Long before Ben Affleck was cast as Batman and Sad Affleck became a meme, the actor almost had the chance to play another superhero, Superman.

The revelation was made by director Kevin Smith, who says he penned a Superman script based on the famous early 1990s DC story The Death of Superman with Affleck in mind as the Man Of Steel and Michael Rooker as nemesis Lex Luther, having worked with them both on Mallrats.

“I was writing it for [Ben] Affleck,” Smith explained to Yahoo! show the Never-Weres. “Ben was heating up. Like he was there. I think he’d been hired for Armageddon. … Affleck, he’s a f**king giant, like he’s built like a superhero, built like a giant action figure, particularly with the height. And then he puts on the muscles there too. So in my head and heart, it was always Ben and Michael Rooker, which was a weird Mallrats reunion.”

There was just one tiny problem, producer Jon Peters, who controlled the rights at the time had a different vision for the project, namely he wanted Sean Penn to play Superman.

“He goes, ‘Look in his eyes in [Dead Man Walking]. He’s [got] haunted eyes, the eyes of a killer,’” Smith recalled. “And I was like, ‘Dude, it’s Superman. You know, that’s not how most people think of Superman.’ But he wanted to reinvent it. He wanted something gritty, graphic, and grown-up. He essentially wanted like what Zack Snyder eventually did.”

Tim Burton was later brought in, threw out Smith’s script and cast Nicolas Cage for what was known as Superman Lives, which didn’t end up ever seeing the light of day because, hey, that’s showbusiness for you.