Buzz has grown that DC Studios’ Superman will feature some sort of evil doppelgänger of the Man of Steel that David Corenswet‘s Kal-El will have to take on. Is it true? Who knows? Also, who cares? This type of buzz around CBMs is part of the process and it’s always fun to play with the possibilities and so we present…
5 Alternate Versions of Superman Who Could Appear in Superman!
To be fair, not everyone on this list is truly an alternate universe Superman. Perhaps it’s more accurate to label some as copies or imitations of the real deal. Regardless of the description, the idea remains the same: a Supes vs. Supes type battle will ensue.
Bizarro
Certainly the most well-known alt Supes, El-Kal is probably not the odds-on- favorite to actually appear should these rumblings prove accurate. The idea of Nicholas Hoult‘s Lex Luthor already having been hard at work cloning Superman doesn’t seem to fit with what little is known about the film but a Bizarro World Bizarro does seem a bit more reasonable.
Cyborg Superman
The Snyderverse tackled xenophobia pretty well so the Hank Henshaw version of the character may not make his way into the DCU but as is almost always the case with DC’s stable of characters, there’s another option. Would Kal-El’s uncle, Zor-El, the father of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, be an option? Kara is rumored to be showing up in Superman, so perhaps her believed-to-be-dead daddy could show up…but that wouldn’t require Corenswet to double up, as is the rumor. So maybe a full-on cyborg built by one of Kal’s enemies could do the trick.
The Eradicator
The buzz around a potential “second Superman” appearing in DC Studios’ Superman has grown steadily over the past few weeks. Nothing has been officially shared about James Gunn‘s 2025 film but with production underway, it’s possible that bits and pieces of the plot could have trickled out and the one heard the most is that David Corenswet will be playing two versions of Kal-El.
A character who has been reinvented over the years, the most recent version of the Eradicator went head-to-head with Kal-El over his choice to father a human/Kryptonian hybrid, Jonathan Kent. They won’t work in Gunn’s Superman since Corenswet’s Kal is still in the early days of his heroic journey; however, the original idea of the Eradicator–as devised by Roger Stern and Curt Swan–as a creation intent on preserving Kryptonian culture by ERADICATING all non-Kryptonian cultures could work.
Red Son
In 2003, Mark Millar‘s Superman: Red Son brilliantly explored a “what if” scenario that revolves around baby Kal-El being found and raised by Russians rather than in Smallville. In Red Son, Lex Luthor uses some of Soviet Superman’s DNA to create “Superman Two”, an abomination of a clone who becomes weaponized by the U.S. government. Gunn could pull a switcheroo in Superman, having the Russians creating Супермен 2 to take on the original version. Gunn would certainly take some heat for coming so close to the plot of Superman IV but it would likely only come from people who never saw that movie anyway.
Ultraman
Outside of the Nazi version of Overman, Ultraman is the most despicable version of Kal-El in the Multiverse. The Kal-El of Earth-Three, Ultraman is truly the embodiment of everything Superman should never be. Selfish rather than selfless; heartless rather than compassionate; simply evil rather than purely good. Ultraman leads the Crime Syndicate, an evil version of the Justice League and is actually strengthened by exposure to kryptonite. Given what Gunn has said about his ideas for Superman in the film, Ultraman could be the best choice on this list for the film’s antagonist.
