Not long after Man of Steel was released, it became pretty clear that neither Zack Snyder, Warner Bros. or DC Films had much interest in seeing Henry Cavill’s Superman headline more solo adventures. Snyder swiftly announced Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as the next installment in the nascent DCEU, with Ben Affleck’s Batman given top billing in the credits and Cavill being reduced to a supporting role.
Meanwhile, ten movies were revealed by the studio in October 2014 including Justice League Part 2, Cyborg and Green Lantern, none of which were even made, but at no point was Man of Steel 2 ever officially on the docket. Matthew Vaughn was in tentative talks to tackle the project in early 2017, Christopher McQuarrie revealed a year later that he had pitches for both a Superman sequel and Green Lantern rejected, and James Gun admitted he turned down the the chance to get his hands on the Kryptonian superhero in favor of The Suicide Squad.
Now that J.J. Abrams is rebooting the Big Blue Boy Scout with a script from Ta-Nehisi Coates, most people have resigned themselves to the fact that Man of Steel 2 is never going to happen. However, tipster Mikey Sutton is claiming it could be resurrected as an HBO Max exclusive, although it’s reportedly entirely dependent on how Zack Snyder’s Justice League fares when it arrives next Thursday.
Of course, rumblings surrounding a Man of Steel 2 are hardly a new occurrence, but we’re approaching the eighth anniversary of the first movie’s release and we’re still no closer to seeing it ever become a reality. With that in mind, it’s probably not the best idea to get your hopes up too much, although we’ve seen over the last year that nothing can be ruled out anymore when it comes to the DCEU.
