New ‘Superman’ Film Being Written By James Gunn, Henry Cavill Out As The Man Of Steel

The surge of excitement that came with the sudden return of Henry Cavill’s Superman in Black Adam has been met with disappointment tonight. Cavill’s time as the Man of Steel is officially over, announced by DC Studios co-chief James Gunn himself. In a Twitter thread, Gunn began to reveal the future plans he and co-chief Peter Safran have come up with, and it starts with a new Superman movie that Gunn will write. That film will not be an origin story, but will focus on Superman’s early life, which means no Cavill in the role…

Gunn confirmed that he has been working on the script for a while (there have been rumors of a Superman movie by Gunn for months), and that no director is in place.  The project will be a movie and not a series of any kind.

Cavill would confirm this news himself on Instagram shortly after…

 

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A post shared by Henry Cavill (@henrycavill)

So there doesn’t seem to be any hard feelings between Cavill and Gunn, even though the former recently quit his gig on The Witcher around the same time as his Superman return happened. Not that Cavill is hurting for work or anything with Matthew Vaughn’s Argylle and Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare coming up.

When asked by a fan if Ben Affleck could possibly direct this Superman movie, Gunn didn’t say no. He said they’ve been meeting with Affleck on a directorial project but that nothing was set in place. It could be anything at this point.

The suggestion is that Affleck’s time as Batman is also finished following his appearances in The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Affleck has long wanted to direct a DC Comics film, and was originally attached to The Batman before Matt Reeves took over, so this is overdue.

I feel like the real loser in this is…Dwayne Johnson. Johnson had been saying all of these DC Studios shake-ups were nothing but “noise”, but it’s looking increasingly like the power he believed he held over the studio is gone with Gunn and Safran’s arrival.

 

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.