and it shouldn't be.

1. Superman I & II – The Blueprint (and the Beginning of the Mess)

Superman: The Movie (1978) is a classic. Period. Richard Donner treated the material with reverence, cast it perfectly, and brought in Mario Puzo (The Godfather) to co-write the script. They didn’t treat Superman as a joke—they treated him like a mythic figure. And it worked.

Superman II has a huge fanbase. But let’s be real: it’s a compromised movie. Richard Donner was replaced during filming, and it shows. There are two competing versions of this movie floating around, and while many people love it (because: Zod and the action), it’s a messy product behind the scenes. Still, it maintained that template: hero origin → moral challenge → romantic conflict → epic save.

This structure has been copied repeatedly (Spider-Man 2 owes it a lot), but the execution matters. And it went downhill fast after this.

2. Superman III & IV – The Crash

Superman III pivoted into… a Richard Pryor comedy. Not a joke. The tone became campy and slapstick, which completely clashed with the mythic style that made the first movie great. Then came Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, produced by Cannon Films—known for not spending money. It had no budget, and it showed. Poor effects, poor writing, poor everything.

At this point, Superman on film was dead in the water.

3. Superman Returns (2006) – A Misfire With Good Intentions

Two decades later, Bryan Singer tried to resurrect the magic by doing a direct sequel to Superman II, skipping over the bad sequels entirely. Respectful? Yes. Smart? Debatable.

In the 25 years since Superman II, the character had changed dramatically in the comics. Lex Luthor was no longer a goofy real estate guy; he was reimagined as a dark, corporate genius—a twisted mirror of Bruce Wayne. Meanwhile, major comic arcs like The Death of Superman had reshaped fan expectations.

Superman Returns ignored all of that and tried to revive a character from a different era. It was melancholy, introspective, and lacked action. Critics were split. Fans were lukewarm. It wasn’t what people wanted in 2006.

4. Man of Steel (2013) – Zack Snyder’s Kryptonian Opera

Here’s where things got polarizing.

Zack Snyder came in with a very distinct aesthetic. His Superman was brooding, philosophical, godlike—and his world was grim and heavy. Some loved it. Others hated it. There was no middle ground. Snyder is the cinematic equivalent of spicy food. If it’s your thing, you love it. If not, it’s stomach-turning.

Man of Steel had strong visuals and a new take on the character, but it fundamentally clashed with Superman’s traditional optimism. For some fans, it was exactly what the character needed: a modernization. For others, it was sacrilege. The destruction of Metropolis. The controversial Zod kill. All of it fed into the debate.

It didn’t bring people together—it fractured them.

🤷‍♂️ Is Superman Just Too Hard to Get Right?

The truth is, Superman is hard. He’s too powerful for grounded storytelling. He doesn’t have the built-in angst of Batman or the relatability of Spider-Man. He’s the ideal. The aspirational. The impossible.

Which makes him perfect for cinema. For sweeping epics. But the bar is so high, and the expectations are so different, that anything less than transcendent feels like a letdown.

With TV, the character can be reimagined, softened, or restructured to suit genre expectations. A family drama? Sure. A teen show? Absolutely. A romcom? Why not. But those versions come with caveats.

Batman, by contrast, is TV-ready. He’s got detective plots, a grounded tone, and a rogues’ gallery made for week-to-week drama. Imagine a Daredevil-style Batman series—dark, gritty, personal. It’d be a hit. It writes itself.

Superman? Not so much. You can’t have Doomsday show up every Thursday night.

🚀 Can James Gunn Save Superman?

Now all eyes are on Superman: Legacy, the upcoming reboot from James Gunn. Will he finally crack the code?

Too soon to tell. Gunn has a talent for blending sincerity and weirdness (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad). If anyone can reintroduce Superman with both heart and humor, it’s probably him.

But the fandom is fractured. Some love Snyder’s take. Some swear by the Donner films. Others grew up on Smallville. Everyone has their “definitive” Superman—and that’s a tough sandbox to play in.

🧠 Final Thought: Superman Is Complicated

The idea that “Superman just doesn’t work in movies” misses the point.

He has worked. And he can work again. But the failures weren’t about the character—they were about execution. Wrong tone. Wrong era. Wrong expectations.

Superman isn’t broken. He’s just waiting for the right storyteller to remind us what it feels like to believe a man can fly.

Would you rather see Superman on the big screen or serialized on TV?