After giving a faint ray of hope with the post credit scene in Black Adam, Henry Cavill confirms he’s set to leave the role of Superman and DCEU forever.
The best casting for the last Kryptonite goes down the drain. DCEU proves that they have the best characters with the worst management.
Why is the DCEU dropping Henry Cavill as Superman?
Peter Safran and James Gunn currently head DCEU. After Warner Bros announced this, Gunn and Safran started mapping their strategy for DC’s future.
They decided to reboot a major part of the DCEU which clearly means, just forget whatever DC projects you saw in the last decade, they don’t make any sense now. They just hit the reset button for everything.
As a part of this, DCEU will now focus on a younger version of the Superman who’s in his late 20’s. So, Henry Cavill won’t be a fit for this role. That’s the reason he’s officially leaving the role of Superman.
This was a mutual decision and Cavill even had a chat with James Gunn & Peter Safran.
Zack Snyder’s poor Storytelling and Warner Bros. poor management is at the root cause for Henry Cavill’s departure
This might be surprising for you but this is true. Man of Steel got green lit by Warner Bros. only because The Dark Knight Trilogy was successful in waking up a dead Batman Franchise. Man of Steel put the character of Superman in question but was still well received by the audience.
Snyder based Cavill’s version of Superman on the idea that heroes are also fallible and can sometimes lose their connection to the world and humanity.
Warner Bros. was alright with this because Snyder’s version of Superman was never meant to be there for a long time.
Related: Here’s why Hawkman survived against Black Adam
The next time when you saw Superman was in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now this movie, was Man of Steel 2 in a way, Batman Origins in some way and even laid the foundation for Justice League. There was so much happening in this movie.
But still DC tried to fix it’s tone of Superman with Joss Whedon coming to direct its Justice League which was supposed to be the equivalent of Marvel’s Avengers. The result was utter failure. Justice League was mocked for Superman’s horrible VFX fails. Even with Whedon, this movie couldn’t fix Superman’s image and didn’t help with anything in the DCEU.
Do you see the problem now? With so many things happening in one movie every time, it was hard for Warner Bros to focus on a Man of Steel sequel. Warner Bros.
All this time, Warner Bros. never questioned the script for any of its movies. The theatrical version of Justice League in 2017 should never have been made.
Thus, Henry Cavill’s departure is more of a closure for you as Man of Steel 2 was always out of question.
The post credits scene in Shazam (2019) and Peacemaker (2022) which were headless shots of Superman already hinted at Cavill’s exit.
Why did Dwayne Johnson say that Henry Cavill is back? Did he lie?
Apparently, there is a rumor that Henry Cavill didn’t sign a contract when he announced his return as Superman. The deal between Dwayne Johnson, Henry Cavill and Warner Bros. was more a verbal agreement.
Hence, when the new leaders took over DC, the first thing they did is to clear all the mess that the previous leader created.
The important thing to note here is the timing of this. When The Rock was promoting Black Adam, DC was without a leader so he truly believed that ‘The hierarchy of Power is going to change’. But Warner Bros. made a joke of The Rock when they made this change.
Even Johnson’s Black Adam isn’t going to be a part of the new DCEU.
It’s the DCEU fans who lose at the end
Doesn’t matter if it was Zack Snyder’s fault or Warner Bros. the fact that Cavill won’t be returning as the Kal El is heartbreaking.
Henry Cavill was the perfect casting for Superman. He put effort for his physique and literally played his part like a mature Clark Kent. He was the face of HOPE for the DCEU. Cavill was able to do this with just 4 movies out of which Black Adam is where he appeared in a post credit scene.
It’s no doubt that I’ll miss him and not matter what role he plays in the future, his role as Superman will always remain iconic.