10 Movie Roles Where The Actor Basically Did NOTHING

As much as the Man of Steel is of course the primary attraction of any Superman movie, what would any of them be without Lois Lane?

In the first two Christopher Reeve-starring films, the part was played with wonderfully sardonic aplomb by the great Margot Kidder, and the popularity of her performance as Lois - and chemistry with Reeve, no less - seemingly guaranteed she'd be back for number three, right?

Well, Margot Kidder did return for Superman III, albeit in such a reduced capacity that she may as well have been left out altogether.

Lois appears in bookending scenes at the start and end of the film, though spends the bulk of the story on vacation in Bermuda, all while Clark (Reeve) gets a temporary new love interest by way of Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole).

According to Kidder herself, her role was reduced due to her publicly speaking out about the series' producers, the Salkinds, and their treatment of original franchise director Richard Donner during filming of Superman II, where he was famously replaced with Richard Lester mid-shoot.

On Superman III's DVD commentary, however, Ilya Salkind insists that Kidder's role was pared-down simply because Clark and Lois' relationship had ended in the previous film - or rather, Clark had used his abilities to erase Lois' memories of it.

Either way, a fan favourite character (and performer) was conspicuously absent in the film, and it went over about as well as you'd expect.