I Just Found Out Guillermo Del Toro Was Approached For Man Of Steel, And I Get His Reason For Turning It Down

Guillermo del Toro has so many movies that he never made that the topic literally has its own Wikipedia page. We nearly had a Guillermo del Toro version of Beauty and the Beast, and the story of his attempt to adapt H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness is legendary. But del Toro also has multiple “almost" superhero movies, including, it turns out, Man of Steel.

Guillermo del Toro has spoken openly about many of the movies he’s wanted to make, but never done, but one movie that he hasn’t talked about is Man of Steel. In a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, del Toro is asked about the project, and while technically he doesn’t confirm or deny ever being attached, he does explain why he wouldn’t make a Superman movie, saying…

Guillermo del Toro saying “my vibe is dark” is possibly the most obvious statement ever uttered by a director, but the guy isn’t wrong. To be fair, Man of Steel was certainly a darker take on the character than James Gunn’s Superman, but it sounds like del Toro thinks Gunn’s version is the way the character should be portrayed, and the filmmaker knows he’s not the right guy for that sort of movie.

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Guillermo del Toro’s praise for Superman seems to be specifically because he knows he wouldn’t make that sort of movie himself. He knows the sort of director he is, and what he can do. He appreciates what a filmmaker like James Gunn did with Superman specifically because he couldn’t have done that. He seems to feel Gunn’s version is what Superman should be. Here he looks elsewhere. Del Toro continued…

Del Toro’s attempt to make a Justice League Dark movie is a bit more well known than this Superman story. The project was confirmed around the same time Man of Steel was released and the then new DCEU was getting going. It's possible that del Toro's talks for Superman eventually shifted into Justice League Dark specifically because he knew that would be more in his wheelhouse.

Of course, del Toro doesn’t technically admit that was ever involved in Man of Steel, but if you look at the way he reacts physically to the question, there’s really no doubt. Check it out.

As an intellectual exercise, I would still love to see a Guillermo del Toro version of a Superman movie, but I completely understand why he would ultimately walk away from it. Now how do we get him and James Gunn together to make a Gotham by Gaslight movie because that needs to happen like yesterday.