Every Live-Action Superman Ranked
5,685Every actor who's played Superman, ranked from worst to best.
5. Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns," 2006)
Routh had the deck stacked against him from the moment he put that "S" on his chest.
Playing the first Superman on the big screen since Christopher Reeve played the character in the 1980s, audiences suddenly had to adapt to a new actor in the role.
With a par-for-the-course movie, plus Routh's performance hardly giving audiences a "wow" factor, his Superman is pretty forgettable.
It also didn't help that Routh was one-and-done with the character.
4. Tyler Hoechlin ("Superman & Lois", 2021)
Hoechlin has the distinction of being the actor who's played Superman in more projects than anyone else on this list, so he certainly knows how to play the part.
On his latest show, "Superman & Lois," he's still doing a worthy job.
3. Tom Welling ("Smallville", 2000)
Playing a young Clark Kent for 10 seasons, Welling became a fixture for Superman fans and was perfect in portraying a young man trying to figure out who he really is.
2. Henry Cavill ("Man of Steel," 2013)
Love or hate the movies he was in, you can't argue that Cavill had the look and right performance to play the character convincingly in the world we live in today.
1. Christopher Reeve ("Superman," 1978)
From that smile to the bumbling way he played Clark, and, of course, how he flew, Reeve was born to play Superman.
It also helped that the first two movies in the franchise he was a part of are up there as the best superhero movies ever made.
In many ways, we're still looking for an actor who can fully embody the Superman character on screen the way Reeve did.
And, honestly, we might never find one.
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