Brandon Routh Returns to Krypton in ‘Superman Returns’ Deleted Scene [Video]

While praise for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns is far from unanimous, what's generally agreed is that Brandon Routh was well cast as the last son of Krypton -- so much so that many were disappointed when he wasn't cast in director Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, even though it's a complete reboot of the Superman film franchise. While Routh will not be stepping into the red boots again, we do have a newly released deleted scene from Superman Returns to entertain us.

In the clip, which you can see after the cut, Routh as Kal-El travels back to the site of Planet Krypton, now a spectacularly destroyed chunk of rock in space, filthy with Kryptonite.The deleted scene is available as a bonus feature in Superman: The Motion Picture Anthology, a recently released collectors package of Blu-ray editions of all the Christopher Reeve Superman films as well as Superman Returns. According to CHUD, the scene cost $10 million to complete, only to be left on the cutting room floor. On its own, the scene is arguably one of the most Supermanish of the film, which was criticized for its lack of genre tropes. The scene was presumably cut for not having much bearing on the overall plot, but the Kryptonite continent at the film's end would have been an echo of the Kryptonite half-planet Superman discovers at the film's opening.

[Via Topless Robot]