DC has been in the news often lately, and mostly for good reasons. There was the news that Zack Snyder is being handed a cool $20-30 million to finish his infamous SnyderCut for release on HBO Max next year. He also released the first tease of it not long ago. There was the report that Michael Keaton is in talks to reprise his iconic role of Batman in The Flash, and another that Henry Cavill might be returning to play Superman in multiple movies. Looks like the DCEU is barreling full steam ahead!
Well…not so fast. That last bit of news might not quite be true. Or, at the very least, it might be far more complicated than we’d imagined.
While appearing on Variety’s the Big Ticket podcast, Cavill said he’s heard of the rumors he’d be returning to the DCEU, and, frankly, they’re frustrating him. “[The rumors] get wilder and wilder by the day,” he said. “The amount of speculation, the stuff I read on the Internet, is extraordinary and sometimes frustrating. It’s when you see people stating stuff as fact. Like, ‘No, that’s not the case. That hasn’t happened, and that conversation isn’t happening.'”
Still, Cavill, who has spoken often in the past of just what Superman means to people, acknowledges that that misinformation and rumors have stemmed from a place of love:
“But the important thing is that people are excited about it, and I think it’s important to be excited about a character like Superman. Superman is a fantastic character. If people are chatting about it, and even if they’re making stuff up, it’s okay, because that means they want to see the character again. And in an ideal world, I would absolutely love to play the character again.”
And while it’s the way of all actors to not speak publicly about any ongoing contract negotiations or to confirm they’re happening, THR reported back in May that Cavill returning to the DCEU as the Big Blue Boy Scout was a situation more complex and complicated than we think:
“The situation with Henry Cavill and Superman is … complicated. Sources tell Heat Vision that Cavill is not in any negotiations for any cameo. And t hat the character is currently not in any written script. Not in Black Adam, not The Batman, not even in The Flash, which would be the most obvious project to insert the Kryptonian, seeing as the film deals with both time travel and an alternate Earth, and could serve as an easy entry point.”
It doesn’t mean that there haven’t been talks or that there might not be talks in the future, but it certainly appears that his return to the DCEU isn’t quite as near-done a deal as some reports suggested.
Regardless, that doesn’t stop me from hoping that they can eventually work something out. If a drunk and crying Tom Holland can get Sony and Marvel back to the negotiating table to work out a deal for Spider-Man, anything is possible. Cavill was a great Superman trapped in the wrong characterization, and it would be a shame if he weren’t allowed to show us what he could do when unfettered and playing a version of Supes more aligned with the spirit of the character. It’s also worth noting there had been earlier rumors that Warner Bros. didn’t believe Cavill could carry another movie on his own. Whether or not that’s true (the rumors were sketchy and unsubstantiated), what is true is that it’s a different time now in a post-The Man From U.N.C.L.E., post-Mission: Impossible – Fallout and post-Witcher world for Cavill. His cache is most assuredly higher now and his name recognition greater. If they were to bring him back into the DCEU fold, I’d wager now’s the time to do it.
