I really didn’t like Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns.

Variety is reporting today that its writers aren’t coming back for a sequel.

And though Warner Bros. is insisting that it’s out to other writers and that the franchise won’t be rebooted, the word “likely” is used about Brandon Routh coming back as Superman.

That sounds shaky.

And fishy.

Regardless of my problems with the movie, I do feel sorry for Routh. It’s like, “Okay, Brandon, in this scene you’re trying to seduce Lois Lane on the roof of The Daily Planet, even though you know she’s engaged to a man who desperately loves her, and even though he desperately loves the child he’s been deceived into thinking is his, and even though you know she has a child who, mathematically, is perfectly the right age to be yours since it was five years ago that you stopped believing in accountability or responsibility and ran away without telling anybody, and now you’re back. And … action!”

Seriously, how is anybody supposed to be a good, heroic Superman with that kind of material?

Brandon did the best he could with what he had to work with, and I applaud him for that. But as much as I’d hate to see him become a casualty of whatever happens next, I also think it’s best to do what Marvel’s doing with Ed Norton’s Hulk movie and start fresh.

Bryan Singer must go.

I’ll be watching this one closely.

Stay tuned.