In the mid-2000s, Will Smith was offered the role in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns. So why did he pass on donning the cape and flying high? Turns out, it wasn’t the whole “saving the world” thing that turned him off—it was all about messing with white heroes. “There is no way I’m playing Superman!” Smith recalls of his reaction when the script landed in his lap.
The reasoning: It all came down to his past experience with Wild Wild West. In the film, Smith played Jim West, a wild-west gunslinger with a twist. But that role didn’t exactly sit well with some, and the backlash was real. Smith, in his classic blunt fashion, summed it up: “You mess up white people’s heroes in Hollywood, and you’ll never work in this town again!” After almost having his career derailed, Smith wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake. Playing Superman—one of the most iconic white heroes—wasn’t something he wanted to risk.
So, what did he do instead? Hancock. The man took on a role that was so anti-hero, it practically had its own moral compass. “Hancock is dark but he’s fun,” Smith explained to MTV. “You can get away with all kinds of things if it’s funny.” And funny it was. The 2008 superhero flick, where Smith played a flawed, cynical, and totally unpredictable superhero, gave him a freedom that traditional superhero roles didn’t offer. No cape, no expectations to be perfect. Just pure Smith being, well, Smith. The whole vibe was a perfect fit for his style.
Now, let’s talk numbers. While Superman Returns raked in $391 million worldwide, Hancock blasted past it with $624 million. Two years apart, both films gave us superheroes—but one was playing by the rules, and the other? Not so much. It seems Smith made the right call, both creatively and financially.
Still, imagine for a moment—what if? What if Will Smith had taken up the mantle of Superman? Digital artists have played with the idea, imagining how Smith would’ve looked in the iconic Superman suit, and honestly? It would’ve been epic. But it’s a movie we’ll never get to see.
In the end, Smith didn’t just reject Superman because of the cape. He rejected it because it wasn’t him. Superman Returns needed a traditional hero, but Smith wasn’t interested in that. He wanted to break the mold. And with Hancock, he did just that—proving that sometimes, the anti-hero path is the one that leads to even bigger things.
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