In 2026, Matt Bomer described — in more detail than ever before — exactly how close he came to wearing the cape. At the Miami Film Festival earlier this year, he sat down with the Happy Sad Confused podcast and walked through the full sequence: the cattle call, the callback, the screen test, the suit, and then the contract. “I went back in and screen-tested in the suit and signed the contract,” he said. “All that stuff that you do where it’s like: okay, this is the next step.” The next step never came.
Superman Returns turns twenty in 2026. Here’s the film that should have come first.
What Was Superman: Flyby — And Why Did Matt Bomer Almost Star In It?
Every actor who has ever played Superman on the big screen has a special place in fans’ hearts. Even the ones that didn’t quite make it to cinemas, like Nicolas Cage, have become a part of the Man of Steel’s long-standing mythos. That said, some actors never truly got their chance to shine as the iconic comic book character – even after they were cast in the legendary role. One such example is Matt Bomer – who was cast as Superman in 2003.
White Collar’s Matt Bomer confirmed he was set to play the Last Son of Krypton in a cancelled 2003 Superman trilogy. The project – tentatively titled Superman: Flyby – would be a new origin story to reintroduce the character to a new generation of fans.
This would have been DC’s answer to the highly successful Spider-Man and X-Men franchises, especially since DC didn’t have their iconic Dark Knight in cinemas to compete against Marvel’s domination. Flyby made perfect sense, and Bomer certainly fit the profile of someone who should play the Man of Steel. So, what happened?
Why Warner Bros. Really Dropped Matt Bomer as Superman
According to Bomer, it was his sexual orientation that cost him the privilege of playing Superman. The actor says he was well on his way to starring in Flyby, as he even “Signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros.” The rumoured trilogy would have a script written by J.J. Abrams, signalling a new beginning for the Man of Steel on the silver screen.
In the end, Flyby fell through the cracks and was eventually replaced by Superman Returns starring Brandon Routh. Whether or not Bomer’s cast was truly scrapped due to his sexuality remains unconfirmed, it’s worth noting that 2003’s top-grossing film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, starred the openly gay actor Ian McKellen (who also played Magneto at the time) as Gandalf.
Bomer has been deliberate about not being defined by this chapter. In April 2025, when an outlet framed the story in a way he felt misrepresented him, he posted a since-deleted response on X: “Stop painting me into a victim narrative for your own clickbait. I love my career and wouldn’t change a thing about it.” It’s his story to tell on his own terms. That doesn’t make what happened any less wrong.
The Superman: Flyby Cast That Never Made It to Screen
Though Flyby never came to be, the casting call for the project was nothing short of amazing. Besides Matt Bomer, Jude Law was also considered for the role. However, unlike Bomer, Law had already decided he wasn’t the kind of actor who should play the Man of Steel.
“It just felt off […] It just felt like a step too far,” Law told The Playlist’s Discourse podcast. Eventually, Law would rekindle his love with comic book movies, appearing as the villain in the MCU’s Captain Marvel.
As for Superman: Flyby, we can only guess what might have been if it was picked by WB instead of Superman Returns. The entire early script is available online – and let’s just say it takes some creative liberties with the Superman mythos. While what happened to Bomer was downright shameful, missing out on Flyby was probably the best that could happen to his career.
The Japanese Toyota Ad That Proves Matt Bomer Was Born to Play Superman
That said, Bomer did become Superman – even if most people didn’t get to see him donning the iconic red and blue tights. That is unless you were a Japanese person looking to buy a fuel-efficient Toyota vehicle in the late 2000s. It sounds awfully specific, I know, but there’s a reason for that.
When you think of the “Man of Steel,” I bet the last car you’d think of is a Prius. After all, the Kryptonian’s imposing physique would probably be better represented by an F-150 or some other type of all-American offroader, but Japan sees things differently. For them, Superman was all about hybrid vehicles.
For the release of their 2009 Prius, Toyota went back to the Man of Steel classics with an ad that evoked that legendary Richard Donner flair. Even though Brandon Routh (or perhaps Smallville’s Tom Welling) was the live-action face of the Kryptonian at the time, Toyota went with Matt Bomer for the part. And he knocked it out of the park.
In the ad, Bomer plays both Clark Kent and Superman, as he tries to get the scoop on the new Prius. The entire commercial is a blast of nostalgia for classic Superman fans, as it clearly evokes the look and feel of the first live-action Superman films of the 70s and 80s.
Matt Bomer’s Superman Legacy: Doom Patrol, DC Animation, and What Comes Next
Bomer plays the Man of Steel with an approachability that’s equal parts reassuring and heroic. Sure, he played just briefly, but that ad alone proves Bomer would have reinvigorated the character for a new generation – perhaps even more than what Routh did in Superman Returns.
As one viewer points out, Bomer’s acting is “SO Christopher Reeve. He’d have been PERFECT.” Bomer adapts the mannerisms of Reeve to a T, including the meek humanity in his characterization of Clark Kent. It might have been just a commercial to sell Prii (that’s apparently the plural form of “Prius,” by the way,) but it’s a perfect showcase of what Superman: Flyby’s hero might have looked like.
According to Bomer, the producers at the time “Weaponized” his sexuality against him, denying the world of his take on the Man of Steel. Considering how perfect he looks in the role, it’s a shame that this commercial is everything we have to imagine what could have been. Minus the ninja Kryptonians, of course.
Though he didn’t become Superman, Matt Bomer would eventually return to DC’s fold. In 2018, the Doom Patrol live-action series finally found its Negative Man, with Bomer set to voice the radioactive (and completely bandaged) character.
As David Corenswet prepares to carry the cape again into James Gunn’s DCU — with Superman: Man of Tomorrow on the horizon — the Bomer story is worth revisiting not as a tragedy but as a reckoning. A studio made a shameful call. A Toyota ad is all we got. And somehow, in fewer than two minutes, it’s enough to know exactly what was stolen.
