A quick glance at the internet on any given day makes it abundantly clear that fans are never going to give up on the prospect of seeing Henry Cavill return as the DCEU’s canonical Superman until either the actor officially bows out of the role, or he’s forcibly removed and the part is recast.
While you’ve got to admire the combination of enthusiasm and optimism, the facts make for grim reading. The actor was first announced to the world as the latest iteration of Kal-El back in January 2011, but The Witcher star has gone on to make only three appearances under the costume in the 11 and a half years since (four if you include Zack Snyder’s Justice League as a separate entity, even though Cavill didn’t shoot any additional footage).
Since last suiting up as the Big Blue Boy Scout in the summer of 2017, Superman has made two cameos in the DCEU, but a faceless body double was utilized in both Shazam! and Peacemaker. A recent rumor to have been making the rounds claims that Black Adam will become the latest project to feature Clark Kent’s alter ego without using Cavill, which has led to an interestingly unwanted potential distinction.
If Black Adam does go down the body double route, it’ll mark Superman’s sixth outing in the official DCEU timeline since Man of Steel, but Cavill will have only been present for half of them. The longer the bigwigs keep dusting off the character without the guy who launched the interconnected saga in the first place being visible, the lesser the chances of that full-fledged comeback will continue to become.
