12 TV & Film Supermans, Ranked
It’s bird! It’s a plane! It’s another tall, dark-haired, white, male actor playing Superman! David Corenswet is the latest actor to don the superhero’s cape on screen, and though he and his predecessors certainly have the stereotypical Superman look, their performances are not so similar. With Superman now in theaters, we’re ranking nearly a dozen on-screen portrayals of the Last Son of Krypton.
(And note that we’re focusing only on the depictions of Superman — not the actors’ real-life personalities or any political leanings that don’t strike us as “truth, justice, and the American way”!)
12. Nicolas Cage, The Flash
After Cage’s Superman Lives film project faltered in the 1990s, fans finally got to see the actor as Superman in a cameo in 2023’s The Flash, but only through unconvincing de-aging CGI that didn’t even depict the scene Cage thought he was shooting.
10. John Newton & Gerard Christopher, Superboy (tie)
Newton played young Clark Kent in the first season of this syndicated series, followed by Christopher for the next three. Neither performance was super — Newton’s was stiff, Christopher’s was hammy — but at least both were better than the show’s VFX!
9. Dean Cain, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
True to its title, Lois & Clark was best when it focused on the repartee between the two title Daily Planet employees. But Cain’s performance in Superman’s spandex leans a little too smarmy-surfer-dude for our sensibilities.
8. Brandon Routh, Superman Returns
Routh has comedy chops (see: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), but the mid-2000s attempt to revive Superman on the big screen didn’t serve his talents. Superman Returns gave the title character little personality and treated him like a handsome prop in his own story.
7. Kirk Alyn, Superman (1948) & Atom Man vs. Superman
Starring in the 1948 Superman film serial and its 1950 sequel — the superhero’s first live-action portrayals — Alyn gave an animated performance, even when he wasn’t literally animated. (A cartoon version of the superhero did the flying.)
6. Henry Cavill, DC Extended Universe
Starting with 2013’s Man of Steel, Cavill gave his to the DC Extended Universe, as his Superman is lionized, vilified, killed, and resurrected across an increasingly messy anthology beset by alternate cuts and CGI-enabled cameos. We wish we could have seen Cavill play the hero in a more cohesive story.
5. Tyler Hoechlin, Superman & Lois and Arrowverse TV shows
After Smallville, The CW returned to Clark Kent’s home life with Superman & Lois and, in a surprising twist for a teen-centric network, depicted older versions of the title characters. Here we have Clark and Lois as parents, and Hoechlin excelled in the part of superhero struggling with fatherhood.
4. George Reeves, Adventures of Superman
The first actor to play Superman on television, Reeves actually sold the illusion that Clark Kent and the Kryptonian hero were not one and the same. As Clark, Reeves was polite and unassuming. As Superman, he cut a strong-jawed hero figure.
3. Tom Welling, Smallville
Welling spent 10 seasons in his role as a young Clark Kent on this teen drama-turned-superhero adventure series, only donning the character’s tights in the series finale. The actor certainly had the looks — he was a model, after all — but had us hooked with his performance of a man not at ease with his super fate.
2. David Corenswet, Superman (2025)
Superman marks the Big Bang of a rebooted DC Universe, and its sole big-screen star so far is shining bright. Corenswet takes flight in a bright, bold new story that honors the Superman comic books, sheds the moral and cinematic grayness of the DCEU, and centers the character’s idealistic core.
1. Christopher Reeve, Superman (1978) and sequels
The superhero finally got a blockbuster around the time of his 40th anniversary, and for our money, Reeve’s performance is still the definitive depiction of the character, one that had us believing a man can fly. Reeve’s Superman is dashing, daring, and even witty — everything we’d want from the Man of Steel.
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