Why Are There Two Very Different Cuts of ‘Superman II’?

The Big Picture

• The Richard Donner Cut of Superman II
  showcases Donner’s original vision for the film.
• Richard Donner was fired from
  Superman II
  after completing most of the second movie due to disagreements with the producers.
• The Donner Cut of Superman II
  is considered to be a better film than the theatrical version, with an improved love story and restored scenes featuring Marlon Brando as Jor-El.

There has never been a Superman quite like Christopher Reeve. The man who made us believe a man could fly has lived on as a legend since he first showed up on the screen in 1978, and ever since we’ve been trying to recapture that magic. In 2025, that’s exactly what James Gunn hopes to do with his upcoming reboot, simply titled Superman, which will star David Corenswet in the leading role. But one film, released only a few years after Christopher Reeve’s death, managed to succeed in recapturing that Man of Steel magic the old-fashioned way, with never-before-seen moments that only make us wish we’d gotten more.

That’s right, we’re talking about Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, the 2006 reimagining of the original Superman II that brought Richard Donner back to the director’s chair. But why are there two different cuts of the same Christopher Reeve-led Superman picture? Well, to understand that, we must travel back to the production of the first Superman movie, which was a bit messier than you might think.

Richard Donner Allegedly Went Over Budget for ‘Superman II’

When producer Illya Salkind and his father Alexander Salkind began to develop Superman as a major motion picture, they hired The Godfather screenwriter Mario Puzo to pen what would eventually become two separate films. As a result, director Richard Donner was allowed to shoot both Superman: The Movie and Superman II simultaneously as a single production, more of a “Part 1” and a “Part 2” than traditional sequels. This wasn’t standard practice in Hollywood then, but was part of what made the Superman franchise so distinct during the New Hollywood era. The idea that not one but two Superman movies were to be made was exciting for longtime fans who were excited to see the Man of Steel take flight on the big screen. But the Salkinds and Donner didn’t exactly get along, and that led to some other production difficulties that drastically impacted Superman‘s future.

Eventually, Donner was fired from continuing into Superman II after already completing the first picture and nearly two-thirds of the second. The Salkinds wanted to be sure to make their 1978 release date for Superman, and they weren’t taking any more chances. “I was floored. There was so much in [Superman II] that I wanted to go back and do,” Donner told Sound & Vision years later, emphasizing that he believed the Salkinds thought they didn’t need him after Superman: The Movie proved a financial success. According to The New York Times, the Salkinds claimed that Donner went massively over budget (and was reportedly behind schedule), though Donner explained that was impossible because no one had given him a budget in the first place. “Donner brought some great things to the film, he really did, but there were too many disagreements. Things just weren’t working,” Ilya Salkind told MovieHole years later.

As a result, the producers brought in Richard Lester (who they had previously worked with on two Three Musketeers movies) to finish what would become SupermanII, which meant that much of Donner’s footage and story was simply thrown out. Even much of the script was re-written, something that star Christopher Reeve was reportedly nervous about going into production. After Superman was released, the Salkinds ran into a host of other problems. Marlon Brando, Puzo, and Donner all sued the producers for “[depriving] them of their share of the revenues,” and that wasn’t the Salkinds’ (or Warner Bros.) only behind-the-scenes issues with Superman at the time. But Superman II eventually went back into production, this time with Lester at the helm, and was released in the United States in June 1981 after an initial international release the year prior, grossing nearly $200 million at the box office. Lester returned for the 1983 sequel, Superman III, though left the series before 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. After that, the Christopher Reeve Superman movies, which flew initially with so much promise, was grounded. But not forever…

Richard Donner Didn’t Want to Revisit ‘Superman’

Superman: The Movie opens up on Krypton, with Superman’s father Jor-El (Brando) banishing General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his lackeys to the Phantom Zone. While it does well to establish the alien nature of the crystalline world (reminding us that Superman is indeed an extraterrestrial), we had to wait until the sequel for this moment to pay off. And even then, what we see from Richard Lester’s Superman II is different from what Richard Donner envisioned. Even though the vast majority of Donner’s Superman II had been shot, Lester went ahead and added his own material to the picture. Changes included a new opening in Paris, a memory-erasing super-kiss ending, absolutely no Marlon Brando (in hopes of avoiding more lawsuits), and some other strange additions in the middle (such as Superman tossing a plastic “S”). Lester had cut a Superman II for his own liking, though he couldn’t fully escape Donner’s shadow.

While much of Donner’s footage was re-shot, some of it remained in the theatrical release of Superman II, including the iconic scene at the diner when Reeve’s Clark Kent fights a bully to defend Lois Lane’s (Margot Kidder) honor. “There was an interview, and the director who finished the picture [Lester] talked about how important that scene was to him as a filmmaker, and – believe it or not – I’m in that scene,” Donner revealed to IGN decades later, noting that Lester often took the credit for his work. Of course, Donner’s correct here, as he can be seen via a cameo in the very scene that appears in the theatrical cut of the film, proving that this was one of his moments that Lester claimed undeserved credit for. But when pressed on whether he would ever consider returning to Superman II and recutting the picture to fit his original vision, Donner seemed pretty uninterested.

“The studio wanted me to go back in and recut the film and add anything I wanted to add or do anything I wanted to do,” Donner explained. “Quite honestly, I was done with it.” Instead, Donner made Inside Moves and focused his energy on other projects. For years, Donner put Superman behind him, and eventually, the film series he helped launch was gone entirely. Superman instead returned to TV for shows like Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Superman: The Animated Series, and later Smallville, which would bring Christopher Reeve and other Superman alumni back to the franchise. It wasn’t until 2006 that another live-action Superman movie would be made, and, amazingly enough, fans didn’t get just one Superman movie that year, but two.

Fans Helped Make a Richard Donner Cut Possible

In the late ’90s, Superman fan sites began to appear all over the internet. The Superman Homepage was started in 1994 and continues to this day as a massive resource for fans of the Man of Steel, as have others like it. According to The Guardian, it’s websites like these that helped launch the creation of what would become Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, including a British site that began a letter-writing campaign to push Warner Bros. into pursuing Donner’s original vision and bringing it back to life on the screen. “I didn’t know if the footage had been destroyed or if it was rotting away in a vault,” Superman Cinema UK owner Dharmesh Chauhan explained. “We began writing letters [to Warner Bros.], and infiltrated newsgroups and message boards to get people to recognise the importance of film preservation. This process took years.” Other sites, such as TheForbidden-Zone, created their own campaigns nearing Superman II‘s 25th anniversary, and the rest is history.

When editor Michael Thau, who had been working with Richard Donner since the early 1980s and had previously re-cut the 2001 Special Edition release of Superman (which wouldn’t be the film’s last re-release), discovered that Donner’s original Superman II footage had been preserved, he wasted no time cataloging them for future use. “Six tons of Superman I came over in 2000. Then six tons of Superman II [came in 2005]. I mean, a ton is not physically really all that much – six palettes,” Thau told Superman Homepage. “It’s a lot of footage.” From there, Thau and his team combed through all of Donner’s unused work. Noting the fan-led movements, Warner Bros. was supportive of the endeavor, and, after dealing with some legal issues, allowed Thau to spearhead the project of re-imagining Superman II, which is considered by many to be the best Superman movie. Naturally, he called Donner immediately.

“Reconstructing this film is not only rare, but it’s probably unique in film history,” Thau noted in the Restoring the Vision documentary featurette. “[It’s] the best job I could ever have in my life.” Eventually, after cataloging all the footage, Thau sat down to bring Donner’s vision back to life. “There was a lot more Superman II that [Donner] had shot than anyone knew,” Thau noted (via Superman Homepage). Though Donner was initially happy to let Thau do his work and revisit Superman II as an audience member, he eventually joined in the process. “When we did find the footage…Dick [Donner] came over and saw all the scenes,” Thau explained in the documentary, noting that it was hard for the director to work with some of the Lester-shot scenes that were necessary to make the film work. “I’ve given my input as best I can, but I can’t do it anymore,” Donner noted, proud of the work Thau had done. “It’s tough to look at.”

‘Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut’ Is a Better Movie

Not unlike recent superhero controversies involving the 2021 director’s cut of Justice League and its inferior 2017 version (neither of which Donner would probably like too much), both versions of Superman II are essentially the same film, though they feel fundamentally different. Lester’s Superman II was uneven and campy, while Donner’s feels more complete and in step with the original feature. Additionally, scenes from the first film (notably the opening) are revisited from different angles, which strengthens the film’s connection to the original 1978 picture. Another positive change in The Donner Cut is that Marlon Brando’s Jor-El is back in the movie. With the cooperation of Brando’s family, Jor-El is an important figure here just as he was before, replacing Susannah York‘s Lara from Lester’s version.

The love story between Superman and Lois Lane has massively improved this time around, and instead of a silly magic kiss to wipe our heroine’s memory of his secret identity, The Donner Cut echoes the original film’s ending by turning back time. Though, according to Donner, that was actually how Superman II was always supposed to end, at least until they decided to use it in Superman: The Movie. “When [creative consultant] Tom Mankiewicz and I were finishing Superman, we were unhappy with our ending, so we stole the ending of II,” Donner revealed in 2007. “It’s now back on II, but, if we had done the second movie, we would have come up with a whole new ending for it.” While it might feel a little lazy to use the same Superman: The Movie ending for The Donner Cut, it’s infinitely less campy than many of the choices Lester made for the theatrical.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut wasn’t released in theaters, but it landed on home video on November 28, 2006, dedicated to the memory of Christopher Reeve, who passed away a few years prior. The Donner Cut was made and released in conjunction with Bryan Singer‘s Superman Returns, which itself was a sort of continuation of Donner’s (and Reeve’s) legacy, albeit with Brandon Routh in the titular role. While The Donner Cut isn’t perfect, it’s much closer to the original vision for a SupermanPart 2 than Lester’s 1980 sequel and gives us one last look at a bygone era of superhero filmmaking.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut is available to rent on Prime Video.

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