In the 1990s, Tim Burton was set to take on the world ofSupermanwith Nicolas Cage starring as the Man of Steel inSuperman Lives, but the movie never happened. Since then, the movie has grown to mythical proportions, even inspiring a documentary about the scrapped project. It appears that Cage is totally fine with the movie never being made because it’s far more powerful in our “imaginations.” Cage went on to say that the scrappedSupermanmovie is “more powerful than any of theSupermanmovies”.

Nicolas Cage recently talked toEntertainment Weeklyat the Toronto Film Festival while promoting his latest movie,Mom and Dadand wound up talking about theSuperman moviethat will forever only live in our brains. In fact, according to Cage, it’s better that the movie never happened to begin with. Cage had this to say.

“I would offer that the movie that Tim and I would have made, in your imagination, is more powerful than any of theSupermanmovies. I didn’t even have to make the movie and we all know what that movie would have been in your imagination. That is theSuperman. That is the movie. Even though you never saw it, it is theSuperman.”

Before Jon Shcnepp’s 2015 documentary,Superman Lives: What Happened?, the idea ofNicolas Cage playing Supermanwas seen as a joke by just about everybody, so these words coming from Cage at this time are really something to take in and enjoy. As it turns out, Tim Burton was trying to deliver something that DCEU fans have been asking for since the cinematic universe started.

In 2013, Burton compared his version ofSupermanto hisBatmanwith many saying that the script was too dark for aSupermanmovie. Burton had this to say.

“It was likeBatmanall those years ago; there was always a bit of controversy. Like, ‘Oh, it’s too dark.’ It’s like, well, now it looks like a light-hearted romp. We were trying to explore the more human side of the character and get into that whole thing.”

Cage has said over the years that he had great faith in what Burton was trying to pull off. In 2015, Cage told Yahoo almost the same thing that he recently told EW about the power of imagination. Cage explains.

“I would’ve loved to have seen it, but I feel that in many ways, it was sort of a win-win because of the power of the imagination. I think people can actually see the movie in their minds now and imagine it and in many ways that might resonate more deeply than the finished project.”

Tim Burton’s version of the movie was loosely based on The Death of Superman storyline from the comics. The main villain was the alien supercomputer, Brainiac, and he had a plot to killSupermanby simultaneously blocking out the sun and unleashing Doomsday on Metropolis. The evil plot works, and Superman is killed, which is based off of the Superman Reborn series. A notable departure from the Reborn Series is the fact that once Brainiac arrives on Earth, he and Lex Luthor were to eventually merge into a single entity called “Luthiac” and the duo create Doomsday to destroySuperman.

Depending on your imagination,Superman Livesis either the bestSupermanmovie ever (not) released in the history of the character or a complete joke. Some screen tests of Nicolas Cage as the Man of Steel tend to sway imaginations to a cheesier place, but Tim Burton’s vision mixed with the Death of Superman and the Reborn Series with a dash of creative license sounds pretty awesome and a project that many fans can get behind. For now, just sit back and close your eyes and watch the movie in your head to see if it still holds up against anything that the DCEU has churned out to this point. Cage might have a point there…