By Brandon T. McClure
A new report from The Hollywood Reporter recently stated that a Superman film starring Henry Cavill is in early development at Warner Bros. Discovery. This tracks with a very early insider report from the early days of the merger that stated a Superman film starring Cavill was a top priority for the incoming head of the company, David Zaslav. Since the 2017 release of Justice League, fans have been unsure of what the future held for the Man of Steel, but his appearance in Black Adam (complete with head), this new report from THR, and an announcement video from Cavill himself suggest the future is finally bright for the Man of Tomorrow.
For a while, it was unclear if Henry Cavill was still Superman in the DCEU or whatever Warners calls their DC film continuity these days. The character of Superman appeared in Shazam and Peacemaker but his face was obscured both times, Suggesting that Warner’s wasn’t sure if they were interested in moving forward with Cavill as Superman. While Cavill was clearly interested in returning to the role, the studio just dragged its feet for many years about it. Cavill always stated that if they wanted him, he would be there, indicating that there was no bad blood between him and the company. Cavill’s Superman clearly existed in the film universe, but because they were unwilling to make a call on it one way or the other, he also didn’t
At one point it was revealed that Cavill himself had approached Warner Bros. head of DC Films, Walter Hamada with directors who were interested in developing a Superman movie. Back in 2019, Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Fallout) was asked about his involvement with the now-defunct Green Lantern film. He claimed “[i]t tied into the Superman movie that Cavill and I were proposing” and that Warner’s wasn’t interested. Most recently, during the press for Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson mentioned that the “old regime” (most likely talking about Hamada) were actively blocking attempts to bring Cavill back to the role. It wasn’t until September of this year that they got the green light to include him.
It’s unclear what Hamada had against bringing Cavill back, but he put two alternate Superman projects into development. As part of an overall deal with J.J. Abrams's Bad Robot company, Ta-Nehisi Coates was brought in to write a script for a 1940s set Superman film that would introduce a black version of Clark Kent. The other project was through a deal with Michael B. Jordan’s production company, Outlier Society Productions, to develop an HBO Max series based around the Superman of Earth 2, Val-Zod. Jordan was potentially interested in starring in that particular project. These two projects were part of Hamada’s Multiverse strategy which already delivered films like Joker and The Batman to critical acclaim. Now that Hamada has left the company, perhaps we’ll never truly know why he was so desperately opposed to Cavill’s return.
These projects went quiet amid the chaos of the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. The deal WarnerMedia signed with Bad Robot was in 2019 and no projects have come out of that thus far even though rumors of various Justice League Dark shows have surrounded the deal. Shortly after Batgirl was canceled by Zaslav, an insider report hit the internet suggesting that Coates had turned in his first draft of his Superman project and Zaslav was requiring rewrites. These rewrites were reportedly to change the setting to the modern day and make the film about a white Clark Kent instead of the originally intended black version. Speculation around this report suggested that Zaslav could be interested in turning Coates’ script into a new Henry Cavill-led Superman film. However, the same THR article that spoke of “Man of Steel 2” also suggested that Coates’ Superman film is separate and still in active development. Where that leaves the Val-Zod series is anyone's guess at this point.
2017 was the last time Henry Cavill was seen in the Superman suit (Zack Snyder’s Justice League notwithstanding), and it’s good that he’s finally able to return to the role that he clearly loved so much. The cinematographer for Black Adam recently told news outlets that a headless Superman was originally going to make an appearance in the film’s post-credits scene, in the vein of Shazam. Who knows how that would have gone over with audiences since they were already getting tired of the runaround from his previous two “appearances”. Every time a new regime shift happens at Warner Bros. they claim to have a “10-year plan” in place for the DC films. Unlike the last regime, part of that new plan appears to involve Henry Cavill as Superman. For five years, fans have wondered what the deal with Superman was and can rest comfortably knowing they have their answer.