Superman in film that in his absence Lois Lane has given birth to a son and become engaged. Singer chose to follow Donner's lead by casting relatively unknown Brandon Routh as Superman, who resembled Christopher Reeve somewhat, and more high-profile actors in supporting roles, such as Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Singer brought his entire crew from "X2" to work on the film. Via digitally-enhanced archive footage, the late Marlon Brando appeared in the film as Jor-El. "Superman Returns" received positive reviews and grossed approximately $391 million worldwide. In February 2006, four months before the release of "Superman Returns", Warner Bros. announced a
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace the box office. It ended up with a total domestic gross of $15,681,020. Of the four Superman films starring Reeve, "The Quest for Peace" fared the worst at the box office, and the series went dormant for the following nineteen years. Reeve regretted his decision to be involved in the film, saying, ""Superman IV" was a catastrophe from start to finish. That failure was a huge blow to my career." Plans were made to make a "Superman V", but they never came to fruition. Reeve's 1995 paralysis made any further development of sequels involving him in the starring role impossible.