Superman II to Jor-El and General Zod. He finds Zod at the White House and tells him Superman is the son of Jor-El, their jailer, and offers to lead him to Superman in exchange for control of Australia. The three Kryptonians ally with Luthor and go to the offices of the "Daily Planet". Superman arrives, after having found the green crystal that restores his powers, and battles the three. Zod realizes Superman cares for the humans and takes advantage of this by threatening bystanders. Superman realizes the only way to stop Zod and the others is to lure them to the Fortress.
Superman II international television broadcasts over the years, in which Warner Bros. threatened legal action over the bootleg release. During the production of "Superman Returns", Warner Bros. acquired the rights from Marlon Brando's estate to use the late actor's footage from "Superman" into the film. Shortly after, Ilya Salkind confirmed that Donner was involved in the project to re-cut "Superman II" using Brando's unused footage. Editor Michael Thau worked on the project alongside Donner and Tom Mankiewicz, who supervised the "Superman II" reconstruction. Despite some initial confusion, Thau confirmed that all the footage shot by Donner in 1977 was recovered and transferred