12 Ridiculous Castings That Almost Ruined DC Comic Book Movies
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger - Superman
The Role: Superman
Who Was Cast Instead: Christopher Reeve
What Happened?
Before he broke through with Conan (but after he was in the excellent Pumping Iron), Arnie was among the fore-runners under consideration to play Superman before Richard Donner came on board. He was on a shortlist also including Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Newman and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Apparently Arnold had more interest in the role than the studio did in him, and when Donner was hired he wasn't even close to being cast.
The Results
For Conan, Arnold's English was a problem: he had to go through two intensive bouts of speech therapy and rehearsed longer lines at least 40 times each. And still he delivered them all with a thick Austrian accent that simply wouldn't have worked for Superman.
Though he's an alien, Supes is an American superhero, and that simply wouldn't have vibed well. Plus, how the hell would they have kept him secret as Clark Kent? He was huge, thickly accented and hardly a shrinking violet.