Just a year after the first X-Men film was released, Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman slipped into the famous red undies as Superman for just 3 minutes on Saturday Night Live in 2001. And somehow, this surreal, awkward comedy sketch still manages to be one of the strangest and most fascinating moments in superhero TV history ever.
In the SNL bit, Jackman’s Superman enters the Fortress of Solitude and fires up a hologram to chat with his biological parents. Enter Will Ferrell as Jor-El and Maya Rudolph as Lara, giving us a Kryptonian family reunion that feels less like Man of Steel and more like a Zoom call with your emotionally distant folks. Superman’s looking for answers. What he gets is classic SNL-style awkward silences and concerned stares.
Will Ferrell’s deadpan delivery nails the tone: “Your planet exploded. Get over it.” Maya Rudolph reacts with concern when Superman casually mentions his best friend is a teenage Jimmy Olsen. “Wait. How old are you again?” she asks, clearly trying to do the math. The entire scene turns Superman’s origin story into a sitcom. It’s ridiculous. It’s brilliant.
And Hugh Jackman does an okayish job as Superman. The suit fits (sort of), but he delivers lines like a guy who’s not quite sure if he’s Superman or just a guy who borrowed a Halloween costume. Of course, this wasn’t an audition tape for a serious Superman role. It was just Jackman having fun.
24 years later, the superhero multiverse has only made Jackman’s 3-minute Superman cameo more bizarre. In 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, Hugh Jackman returned as Logan, slicing and wisecracking his way through different realities alongside Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds). But the movie also included a surprise: Superman actor Henry Cavill briefly appeared as a variant Wolverine.
So, yes, Jackman played Superman while he was becoming Wolverine, and Cavill played Wolverine after retiring as Superman.
The multiverse gives us weird stuff. Sometimes it gives us fan-casting fever dreams that become reality. Other times, it just reminds us that Hugh Jackman once played a Superman who awkwardly talked to Will Ferrell in a hologram chamber and called it Krypton. And honestly? We’re glad it exists.
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