The actor Matt Bomer has claimed that he missed out on being cast as the lead in an axed 2003 Superman movie Flyby because of his sexuality.

Speaking on the Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Bomer said: “It looked like I was the director’s choice for the role. I signed a three-picture deal at Warner Bros.”

Asked if his sexual orientation affected his casting, Bomer said: “Yeah, that’s my understanding. That was a time in the industry when something like that could still really be weaponised against you. How, and why, and who [outed me], I don’t know.”

Bomer, now 46, came out publicly in 2012, when he thanked his husband and children in an awards speech.

The Superman job had seemed so certain, he said, that he had been written out of his regular job on CBS soap opera Guiding Light.

“I went in on a cattle call for Superman,” he said, “[which] turned into a one-month audition experience where I was auditioning again and again and again. On Guiding Light, there was a killer in town, so the executive producer, very kindly, wanted to free me up just in case the [Superman] job came through.

“So [the Guiding Light producer] said, ‘Hey, you’re going to be the killer. We’re writing you off the show; go with my blessing.’ I basically got fired, but in a generous way.”

Superman: Flyby was meant to be directed by JJ Abrams; instead the project was axed in favour of Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, which was released in 2006 and starred Brandon Routh.

Other near misses at the red underpants include Nicolas Cage, who was supposed to star in Tim Burton’s Superman Lives, and Jacob Elordi, who told GQ that he turned down reading for the role.

“Well, they asked me to read for Superman,” Elordi said in a cover story for the 2023 Men of the Year issue. “That was immediately, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.”

James Gunn’s Superman reboot Superman: Legacy is scheduled for release next summer, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan.

Bomer made his name on US daytime TV staple All My Children before coming to international attention in 2012 film Magic Mike. Other films include The Nice Guys and The Normal Heart.

On Broadway, Bomer starred in the Dustin Lance Black play 8 and in the 2018 revival of The Boys in the Band, which was made into a movie in 2020.