Zack Snyder celebrated the Christmas holiday with a special gift for fans in the form of a photo of Henry Cavill in Christopher Reeve’s original Superman suit. These images were shown to Warner Bros. executives by Snyder when he was trying to cast Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman in the new DC Universe, which began with 2013’s Man of Steel.
“Henry Cavill. The original Superman suit. This photo. It was undeniable,” Snyder wrote in a caption, adding in another caption, “The last image I shared and this one I showed WB (and) everyone agreed. Henry Cavill was Superman. That’s where the journey began.”
Cavill played Superman in three of Snyder’s DC Universe films: Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Justice League. Then things got complicated. After a five-year hiatus that left fans wondering about the future of Cavill’s Superman, he appeared as the Man of Steel in the post-credits scene of 2022’s Black Adam. Cavill’s return to the role coincides with reports that his standalone Superman sequel is ultimately in development, with the studio soliciting pitches from screenwriters. A post-credits scene teased that the DC Universe would be heading to a battle between Cavill’s Superman and Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam.
“I’m back as Superman,” Cavill wrote in an Instagram post at the time. “Thank you for your support and thank you for your patience. I promise you it will pay off.”
Two days later, Cavill spoke publicly for the first time about his return to Superman during a live taping of the Happy Sad Confused podcast at 92NY in New York City, saying, “This character has such a bright future ahead of him. I’m so excited to be telling this story with Superman, who is so much fun.”
However, Kabir’s return to this world did not take long. Just one day after the announcement, news broke that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be taking over DC Studios and launching a new DC Universe. This effectively marks the end of Snyder’s DC Universe, in which Cavill was the central character. Gunn said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast earlier this year that the deal to buy DC Studios came about at the same time Cavill announced his return, creating an “unfair” situation. Gunn had intended to reboot Superman from the beginning, and he pulled it off this summer with Superman starring David Corenswet.
“The day we (DC) signed the deal, all of a sudden they announced Henry was back,” Gunn said. “And I thought, ‘What’s going on?'” We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do “Superman.” So it was really unfair to him and totally disappointing… It was really unfortunate. So Peter and I (thought) the right thing to do was sit down with (Cabil) and talk. And we sat down and talked to him. He was a real gentleman and a great guy at that. He said, “The only thing I’m asking for is not information from you, but that I can reveal it myself.”
Through all the expected drama, Gunn and Snyder stayed in touch. Immediately after taking over DC Studios, Gunn revealed in X that he and Snyder were in agreement in principle and that there were no hard feelings between the two. Gunn told Fandango earlier this year that he also consulted with Snyder about the new Superman suit design and whether to add red trunks.
“One of the biggest questions was, ‘Are we going to have a trunk or not?'” Gunn said. “I talked to Zack Snyder and he was like, ‘We tried a billion different versions of Trunk, and we ended up trying, but we just never got there.'” And I felt exactly the same way. …In theory, I liked the idea of trunks. Because Trunks is the Superman I grew up with. ”
Gunn’s DC Universe continues with Supergirl and Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow in summer 2026.
