To say that a fair chunk of DCU hopefuls are a touch displeased with James Gunn is an astronomical understatement; after the former Guardians of the Galaxy mastermind recently revealed that Henry Cavill won’t be returning as Superman, Twitter took up arms.
But there is a silver lining; among Gunn and Peter Safran’s brand new slate of projects, there will still be a Superman solo movie, one that isn’t going to risk being another Man of Steel situation, especially considering that Cavill’s critically-divisive performance won’t be a factor.
Indeed, the planned DCU reboot of the quintessential Superman film isn’t going to be an origin story, but has been confirmed by Gunn to be a story that focuses on the superhero’s early days of being one.
One Cavill stan questioned why a movie that would chronologically take place after Man of Steel, a film that explored Kal-El’s life before he became Superman full-time, could justify not having the same actor portray the titular Kryptonian. The easy answer there is that, as far as reboots go, the newly-branded DCU is a mighty hard one.
A few responders were even disheartened to hear that Superman’s origin story won’t be part of the new DCU slate. Of course, in no way does this confirm that Gunn will be leaving us in the dark about it; for audience members who somehow don’t already know the gist of how he came to be, we imagine a generous exposition will be a part of the mix.
Origin stories notwithstanding, the real source of all the flak being drawn by Gunn can be boiled down to his exclusion of Cavill, which for some fans, admittedly creates a justifiable knee-jerk reaction.
But with time, we’re sure that Gunn will remind everyone exactly who he is and why he’s the man for the job; with Guardians of the Galaxy, Peacemaker, and The Suicide Squad already under his belt, it’s unlikely that he’ll butcher one of the most important entries in his own cinematic universe.