The Correct Order To Watch Every Superman Movie

We all know who Superman is.

Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster in 1938, wasn't the first superhero character in modern media, but he tends to be held up as one of the genre's central archetypes. His red wrestler's cape and red strong man's trunks, paired with his super strength and ability to defy gravity, have all become central symbols of what a superhero is, how a superhero should behave, and what a superhero looks like. Hundreds of thousands of superheroes have been invented since 1938, but many of those produced by mainstream comics outlets like Marvel or DC owe Superman a direct debt. In the same way that every on-screen Dracula is a riff on Bela Lugosi's performance in Tod Browning's 1931 movie, Superman is either being enhanced or subverted by every comic book superhero character. But he is the mainstay.

Superman first made his way to the big screen a decade after his inception in a Columbia Pictures serial starring Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel. The character exploded in popularity in the early 1950s, with the release of "Superman and the Mole Men" and the TV series "The Adventures of Superman," both starring George Reeves (who notoriously hated the role). 

The character has undergone multiple cinematic iterations since then. Kal-El headlined a high-profile effects-based blockbuster in 1978, starred in a series of whimsical animated movies, and scowled his way through a notorious "grimdark" cinematic universe wherein he was beaten up in an old disused restroom. 

All told, there are 56 Superman movies, specials, and serials that directly involve Superman, and don't just feature him in a cameo. The ultimate Superman marathon is below, listing every single feature he has starred in, from live-action epics to silly LEGO movies. 

It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a listicle!

Here is a list of every Superman film, presented in order of their release. 

• Superman (1948) (serial)
• Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) (serial)
• Superman and the Mole Men (1951)
• Return of Mr. Superman (1960)
• Superman (1978)
• The Return of Superman (1979)
• Superman (1980)
• Superman II (1981)
• Superman III (1983)
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
• Superman (1987)
• Superman Returns (2006)
• Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)
• Superman: Brainiac Attacks (2006)
• Superman: Doomsday (2007)
• Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
• Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)
• Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam (2010)
• All-Star Superman (2011)
• Superman vs. The Elite (2012)
• Justice League: Doom (2012)
• Superman Unbound (2013)
• Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2013)
• Man of Steel (2013)
• LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)
• JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time (2014)
• Justice League: War (2014)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Batman Be-Leaguered (2014)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League (2015)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015)
• Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
• Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)
• Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2015)
• Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash (2016)
• Justice League (2017)
• Justice League Dark (2017)
• The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)
• The Death of Superman (2018)
• Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018)
• Reign of the Supermen (2019)
• Justice League vs. The Fatal Five (2019)
• Batman: Hush (2019)
• Superman: Red Son (2020)
• Justice League Dark: The Apokolips War (2020)
• Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)
• Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
• Justice Society: World War II (2021)
• Injustice (2021)
• Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022)
• League of Super-Pets (2022)
• Legion of Superheroes (2023)
• Justice League: War World (2023)

And of course, James Gunn is currently hard at work on a new "Superman" film, set for release in 2025.

The above list does not include the celebrated animated Superman short films from 1941 and 1942. 

It also doesn't include the 1984 film "Supergirl" which takes place in the same universe as the 1978, 1981, 1983, and 1987 films. Those were the films to star Christopher Reeve as Superman, and he does not appear in "Supergirl.'

The list also excludes several films in the DC Extended Universe series, which all take place in the same world as Superman, but which don't involve him directly. In the DCEU, Superman had cameos in both "Shazam!" and "Black Adam," but only in post-credit sequences. In the 2023 film "The Flash," CGI was used to recreate multiple Superman actors from history, including George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and even Nicolas Cage, whose planned "Superman Lives" movie directed by Tim Burton was never actually completed. 

A planned film for 2026, "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow," is intended to be an extension of the upcoming 2025 "Superman," which will mark a high-profile reboot of the DCEU, called the DCU. 

The above list also doesn't include "The LEGO Movie" and "The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part," which feature a LEGO version of Superman in cameos.

The above list does, however, include a few unauthorized and/or illegal Superman movies made overseas. The 1960 film "Return of Mr. Superman" is a Hindi-language production made without the participation of DC Comics. 1979's "The Return of Superman" was made in Turkey at a time when the Turkish film industry was widely flouting copyright laws. The 1980 film "Superman" is a Telugu-language rendition of the hero, while the 1987 film "Superman" was another film made in India, this one in the Hindi language. 

The above list also does not include various Superman-centric documentary films such as the 2015 feature "The Death of 'Superman Lives'" or the popular 2012 YouTube film "The Death and Return of Superman" by Max Landis. 

The first two titles on the above list, the Kirk Alyn films, are of a piece, and can be watched together. Like any superhero Superman's age, though, there are many, many continuities with the character, and multiple films on the release order list can be clustered together into their own mini arcs. Some of those arcs, I shall list here: 

The Christopher Reeve/Brandon Routh Films: 

• Superman (1978)
• Superman II (1981) (or the 2006 Richard Donner Cut)
• Superman III (1983)
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
• Superman Returns (2006)

The DCEU Superman Films (sans the many other films in the DCEU): 

• Man of Steel (2013)
• Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
• Justice League (2017)
• Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

The LEGO Superman Films:

• LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Batman Be-Leaguered (2014)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League (2015)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015)
• LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Cosmic Clash (2016)
• The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

The mythology of the many animated Superman movies is a little muddled, and their interconnectivity can, in many cases, be argued. I shall take the easy route on those, and let you discover their continuity yourself. 

Throughout almost all of these arcs, however, Superman has remained an aspirational figure. He's powerful enough to (for the most part) easily best his foes and take them to prison. More importantly, though, he abides by a philosophy of honesty and decency. Superman isn't about overwhelming and dominating his foes, but about humbling them, teaching them a lesson and — ideally — redeeming them. To this day, Superman fans still admire his virtue.