To be completely honest, it’s quite difficult for me to choose my favorite actor to have played Superman. Within my lifetime, I’ve seen Christopher Reeve, Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Henry Cavill and Tyler Hoechlin each bring something unique to the table.
But if I had to pick out one whom I think looks most like the character if he’d stepped out of a comic book, it’d have to be Cavill. Granted, I did enjoy his performances as an actor, but when I look at Henry, I just see Superman as I’d imagine him.
That said, I’m among those who were quite bummed to learn that Cavill has seemingly vacated the role. Joining in my lamentation has been that of former Smallville producer Steven S. DeKnight and longtime comic book writer Dan Jurgens, the latter of which had this to say on Twitter:
“Not that my opinion matters, but I have always felt that Henry Cavill is perfect for Superman, especially with the right material.”
That comment about “the right material” causes me to believe that the legendary scribe may not have cared for at least one of the films to have featured Cavill as the Last Son of Krypton, but to each their own. Still, any positive words coming from Jurgens are high praise indeed, as there are few people to have ever walked the Earth to understand Superman as well as he. Really, read anything from his impressive run on Action Comics in recent years – not to mention The Death of Superman – and you’ll be a believer as well.
In the meantime, though, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if indeed Cavill is ready to move on, or if he’s willing to give this whole Superman thing another shot. Either way, odds are we’ll know the definitive answer before long.
