Zack Snyder celebrated the Christmas holiday by giving fans a special gift: photos of Henry Cavill wearing Christopher Reeve’s original Superman suit. These images were what Snyder showed Warner Bros. executives while trying to cast Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman for his new DC Universe, which began with 2013’s Man of Steel.
“Henry Cavill. The original Superman suit. This photo. It was undeniable,” Snyder captioned one of the images. In another, he added: “With the last image I shared, and this one, we showed WB [and] everyone agreed: Henry Cavill was Superman. That’s where the journey began.”
Cavill went on to play Superman in three films within Snyder’s DC Universe: Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League. However, his future as the character became uncertain. After a five-year hiatus, he reappeared in the post-credits scene of 2022’s Black Adam, reigniting speculation about a standalone Superman sequel. The scene hinted at a potential showdown between Cavill’s Superman and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.
“I am back as Superman,” Cavill wrote on Instagram at the time. “Thank you for your support and thank you for your patience. I promise it will be rewarded.”
Two days later, Cavill spoke publicly about his return for the first time during a live recording of the Happy Sad Confused podcast at 92NY in New York City. He said, “There is such a bright future ahead for the character. I’m so excited to tell a story with an enormously joyful Superman.”
Cavill’s comeback was short-lived. Just a day after his announcement, news broke that James Gunn and Peter Safran were taking over DC Studios and launching a new DC Universe. This effectively ended Snyder’s DC Universe, in which Cavill had been a central figure. Gunn admitted on the Happy Sad Confused podcast earlier this year that Cavill’s announcement had created an “unfair” situation. Gunn had planned to reboot Superman from the start, a plan that came to fruition this summer with David Corenswet starring in Superman.
“The day our [DC] deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back,” Gunn said. “And I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do ‘Superman.’ So it was really unfair to him and a total bummer… That was really unfortunate. So Peter and I [thought] the right thing to do was to sit down with [Cavill] and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, ‘The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.’”
Despite the upheaval, Gunn and Snyder maintained contact. Shortly after taking over DC Studios, Gunn revealed on X that he had touched base with Snyder and that there were no hard feelings between them. Earlier this year, he told Fandango that he even consulted Snyder on designing the new Superman suit and whether to include the iconic red trunks.
“One of the biggest questions was, ‘Were we gonna have trunks, or were we gonna not have trunks?’” Gunn said. “I talked to Zack Snyder, who was like, ‘I tried a billion different versions with the trunks, and at the end of the day, I tried it, but I just couldn’t get there.’ And I was feeling exactly the same way. … Theoretically, I liked the idea of trunks because it’s the Superman I grew up with.”
Gunn’s new DC Universe will continue with Supergirl in summer 2026, followed by the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow.
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