Superman Timeline: The Movies in Story Order

The Christopher Reeve era of the Superman timeline is four films, Superman (1978), Superman II, Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, released between December 1978 and July 1987. Superman (1978), directed by Richard Donner, reached US theaters on December 15, 1978, according to Box Office Mojo. It runs 144 minutes, cost $55 million and took more than $300 million worldwide. The story starts on Krypton, where the scientist Jor-El (Marlon Brando) warns a council that the planet is doomed and sends his infant son Kal-El to Earth. Jonathan and Martha Kent find the baby near Smallville, Kansas, and raise him as Clark. John Williams wrote the score.

Superman II followed with Richard Lester directing, and it had an unusual release pattern: Australia saw it on December 4, 1980 and the UK on April 9, 1981, ahead of the reported US date of June 19, 1981. Its setup brings General Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Non (Jack O'Halloran) out of the Phantom Zone while Lois Lane and Clark Kent are on assignment at Niagara Falls. Its budget was $54 million, and Ken Thorne composed the score.

Superman III (June 17, 1983), also directed by Lester, shifts toward comedy with Richard Pryor as the gifted programmer Gus Gorman, Robert Vaughn as the tycoon Ross Webster and Annette O'Toole as Lana Lang. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (July 24, 1987), directed by Sidney J. Furie, is the shortest and cheapest of the four at 90 minutes and a $17 million budget. Its setup has Superman addressing the United Nations about nuclear weapons while Lenny Luthor frees his uncle Lex from prison. Gene Hackman returns as Lex Luthor in the first, second and fourth films, and Jackie Cooper plays Perry White across all four.

Superman Returns is the fifth Superman film in release order (June 28, 2006), and its story picks up after Superman has been away from Earth for five years. Directed by Bryan Singer, it stars Brandon Routh as Clark Kent and Superman, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Box Office Mojo lists a $270 million budget and about $391 million worldwide, while The Numbers gives a lower budget of $232 million, so the two trackers disagree on cost.

The five year gap is the film's own clock. Superman had traveled to the place astronomers believed held the remains of Krypton. On his return he goes to his adoptive mother's farm, where Martha Kent is played by Eva Marie Saint, and then back to the Daily Planet. He finds that Lois has a young son, Jason, a fiance in Richard White (James Marsden) and a Pulitzer Prize for an article titled "Why the World Does Not Need Superman." Marlon Brando appears as Jor-El in archive footage, which is the most direct link to the Reeve films on screen.

No film or studio statement names which earlier Superman films Superman Returns follows, so it is best watched as a standalone return story. If you are new to the series, you can watch it without Superman III or Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.

The Henry Cavill films run three titles deep, and all three were directed by Zack Snyder: Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. Man of Steel (2013) arrived on June 14, 2013. It runs 143 minutes, cost $225 million and earned about $670 million worldwide. Cavill plays Clark Kent and Kal-El, with Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent. Hans Zimmer composed the score, and the film was shot in Illinois, where Plano stood in for Smallville and the Willis Tower for the Daily Planet.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 25, 2016) is an appearance rather than a main Superman film, and it is set eighteen months after the Zod battle wrecked Metropolis. Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) has been Batman in Gotham for about twenty years and sees Superman as a danger. It cost $250 million and took about $874 million worldwide, the largest gross in this timeline. Superman dies at the end of the film.

Justice League (November 17, 2017) is the third and last Henry Cavill film in the timeline. It opens with a world uneasy without Superman, and Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince recruit Barry Allen, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone to face Steppenwolf, who is hunting three Mother Boxes. Superman is brought back in the course of the story, and a post credit scene shows Lex Luthor escaping Arkham Asylum and recruiting Slade Wilson (Deathstroke). The Numbers lists a $300 million budget, and Box Office Mojo shows a worldwide gross of about $661 million.

The current stretch of the timeline begins with Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn, and continues with Supergirl in 2026. Superman (2025) reached US theaters on July 11, 2025, and carried the working title Superman: Legacy before release, according to Variety Australia. David Corenswet plays Superman, Rachel Brosnahan is Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult is Lex Luthor. The film runs 130 minutes, cost $225 million and grossed about $619 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo. Its setup has Superman halting the country of Boravia's invasion of its neighbor Jarhanpur, then taking his first beating from a metahuman nicknamed the Hammer of Boravia and retreating to the Fortress of Solitude with his dog Krypto. John Murphy composed the score.

Supergirl, directed by Craig Gillespie, followed on June 26, 2026 in the US and UK (June 25 in Australia). It is classed as a spin-off, with Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, who is 23 and partying her way across space when the young Ruthye asks her for help against the outlaw Krem. Matthias Schoenaerts plays Krem and Jason Momoa plays the bounty hunter Lobo, and Corenswet also appears as Superman in the cast. Supergirl cost $170 million and has earned about $126 million worldwide, according to The Numbers and Box Office Mojo. DC Studios announced the date in May 2024, and the film shot at Leavesden in the UK.

Man of Tomorrow is the next entry on the Superman timeline, set for US theaters on July 9, 2027, and its status is post production. James Gunn announced the title and date on September 3, 2025, and some trades call the film Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Filming ran from April 20 to August 26, 2026, and Warner Bros. is the studio releasing it. No UK or Australian release date has been reported.

The full cast, plot and release coverage sit on the Man of Tomorrow page, and the Man of Tomorrow trailer page will carry any official footage. Once the film is released it takes its place at the end of this timeline.

The Superman timeline is best read as four actor eras: Christopher Reeve (1978 to 1987), Brandon Routh (2006), Henry Cavill (2013 to 2017) and David Corenswet (2025 onward). In my opinion that is also the most honest way to read it. The release order gives each film one place, with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League slotted after Man of Steel (2013). That order is useful for watching, but it does not prove one continuous universe.

Superman Returns shows why. It is a return story with its own five year gap, and no film or studio statement ties it to a specific earlier film. In my opinion it plays best as a tribute to Superman (1978), helped by Marlon Brando appearing as Jor-El in archive footage, rather than as a strict sequel to the Reeve films.

The questions people ask most have short answers. No studio statement explains why Henry Cavill left the role, and his run closes with Justice League, where Superman is brought back from the death in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Superman has been on film for nearly 48 years, and Superman (1978) and Superman (2025) are nearly 47 years apart. No film gives Batman or Superman an age, although Bruce Wayne has been Batman for about twenty years in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The cleanest link in the newest era is the one between Superman (2025) and Supergirl. At the end of Superman (2025), Kara Zor-El arrives at the Fortress drunk to collect Krypto. Supergirl then ends with Kara returning to Earth with Krypto and reuniting with Superman at their Metropolis apartment, and she tells him she wants to stay. In my view that through line, together with Corenswet's cast credit in Supergirl, is the clearest sign that Gunn's films share a world.

My pick for new viewers is to start at Superman (2025), because every thread leading to Man of Tomorrow runs through it. For a full viewing plan, use our Superman movies in order guide.