Why The Man Of Steel Script Initially Left Kevin Costner Disappointed

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Despite the odd colossal, almost career-ending box office flop, Kevin Costner has had a remarkably consistent career. Even when he wasn't matching the high of winning Best Picture for his celebrated Western epic "Dances With Wolves," which he both directed and starred in, Costner was consistently working, cementing his status as one of Hollywood's most enduring movie stars. Despite a few missteps, Costner's best films, such as "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams," showcased his remarkable talent and established his reputation as a serious actor — a reputation that has withstood such blunders as 1997's "The Postman." 

This was part of the reason Zack Snyder cast Costner as Superman's dad in 2013's "Man of Steel." The actor played Kal-El's earthly father, Jonathan Kent, alongside Diane Lane as Martha Kent in the blockbuster Superman reboot. Snyder explained his decision to cast the pair to Gizmodo: 

"I think the thing you realize when you look at Diane and Kevin, in our decision to cast them so far, you sort of get a sense of how tonally we're looking at the movie, and what you realize is that those guys are serious actors, and we're taking this s**t f*****g seriously in terms of the tone of having those guys." 

While Costner ultimately did a solid job in what was a fairly slight role, it seems that when he first got the "Man of Steel" script he was more than a little disappointed to be taking things so seriously.

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These days, Kevin Costner is busy picking up the pieces after his "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1" bombed at the box office. While "Horizon" did find success on VOD, considering Costner had been trying to realize this passion project since the '80s, he was surely hoping for a little more. Still, a star of Costner's caliber will surely find a way to rebound, even if he was unceremoniously written out of his other major project, "Yellowstone," after departing the series on contentious terms.

But before all of this tumult hit his career, it seems Costner harbored a desire to follow in the footsteps of so many other established Hollywood stars in the age of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC Extended Universe by playing some sort of superhero. Unfortunately, when he signed on to "Man of Steel" it was for a fully non-superheroic role as Jonathan Kent, the adoptive father of Henry Cavill's Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman.

Speaking to CinemaBlend, the actor said, "It's just my luck to be in a superhero movie and be the only person that's normal," adding, "I was like, 'Really? I can't fly? And I can't put my fist through the wall? Maybe I should have read this thing closer. I'm a farmer?' So I looked at that and I said, 'Ok, I can be that.'" While a good old middle-American farmer type seems right up Costner's alley, it seems the star was hoping to be a bigger part of the action than he was — though he ultimately did find something of substance in the role.

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Just as Zack Snyder had hoped, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane helped cement the emotional core of Superman's story in "Man of Steel." In a film that took a much more grounded approach to the titular hero, Costner switched on his down-to-earth working-class American aura and further grounded the otherwise fantastical story of Kal-El. But there was one moment where Jonathan Kent's commitment to teaching his adopted son to hide his super abilities almost threatened to undermine all of that.

Jonathan's decision to encourage Clark to hide his superpowers was well-intentioned, even if it did lead to one of the most contentious death scenes in the DCEU. Costner's character finds himself in the path of a tornado but stops Clark from saving him by holding his hand up and tacitly telling his son that it's somehow better to keep his abilities secret than save his old man. Depending on your sensibilities, that scene either hit like an emotional gut punch or as a patently ridiculous moment that squandered all the well-earned credibility "Man of Steel" had accrued up until that point.

For Costner, it seems it was the former that took precedence, as the actor told CinemaBlend, "I thought it was rooted in doubt. But there was no doubt that he puts his hand up and says, 'Stay there' to his son." Had Costner taken on the role of Jor-El — played by Russell Crowe "Man of Steel" — he would have gotten his super abilities but would have missed out on appearing in this death scene which obviously spoke to him in some way.