With James Gunn having announced that he’s writing a script for a new Superman movie, which will be set early in Superman’s life, and that Henry Cavill will not be cast in the role, there’s a bit to unpack. So let’s go through the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly parts of this development.
THE GOOD
Putting aside the emotional reaction to the news about Henry Cavill, this is exciting news! James Gunn, the new co-CEO of DC Studios is penning a script for a new Superman movie. While it’s set in the early part of Superman’s career, a “Year One” story if you like, it’s not another origin story, and could make for a great action/adventure film that hopefully the whole family can enjoy.
I know there will be a lot of fans upset that the time we’ve invested in DC films since 2013 seems to be a thing of the past, but that’s always been the way with this character. He’s been around for nearly 85 years. Wiping the slate clean, which won’t be an easy pill to swallow for some, could turn out to be the fresh new start Superman as a film character has needed.
Hopefully Gunn’s Superman will be a positive, uplifting and heroic figure that inspires a whole new generation of fans, while bringing a smile to long-time enthusiasts of the Man of Steel.
THE BAD
I feel really bad for Henry Cavill. Whatever you thought of “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” or either of the “Jusice League” films, I think we can all agree that Henry, as a person, has always been a great bearer of the torch. He has always represented Superman with an integrity befitting the character, both on and off the screen.
You could tell that he was eager to return to portray a brighter Superman. It was only back in late October that he told MTV’s Josh Horowitz, “The character means so much to me. It’s been five years now. I never gave up hope. It’s amazing to be here now talking about it again. There is such a bright future ahead for the character. I’m so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman.”
Sadly that won’t happen now… not with Henry in the role anyway.
AND THE UGLY
The fact that Henry Cavill was put through this is embarrassing. I think a lot of the blame has to land firmly in the lap of Dwayne Johnson. From the outside looking in, it appears as though Dwayne and his Seven Bucks Productions partners misrepresented to Henry how much power they really had. I’ve lost count of how many times we heard Dwayne Johnson brag that the “hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change”. Then there was the video he posted in which he boasted about how hard he had worked behind-the-scenes to bring Henry Cavill back because Warner Bros. “inexplicably and inexcusably” weren’t going to bring him back. “But we weren’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”
“For us there is no way, no viable, logical way that you can attempt to build out the DC Universe without the most powerful force and the greatest superhero of all time sitting on the sidelines. It’s impossible to do. You can Venn diagram business-wise this whole thing 90 different times but it all comes back to ‘Where’s Superman’? You have to have Superman in the mix.”
Well he is in the mix Dwayne. But not in the way you wanted. Who isn’t in the mix, by the sounds of things, is Black Adam.
I guess the hierarchy of power in the DC universe is with James Gunn and Peter Safran.
If I was Henry Cavill I’d be more than a little peeved at how this was all handled. He would have been better off not making that cameo appearance in “Black Adam”.
And for those who think he left “The Witcher” to play Superman. That’s not the case. He left the Netflix TV series after finishing filming on Season 3 because of creative differences. He wasn’t happy with where the show’s creators were taking his character and how far they were diverging from the source material.
It’s not like Henry doesn’t have work lined up though, he’s already reuniting with director Guy Ritchie’s for the movie “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” which begins filming in Turkey in early 2023. Then there’s the ever-present possibility that he could be chosen as the next James Bond.
So that’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the situation as I see it. Good news for Superman fans who weren’t so attached to Henry Cavill in the role, but for anyone who is a Henry Cavill fan it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
I guess Superman has always been bigger than any one person.
Most people are totally against this BS decision. What’s that tell you?!! Listening to the fans, yeah right!! There’s ONLY one thing they care about: $$$ NOT the fans!!
Every company cares about $$$ first and foremost. Without making money, there is no product and there is no company ultimately. Making money is neither good nor bad on it’s own; it simply is. (Techinically not accurate as Statistically the profit motive of industry is what has allowed the advancement of humanity in just about every metric) That being said I think this whole fiasco, which has now been going on for over 30 years with regards to Superman (live action film) seems to have no end in sight. I think they cost themselves a lot of money in the… Read more »
I understand the money thing.
Someone jumped the gun on the announcement, miscommunication, whatever the reason. My biggest gripe, is that the whole thing was HORRIBLY handled. And not just with this incident, but how they, (the powers that be), have jacked around with decisions on which direction to go with there DC characters for YEARS! Sad!
Very much agreed. WB/DC have been an internal mess for varying reasons for over 20 years. And sadly, I don’t think that’s ending yet.
I wanted to thank Henry, for his time wearing the cape. I like his portrayal of Superman, I would have liked to see more of him and what he would also have done as Clark. Even though I am a bit sad at this point I would like to give the new creative team the benefit of the doubt and have high hopes for the future of the Character and storyline I love so much. Up Up and Away
Is one of the reasons why they’re rebooting Superman and DC movies is because of how Black Adam did at the box office?
It’s a good question. I’d have to think if Black Adam blew up at the box office there’s a chance they may have moved forward with Cavill. Gunn said he’s been working on the Superman script for a while so I get the feeling no matter what this was his plan. Still, it ultimately would have been Zaslav’s call and he may have ended up changing his mind once again if BA had been more successful.
Whole situation was handled so poorly…. And for years. It’s even worse when you have YouTubers like Grace Randolph dragging Henry for no apparent reason then some weird bias she has against him. I genuinely feel for him. Like many I didn’t love the Snyder mockers but Henry has been my choice since his name was first thrown out in the early 2000’s. I just wanted him to have a proper movie where he could be the superman we all know and love. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t love the idea of a… Read more »
For some reason I wasn’t able to edit the typos in my post. Here’s the revised post … Steve or any of the admins, you can delete my previous post above. Whole situation was handled so poorly…. And for years. It’s even worse when you have YouTubers like Grace Randolph dragging Henry for no apparent reason other then some weird bias she has against him. Then you have others praising zaslov who doesn’t even deserve any praise either… he’s just some rich dude with no movie executive experience… oh you canceled some movies everyone knew wouldn’t work!? What a visionary!… Read more »
As I was saying about a week or so ago, this does bring up the question of what are James Gunn’s long-term plans for Superman? Now that he has let go Henry Cavill from the role and is looking to cast a new actor to play a younger Clark Kent aka Superman, what will the story going forward be? There’s still very little we know about what the new Superman‘s story will be about. We know that it will be a focus on Clarks early days in Metropolis, meeting Lois Lane etc., but who will play the new Superman? Who… Read more »
Steve, this is a good video that puts things in perspective logically and sensibly. I agree with many of your viewpoints. And like Cavill said, the character of Superman and his values and lessons will still live on. The only thing that bothers me about this whole ordeal is the fact that Cavill was betrayed and backstabbed by James Gunn and Warner Brothers Discovery. It’s the principal of it all that bothers and angers me. I would’ve been okay with Cavill being gone after one final “goodbye film” or a simple announcement from the studio on their new future plans… Read more »
Gunn didn’t backstab Cavill, as he wasn’t there when the verbal agreement with Cavill was established.
Genuinely saddened for Henry…however are people missing a key point of James Gunn’s tweet?
‘But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we’re big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.’
Yes – it sounds like they are definitely starting with a new story arc to set up potentially a new DCEU – but I know this is speculation, but who’s to say Henry might not return later on down the line. i.e. Cross-over universes? – a slightly older superman?…
I wouldn’t rule it out later on. Just sayin…
Maybe a Crisis event where we have not only the next Superman and Cavill’s version of Superman, but also Routh’s Superman as well teaming up?