Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League were intended to provide the bedrock for a cinematic universe to rival the mighty MCU. Ever since Batman V Superman opened to savage reviews though, things have been, on the whole, going wrong for DC. The most dramatic failure was the total disaster of Justice League, generally considered an embarrassing mess best forgotten. Now, with Ben Affleck extremely unlikely to don the Batsuit again anytime soon, their plans have received another blow as Henry Cavill has announced he’s done playing Superman.
Though I’d imagine Snyder’s had time to get over his long-term DCEU plans coming to nothing, seeing Cavill leave the role is obviously a sad moment for him. And now, to mark the occasion, he’s posted on Vero the storyboard from Man of Steel in which Superman flies for the first time, which is still a great moment in superhero cinema. He captioned it with: “It’s not an S,” referencing the dialogue in which Clark Kent explains to Lois that S is a Kryptonian symbol for hope.
So, where now for the DCEU? Well, Man of Steel II is presumably off the cards for the foreseeable future and further plans for the character will have to be put on the back-burner. There’s a decent chance Cavill would’ve appeared in their upcoming Supergirl movie, too, so that may need to undergo a rewrite in order to explain why Superman isn’t turning up to help out (the last time they did the Girl of Steel in the 80s they explained that he was on a peace-keeping mission in another galaxy).
With his cameo in Shazam! off the cards, it seems that our final goodbye to Cavill will sadly be his distractingly CGI-d face in Justice League. I always liked the intensity and subtle vulnerabilities he brought to Superman, so I’m sad to see him go out on such a bum note. Let’s just hope he knocks us dead as Geralt in Netflix’s The Witcher.
