Henry Cavill was cast as Superman almost a decade ago, and while he definitely looks the part, it would be fair to say that the 36 year-old has never been given a real opportunity to show what he can bring to the character. Man of Steel may have served as the launchpad for the entire DCEU, but since then the English actor has been limited to playing second fiddle to Ben Affleck in Batman V Superman, while his extended third-act cameo in Justice League is arguably more memorable for the clunky CGI removal of his mustache than anything else.
With the entire franchise undergoing something of a creative overhaul recently, there’s been constant speculation that Cavill’s time as the Big Blue Boy Scout is over, although the star of The Witcher has been public in his desire to remain in the costume. However, when it was announced that J.J. Abrams had signed a huge deal with Warner Media to develop projects for the studio, rumors instantly began that the head of Bad Robot was looking to reboot Superman entirely, with Abrams himself admitting that he fancied working on something that involved capes.
Of course, Abrams already has a history with the character, having written the script for the abandoned Superman: Flyby, ironically with a young and unknown Henry Cavill testing for the part back in 2004. However, despite Warner Bros. initially keen on the idea of having the filmmaker tackle the reboot, with numerous reports saying he was their top choice to direct, the heavily-publicized backlash that greeted Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may have changed the studio’s mind.
Sources close to We Got This Covered – the same ones who tipped us off about Marvel’s She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel shows being in development for Disney Plus months before the official announcement, and told us that National Treasure 3 was in the works two months ago before the news was confirmed last week – claim that the negative reception to The Rise of Skywalker has made Warner Bros. much more reluctant to hand the keys to the Superman kingdom over to Abrams.
According to our sources, some of the studio higher-ups are still keen for him to direct the reboot, but following the polarizing reception to the concluding chapter of the Skywalker Saga, the general feeling is that they don’t want him for the job anymore and Abrams himself is no longer too enthusiastic about the idea, either, and would rather avoid jumping straight back into another big budget reboot of an iconic brand. And really, we don’t blame him after the fan backlash he’s had to face over the last few weeks.
Of course, there’s every chance that the 53 year-old will still end up producing the next Superman movie, but it looks as though the studio might have to find someone else to get behind the camera.
