Superman’s future in the Worlds of DC universe is up in the air following suggestions that Henry Cavill won’t reprise the role in any future movies.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros had been trying to get Cavill to appear in a cameo role in Shazam!, but contract talks broke down between the two sides and it looks unlikely that his Superman will be back in any future DC movies.
What’s more, it was reported that there wouldn’t be any solo Superman movies for several years as focus shifts to the planned Supergirl movie. This was followed by an official statement from Warner Bros that didn’t really tell us anything concrete about Cavill’s future at DC.
“We have a great relationship and great respect for Henry Cavill that continues to remain unchanged. Additionally we have made no current decisions regarding any upcoming Superman films,” a Warner Bros spokesperson said in a statement.
And if everyone weren’t confused enough about the whole situation, then came Cavill’s bizarre Instagram video that saw him silently lift a Superman action figure up and down, while wearing a “KRYPTON LIFTING TEAM” T-shirt and writing: “Today was exciting.”
So we’re really none the wiser as to whether Cavill will don the cape again or not, and this could all be some elaborate negotiating tactic to finally get Man of Steel 2 up and running. After all, Cavill was generally seen as a good Superman and liked by fans, a Superman that never got the chance to star in a truly great movie.
But if it isn’t all a ruse and Cavill really won’t play Superman again, where does it leave the iconic superhero in the Worlds of DC?
The obvious choice if DC really wants a cameo from Superman in Shazam! (or other upcoming DC movies) is to recast the role, using it a bit like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man debut in Captain America: Civil War before his own solo movie.
Deadline reports that Michael B Jordan has apparently been considered for the Superman role, but gave no indication when exactly this was thought about, so it’s unclear if it’s anything to do with Cavill’s future.
Recasting the role seems odd, though, if there are really no plans for a solo Superman movie anytime soon. Justice League made only $657.9 million worldwide, the lowest return of the current DC movies to date – compare that to even the first Avengers haul of $1.52 billion – so the likelihood of a sequel to the team-up movie is low.
Batman v Superman is the highest-grossing Worlds of DC offering so far with $873.6 million worldwide, but it could be that Warner Bros just doesn’t see its future in Superman. In its quest to join the billion-dollar club that Marvel regularly hits, maybe the studio has decided it needs to move away from its well-established comic-book characters.
They had a chance to rule out Superman from future DC appearances after killing him off in Batman v Superman, but any opportunity to follow the comics and have Superman dead for a period (like they did after Superman #75) was immediately shut down by his return in Justice League.
So it just wouldn’t make sense now for a future DC team-up movie to happen and Superman to not be there. And if a different actor just popped up as Superman, it would feel a bit awkward and he would be constantly overshadowed by Cavill’s exit.
One possibility for Superman’s future comes from the planned Supergirl movie that will be written by The Cloverfield Paradox and 22 Jump Street‘s Oren Uziel, with Warner Bros said to be looking for a female director for the solo movie. The only other thing we know so far is that Melissa Benoist of the Supergirl TV series will not be playing the role on the big screen.
Supergirl’s origins in the comics have changed over the years, but one thing that doesn’t change is that she is Superman’s teenage cousin when Krypton is destroyed. Initially she was younger than Superman and was sent to Earth, where she meets Superman – who is already there – and he trains her up.
However, this was adjusted when the character was reintroduced to the DC Universe in 2004 with The Supergirl from Krypton. In this version, she left Krypton at the same time as an infant Superman, only to be put into suspended animation when her rocket hit an asteroid and she arrived on Earth 30 years later.
The possibility for the new Supergirl movie is that it shortens the suspended animation part and the Supergirl we meet is still older than Superman. This opens the chance for Warner Bros to cast a younger actor as Superman, even if this version couldn’t then crossover with the likes of Aquaman and Wonder Woman.
While we’ve got a Wonder Woman sequel coming out next year, there’s no guarantee that Aquaman will be a success, so the future of other established DC characters is unclear.
It’s looking likely that Batman will be recast for The Batman, a Cyborg movie isn’t guaranteed to happen and who knows what’s really happening with Flashpoint? That means the opportunity is there for the Worlds of DC to be entirely rebooted in the near future, using Supergirl as their new focal point of the entire franchise.
Where DC went wrong with Justice League was rushing to get to the team-up without establishing each of the characters in their own right. If Cavill departs and Superman is no more, maybe it’s going to take a leaf from Marvel’s book and build from the ground up.
After all, what have they really got to lose?
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