Henry Cavill’s Superman May Return to DCEU
By George Robbins
This pandemic is a horrible time for just about everybody at this point, but sometimes we can definitely find some kind of silver-lining. While much of the entertainment industry has essentially been shut down, there are plenty of discussions going on in the background right now to keep projects going. Writers working on their next films, directors looking for new projects, even if some of their current projects aren’t done yet, and so on. Producers are working to try and figure out just how they can get movies to start filming properly again and some are even working on future projects already. Studios are trying to plan ahead and now WB is trying to get their original Superman back to play his part in other films.
The Warner Bros.’ DCEU kicked off in 2013 when the ‘Man of Steel’ movie first released and it starred Cavill as the titular “Man of Steel” himself. While the reviews of the movie were lukewarm at best, the general consensus was that Cavill did a pretty good job with the character. He and his agents made sure that he would continue to play the character in at least a few of their upcoming movies. With that, he went on to play the character in the ‘Batman v Superman’ and ‘Justice League’ movies. The last of those films started giving his group doubts as to whether it would be a good idea to continue working on those films.
As a part of the contract Cavill and his team had with WB, he was meant to appear in at least one more movie in the DCEU before he contract could be renegotiated for a higher amount. After ‘Justice League’ Cavill had one more movie in order to fulfill his contract and there was a dispute as to whether a cameo would count as an appearance. He was meant to appear as Superman in the ‘Shazam!’ movie in a cameo appearance but, according to the studio, this did not count toward his contract. This dispute resulted in Cavill being announced as not being a part in any future DCEU films. This, on top of Ben Affleck announcing that he would no longer be playing the part of Batman in the DCEU did not look good for the franchise moving forward.
According to reports, Cavill may just end up returning to play the Man of Steel in an upcoming film in the DCEU, but the film in question is still up for debate. There is also no guarantee that he really will return since, as of now, it is something that is still being discussed between him and the studio. The project, or possible projects, that he would return to be a part of do not include a ‘Man of Steel 2,’ ‘Wonder Woman 1984,’ ‘The Suicide Squad,’ or ‘The Batman.’ This means that even if he does really return to the role, that it will not be any of the upcoming films in the franchise and it will instead be one much further down the line. Also, this means that he will more than likely not be a part of any standalone films in the future.
According to the report, it is most likely that WB wants the character to be a connecting character throughout much of the universe in order for there to be a central character to follow. This only makes them seem more like another certain comic book universe since there are characters that connect to multiple story lines through the sheer fact they are present in the movies. This would end up working out for Cavill due to the fact that playing a larger role in future movies would impede his ability to work on his other major acting role at the moment as Geralt in the ‘Witcher’ series. Hopefully we will get to see him return as the Man of Steel to the big screen some time in the not-too-distant future.