Corrected entry: Marlon Brando was offered the opportunity to reprise his role as Jor-El from the first film, but he was unwilling to reprise his role for this film. As a result, we only see his hand at the beginning of Superman II, and we see only Superman's mom in the recap footage from Superman. Later in the movie, we only see Superman's mom in the crystal recordings for the same reason.
envisaged0ne
13th Oct 2003
Correction: Marlon Brando had already shot all of his scenes for Superman II. Since Superman 1 & 2 were shot back to back, they had him do all his scenes at once because he was only available for a short amount of time. However, when Lester took over as director, the studio didn't want to pay Brando the high price to put those scenes in, so they were cut. The scenes were later put back in for the Richard Donner cut released on DVD.
envisaged0ne