Henry Cavill won’t be playing Superman anymore. According to The Hollywood Reporter, talks have broken down between Cavill and Warner Bros – who had been trying to get him to take a cameo role in Shazam!. With contracts now reportedly off the table completely, it looks like Warner Bros will now need a new Superman for all future DCU movies.
Cavill played Superman in three movies (Man Of Steel, Batman V Superman and Justice League) and was expected to play him again in both Shazam! and DC’s upcoming Supergirl movie. Now signed on to The Witcher Netflix series, it looks like scheduling conflicts got in the way of Cavill’s casting and forced him to choose between a cameo role in someone else’s movie and a lead part in his own show.
Warner Bros wasn’t expecting to make another standalone Superman movie for a few years yet – with a Man Of Steel sequel sitting in the works since 2016 – but no one expected them to have to find a new leading man.
Since Ben Affleck has been grumbling about playing Batman for years, the move could even trigger a bigger shake-up in the DCU.
“There’s a recognition that some parts of the previous movies didn’t work,” a “studio insider” tells THR. “Another source says Warners is trying to hit a reset button with the DC universe, steering its ship slowly into another direction.”
With (potentially) the two headliners of the DCU now lost, Warner Bros will have to try something else if they want to catch up with Disney and Marvel. Either way, it’s not good news for anyone hoping to see Superman back on the big screen anytime soon.