UPDATED: Henry Cavill is Superman no more…..possibly

Warner Bros. and DC just keep on keeping on with their odd decisions. The latest sees Henry Cavill leaving the role of Superman. He played the character in Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League. He was supposed to have a cameo in the Shazam! movie. Contract talks between Cavill’s WME reps and the studio broke down. It seems that the door is now closing on other potential Superman appearances.

THR had the news. Was it the moustache?

It seems that the studio has shifted its focus to a Supergirl movie, which will be an origin story featuring a teen superheroine. According to THR this “effectively removes an actor of Cavill’s age from the storyline’s equation given that Superman, aka Kal-El, would be an infant, according to DC lore. I feel Warner Bros. and DC Comics should maybe pay attention to the Supergirl TV show for some more ideas on how to do things.”

“Superman is like James Bond, and after a certain run you have to look at new actors,” says a studio source. As it looks like there are no planned solo Superman movies over the next few years it seems that Cavill’s time in the cape is coming to a close. Neither the studio nor Cavill has made an official statement yet, so there is still a slight chance this may not be true.

Once again, I cannot help but feel that the studio and DC Comics just have not got a clue when it comes to their comic book movies. They always seem to be rushing onto the next thing. Cavill was a great Superman, let down by poor scripts which made his Superman a moody, sad superhero. Worlds away from the comic book character.

With the repeated talk of Ben Affleck leaving the role of Batman it looks like they will probably either reboot the DC movie-verse or just have the films be their own things with no interaction.

It all feels like such a mess and a waste of great characters. They keep trying their best to do things differently to Marvel and, on the whole, it fails. They should just embrace what Marvel Studios has done in creating a shared cinematic universe and follow it as much as they can. Stick to the comic book characters and costumes. Go dark and gritty when needed, but stay true to the essence of the heroes. Don’t be afraid of humour, but just make sure it is done well. Damn it, I love the DC superheroes and it just gets me down that they keep getting things so wrong.

They should have followed Man of Steel with another Superman movie and introduce the fact Batman was around. Then have a Batman solo movie, a Wonder Woman one, The Flash, Aquaman and so on. Introduce the major players and have a few little crossovers. We could have then seen Batman’s fear about Superman grow naturally throughout the films and that would have brought us to the end of Phase A with Batman v Superman. Then a few more solo films, then a Justice League team up, then the Death of Superman and so on.

Deadline has the news that Warner Bros. may have been considering other actors for a while, including Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, Creed).

That could work if he played a Superman from one of the other alternate Earths in the DC multiverse or could Warner Bros. be thinking of bringing John Henry Irons, aka Steel, back to the big screen? I think DC should try and get a classic version of Superman done correctly for the big screen, before going with big changes like that.

At the moment, I would take that all with a pinch of salt. Jordan is a brilliant actor and his name gets mentioned for many different roles in big movies. We shall have to wait and see what actually happens once the dust has settled.

Just think, if they had not brought Cavill back for Justice League (with all the hassle with the Mission: Impossible moustache) then they’d have a nice simple solution for a change – Cavill’s Superman stays dead, while another alternate Universe Superman appears!

Gal Gadot is returning for Wonder Woman 1984, to hit cinemas in November 2019. Jason Momoa headlines a solo Aquaman movie this December. Ezra Miller remains on board to star in a Flash movie, which is due to shoot in early 2019.

Cavill will now be working on The Witcher TV show as he was recently cast as Geralt.

Mind you, it now possibly leaves Cavill available to become James Bond!

What are your thoughts on the news and what should DC do to sort out their comic book universe?

UPDATE: 13/09/18

It seems there is still no official word, but Warner Bros. have shared this statement, which neither confirms or denies the story.

The Agency that represents Cavil shared this:

Be peaceful, the cape is still in his closet. @wbpictures has been and continues to be our partners as they evolve the DC Universe. Anticipate a WB statement later today.

— Dany Garcia (@DanyGarciaCo) September 12, 2018

Henry Cavill posted this video on his Instagram and I have no idea what it means.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Today was exciting #Superman

A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill) on Sep 12, 2018 at 4:23pm PDT

So there we have it. All very vague. I’ve no idea what the situation is, but there are no current plans for another standalone Superman movie. Cavill won’t be appearing in Shazam and, once again, it all seems very messy.

Could they be retiring Cavill’s Superman from the big screen for now and have him pop up in a future film? Is this all some ploy to make us think he has left and, for once, we could get a genuine surprise, if Cavill turns up as Superman and none of us knew about it?

I have no idea. Share your thoughts in the comments below.