A rumor has spread across the Internet this week that Brandon Routh, the actor who played the role of Clark Kent/Superman in Superman Returns, would not be returning for a proposed sequel.

This is a RUMOR and, so far, it is FALSE.

Here’s what happened:

Variety‘s Anne Thompson noted on her blog that “The next Superman we will see on the big screen will not be Brandon Routh, but a younger Superman among a cast of youthful superheroes in Justice League.”

READ: The next movie that has Superman in it will be Justice League, which will not have Routh in the cast (which has been known already since September 2007). The JL movie has nothing to do with the Superman Returns sequel.

Here’s where the RUMOR started: Latino Review then picked up the Variety story, adding that they’ve known for weeks that “Brandon Routh will be replaced in the stand alone sequel by whomever is cast as Superman in the upcoming Justice League of America movie.” This is NOT what Variety reported, though the LR story made it seem like that (they’ve since corrected that), and this is what every entertainment site has picked up as fact.

Today, AICN posted that a very high-ranking mole told them that the rumor was “absolutely false” that Routh is out of the Superman Returns sequel and that Routh is still Warner Bros.’ choice to play the Man of Steel if a sequel is made. The only thing that has been determined is that the Justice League movie will NOT feature the actors from the other DC film franchises (meaning, Routh as Superman, and Batman Begins and The Dark Knight star Christian Bale as Batman).

Granted, the AICN report could turn out to be false as well (although LR has updated their post again to say that their report was unintentionally incorrect). But, the JL movie is said to have a younger lineup of superheroes, so if the actor playing Superman in JL really would replace Routh (the initial rumor), that means they’d have to revamp the Superman franchise to pretty much “forget” everything that happened in Superman Returns. Either way, the point is that there’s no confirmation that Routh is out of the Superman Returns sequel and there’s no real basis for the rumor.

Here’s what HAS been confirmed:

• From the Anne Thompson blog: Brandon Routh will NOT play Superman in the Justice League movie and it’s unlikely that director Bryan Singer will helm a Superman sequel. [Source]
• Superman Returns scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris have opted not to pen a sequel. [Source]
• George Miller will direct the Justice League movie for Warner Bros. with a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. [Source]