Serving as the template for the superhero genre since the late 1930s, Superman is not only one of the most powerful characters in comics; he’s also come to dominate virtually every form of media there is, most notably films and TV shows. Including the latest film, Superman (2025), ten actors over nearly ten decades have donned the red and blue spandex so far.
Most of these men have not only had the chance at a reprisal, but also served as returning ‘legacy’ actors in future iterations. Some have even done so beyond the grave, so to speak, thanks to the spooky wonders of CGI. Here’s every live-action Superman actor in order of when they played him – and other characters in the Superman universe – from first to most recent.
Kirk Alyn
Though he’s often forgotten in favour of the next actor on the list, Kirk Alyn has the honour of being the very first live-action Superman. He’s not the first person to bring the character to life – that credit goes to Bud Collyer in the radio series The Adventures of Superman, which aired an astonishing 2,000+ episodes between 1940 and 1951. Collyer also lent his voice to 17 animated Superman shorts.
Following the success of those projects, Alyn put a monochrome face and body to the voice for two successful theatrical serials: Superman in 1948 and Atom Man vs. Superman in 1950. Alyn went on to play another DC Comics character, Blackhawk, in another serial, but you're more likely to recognise him as Sam Lane, Lois Lane’s dad, in Superman (1978).
George Reeves
George Reeves is more commonly associated with Superman’s earliest years on celluloid – and for unfortunately tragic reasons. Reeves replaced Alyn for the first feature-length Superman film, Superman and the Mole Men, in 1951, which had a considerably smaller budget than the Alyn serials, only serving to generate interest in a follow-up TV show.
As explored in 2006’s Hollywoodland, in which Ben Affleck plays Reeves, the actor's tenure as Supes is overshadowed by his death during a 1959 party at his home from a gunshot wound. His declining mental health contributed to it being ruled a suicide, but Hollywood was abuzz with rumours he was murdered for personal or professional revenge. He finally got his due as one of a handful of Supermen to pop up in the multiverse-colliding movie, The Flash (2023).
Christopher Reeve
Destiny, it seems, dictated that Reeve followed Reeves, and sadly, that’s not the only thing they have in common. Christopher Reeve was the first Technicolour cinematic Supes, and the first two of the four films he played the superhero in are widely considered among the greatest the genre has to offer.
Like many actors who achieve breakout success in blockbusters, Reeve had a successful post-Superman career in indie films and on stage, and became doubly famous for his environmental and disability activism. The latter was partly spurred by a horse riding accident in 1995, leaving him almost completely paralysed and stoking the ‘Superman curse,’ compounded by his predecessor. This didn’t stop him from one final, and touching, Superman appearance in the teen-oriented ‘00s show, Smallville.
Dean Cain
A controversial figure nowadays, Dean Cain brought Clark Kent and his more famous alter ego back to TV in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Alongside Teri Hatcher as his titular love interest and colleague, the series is part-workplace sitcom, part-rom-com, but still peppered with fantastical feats of heroism and wacky sci-fi plots as Clark tries to balance his dual identities.
Its cross-genre appeal to adults kept it on the air for five years from 1993, a legacy that got Cain invited back for cameos across the expanding DC TV-verse in the 2010s: he played a Vandal Savage knock-off in Smallville and, more significantly, Kara Danvers’ (Supergirl) adoptive dad in the Supergirl ‘Arrowverse’ show alongside former one-time cinematic Supergirl, Helen Slater.
Tom Welling
If Cain thought he’d been stuffing himself in spandex for a long time, he had nothing on the next TV Supes, Tom Welling. The aforementioned Smallville, in which Welling plays a young pre-Superman Clark Kent, had an even longer shelf life than Lois & Clark – ten seasons over ten years from 2001.
Made by YA-baiting network The CW, the series also features younger versions of the hero’s love interests – Lois Lane and Lana Lang – and adversaries – Lex Luthor, Doomsday, Zod, and more. Welling was approached for 2006’s Superman Returns, but ended up not returning to the role until an ‘Arrowverse’ crossover event in 2019. Revealing his retired life with ‘his’ Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and their daughters, it’s a satisfyingly sweet coda to his Superman story.
Brandon Routh
Brandon Routh had a criminally (in my opinion) short run as the Kryptonian. After failing to bag the part in Smallville, his single theatrical stint is the previously discussed Superman Returns, a love letter from director Bryan Singer to Richard Donner’s ‘70s Superman films. As such, Returns takes place after Superman II, with Clark picking up the pieces of a stalled life on Earth after an extended trip into space.
The film’s focus on kitchen sink melodrama between him, Lois and her new beau didn’t have the staying power of Lois & Clark, though Routh returned to the part in the same ‘Arrowverse’ crossover as Welling. It was also great to see him play another DC hero, The Atom, in the TV multiverse.
Henry Cavill
In 2013, Routh was replaced by Henry Cavill for Man of Steel (who previously auditioned for Returns), kickstarting the former DC Extended Universe. Directed by Zack Snyder, it represents a darker, grittier shift for the traditionally bright, bold Superman film franchise, inspired by Christopher Nolan’s successful reboot of the Batman film series.
To date, Cavill is the most prolific cinematic Superman, appearing in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017) and its fan-demanded, black-and-white director’s cut in 2021. He has flyby appearances in Shazam! (2019), Black Adam (2022), Peacemaker’s Season 1 finale and The Flash film; however, the last two aren’t technically him – a body double and CGI representation, respectively.
Tyler Hoechlin
Tyler Hoechlin’s iteration of the character had his work cut out for him, scooting around the ‘Arrowverse’’s myriad shows–Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow–from his home on Earth-38. Eventually, he settled down with his own series, Superman & Lois, once again playing on the tried and tested TV formula of making his love life a central pillar.
Superman & Lois goes one domestic step further with the inclusion of the couple’s ‘Super Sons,’ Jonathan and Jordan, and returning the family to Smallville, blending the wackiness of the comics’ Silver Age with more modern groundedness. It ran for four seasons from 2021 to 2024; look out for Hoechlin’s inevitable cameo in another universe.
Nicolas Cage
Speaking of cameos in other universes, Nicholas Cage’s Superman involvement begins as the stuff of movie-making legend and ends (so far) with a legendary Easter egg. Cage was slated to play him in Superman Lives, Tim Burton’s would-be attempt in the ‘90s to build on his DC Universe, begun with two Batman films. While the project went unmade, test footage of a wigged and costumed Cage lit fans’ imaginations of what could have been for years after.
Burton’s vision finally came to brief fruition as part of 2023’s The Flash’s alt-Supermen cameo brigade, albeit in an end result the actor (rightfully) hated. But the hyper-meta animated film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies actually beat the movie to the punchline before this in 2018 with a Superman voice role for the cult actor.
David Corenswet
The newest actor to take on the world’s most wholesome hero is David Corenswet. With few significant parts under his belt before his casting, Corenswet continues the tradition of Warner Bros. preferring relative ‘unknowns’ playing Supes, likely so that audiences see only the square-jawed and jerry curled icon they’ve come to know and love over almost 90 years, and not past performances.
Though not the first brick, Corenswet’s shiny, zippy Superman movie is a crucial foundation on which director James Gunn’s new DC Universe will be built. Based on his convincingly adorkable performance, I hope we'll be seeing the actor bounding over tall buildings and running faster than a speeding bullet for many more years to come.
Where to Watch More ‘Superman’ Movies and Shows Online
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