This was after
15 years of the character existing, i forget if there were many (or any) extra Trek novels at this point...but definitely fan fiction in addition to TOS
and TAS
and stuff like the records and some early comics.
And being pre-internet, not all of us know the secret when TWOK came out.
Han and Spock coming back aren't even comparable to the Superman situation. They made a poin, of verbally telling the audience over and over that Han wasn't dead, Fett wanted him kept alive, even while the process was occurring. There wasn't even a death to fake there, Han fell asleep and the audience knew he was going to wake up. And Nimoy wanting out after decades of playing the character wasn't a secret, as far as he was concerned at the time of the movie he wasn't coming back.
Both HUGE differences to Superman where, had the movies done well and behind the scenes shenanigans didn't ruin everything, Cavill would have been Superman for many more appearance and was just starting. While the actors playing the other two didn't hide that they wanted out, despite Ford not getting his wish to get killed off in the third movie.
I agree with you... and had Cavill been in a couple of movies, it would have felt more of a shock, and dramatically would have worked.
Superman dying in the second film seems a fairly close parallel to Spock:
Not really. Yeah,both were 2nd films. But as i noted above, Spock had over 15 years of development (and even voice actors on the records were still supposed to portray the same version of the character).
We only had 2 films, and the first did a poor job of developing Clark's heroics (in contract the First Avenger).
Touché.
...and you can add Han Solo subjected to carbon freezing and hauled off by Fett in TESB, since the world knew Han would be rescued and fully engaged in the final film's plot.
The big "offender" was Avengers: Infinity War, as no one believed the "dusted" characters were permanently on the opposite side of alive and would return for the obligatory rumble in Endgame.
As mentioned -- Han
alive when Boba Fett took him, and the movie ended on a "cliffhanger" anyway, so we were expected a 3rd movie, and certainly Han's rescue was part of the plot.
For Infinity war -- sure, we expected all the dusted characters to return (especially as we were expecting sequels to their successful solo movies). But
that had some dramatic impact due to several levels:
1. We did
not know who would be dusted and would would survive. I don't think people were necessarily expecting that
all the Original MCU Avengers would survive.
2. Some of the deaths were dramatic, especially Peter's. Yeah, we all knew he would be back, since he only had 1 movie at that point. But that ad lib definitely felt intense...more so that Superman dying
3. Black Panther's , in looking back, was more dramatic, because of Chadwick Boseman's untimely death... We were expecting him to carry own leadership, and in fact lead Black Panther 2. Instead, his "first" (or i guess 2nd) death, made his "real" death more dramatic, as least for Queen Ramonda, with that loss, then, grieving, then loss again.
4. The return of the dusted heroes felt exciting when they got ready for this final battle. Not so much for Superman, which felt like another Batman vs Superman battle.