Superman Reboot

[The Dark Knight]

The John Williams theme is used during the Black Adam cameo, and I have to shake my head at how this situation still persists. It's a conversation that shouldn't even be happening. Nobody is denying the Williams theme is iconic, but Cavill already has his own. Williams has nothing to do with this universe and should not be automatically used for every single incarnation of Superman. If the Williams theme is blaring over the action during the solo film it's going to hamper my enthusiasm.

[The Laughing Fish]

Henry Cavill has confirmed the worst news, he is NOT returning as Superman.

What a disaster.

[thecolorsblend]

Seems to be true.

James Gunn Writing New 'Superman' Film; Henry Cavill Will Not Return, but Eyed to Play Different DC Character
Things are heating up in Metropolis, as DC Studios co-head James Gunn has announced he is writing a new feature film about Superman. In step with the new project, Gunn has also revealed that Henry Cavill will not return as the hero.

"Peter & I have a DC slate ready to go, which we couldn't be more over-the-moon about; we'll be able to share some exciting information about our first projects at the beginning of the new year," the director-turned-label-chief Tweeted on Wednesday.

"Among those on the slate is Superman. In the initial stages, our story will be focusing on an earlier part of Superman's life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill. But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we're big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future."

https://variety.com/2022/film/news/james-gunn-writing-superman-movie-henry-cavill-out-1235461889

[The Laughing Fish]

So, that creep Gunn is writing a Superman reboot? Yay, let's make him the butt of fecal matter jokes like in Peacemaker.

DC is dead.

[The Dark Knight]

Seems to be true.

Cavill announcing his return, and not long after announcing his departure is a true farce. We're about to see what a modern filmic Superman looks like, because Cavill's initial casting for Man of Steel is a long time ago now. Things have culturally escalated since then. Brace for the worst, because while a fresh start could be good in theory, there's not much trust right now as to what that fresh start could be. Especially considering the Jar Jar Abrams route.

[The Joker]

"Tell everyone the great news, Henry! You're back in!"

a few weeks later .....

"No yeah, you're out again."

Stay classy, Warner Bros.

[thecolorsblend]

Anybody still think Black Adam is getting a sequel? Seems pretty unlikely now.

[The Dark Knight]

Flop Adam should be a dead duck by now. Which will make that corner of the sandbox particularly interesting to watch play out. Johnson all but promised we would see him fighting Cavill in a future film, and declared the latter to be the greatest Superman of all time. He also opened up about the studio's reluctance to use Cavill. So if Flop Adam is 100% done, does Johnson be diplomatic or go down all guns blazing? We're about to find out. But if I were him, I'd shut up and slink away about not getting a sequel. Because it's not like his contribution to the DCEU set the world on fire.

As for the Superman reboot, if it was going to happen it should've been earlier during that period of stagnation. We needed them to simply make a decision either way, and in a short space of time two polar opposite moves were made. Truth be told, the announced Cavill continuation did come too late. If they were going to recast Lois and more or less soft reboot anyway it wouldn't be the same. Cavill's real window was the Snyder timeline, and that was aborted.

The route here seems to be following The Batman template. A younger incarnation but not a dedicated origin story. Gunn has ruled out Pattinson being the shared universe Batman, but I half wouldn't rule out the new Superman existing in the same world - just that the two don't meet and stay seperate in their own films for a while. We'll see. But the casting is going to be vital for me.

[The Laughing Fish]

Anybody still think Black Adam is getting a sequel? Seems pretty unlikely now.

If Black Adam is a flop, then what the hell does that make Gunn's Suicide Squad? Will Gunn reboot his whole TSS/Peacemaker continuity, or conveniently preserve it? That will be telling.

And if/when Gunn's Superman project flops, will they reboot again? Laughable!

But a more important question you should be asking is: will the last slate of current DC films The Flash, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom, and Shazam: Fury of the Gods make much money at the box office? Now THAT seems pretty unlikely. I can't see that many fans or casual audiences have much enthusiasm after becoming alienated by today's news. Flash has had a really bad PR run, but the confirmed Cavill news today really handicapped its hopes of success even further. Made even worse when he filmed a scene for that movie that will now never see the light of day.

Seeing headlines of WBD's financial woes makes this latest decision even more irresponsible when they need to make some money right now. If they're going to scrap Batgirl then they should do the same for the rest of next year's slate. They're still cutting out content to salvage money as much as they can, after all, so why not cut down some more?

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/warner-bros-discovery-content-writeoffs-3-5-billion-1235461566/

"Tell everyone the great news, Henry! You're back in!"

a few weeks later .....

"No yeah, you're out again."

Stay classy, Warner Bros.

That's right. Cavill himself said on Instagram that WBD gave him permission to announce his return after Black Adam debuted in its opening weekend. Anybody who bought that bullsh*t rumour that he took it upon himself to announce his return is a moron.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmK7eLWJ0as/?hl=en

I know many Snyderverse fans have criticised Cavill for being too political with the studio and going along with the "hope and optimism" narrative for Superman at Snyder's expense. But I do have sympathy for the fact he had just quit his starring on The Witcher - only to get dumped as Superman a month later. This is humiliating. Still, I wouldn't post such a classy response if I were him. Unless he got paid out of his contract in full, this is a big setback for his career. He should find a new job soon, but right now, he has nothing to fall back on.

Borys Kit from THR wrote an article last week that the executives - Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy - wanted to continue working with the Snyderverse actors with the possibility of doing at least one more JL film. They must've been the ones behind Cavill's BA cameo and Affleck's for Aquaman 2. To see their moves getting canceled must be just as humiliating for them, as it is for Cavill. I mean, it was apparently De Luca who greenlit a Constantine sequel with Keanu Reeves a few months back, but that seems highly unlikely now. I can't see either executive wanting to stay at the studio when their authority is getting undermined in such an outrageous way.

In hindsight, the signs that WBD becoming just as irresponsible as WarnerMedia were always there. This is what I said about Batgirl:

Batgirl should never have been greenlit in the first place, but if there is one thing that bothers me about the way WBD handled this cancellation, it's how they didn't inform the cast and crew about their decision, they learned about it in the media reports. I would've expected this lack of professionalism from the Emmerich/WarnerMedia regime. WBD need to get their act together or else more people will start calling them out if they fail to fulfill the promise of restoring relationships with creatives.

Too bad that advice fell on deaf ears.

David Zaslav went on record only a few months ago saying his studio was going to make Black Adam and the other upcoming films better and justified canceling Batgirl to "protect the brand". Never mind today's news, that message already became useless and empty as soon as he decided to hire Gunn. At the end of the day, he failed to fulfill his promises and he is just continuing the tradition of Warner's bungling and negligent mismanagement.

Whatever. Gunn's hiring as a DC Studios head made my stomach turn so much that I just don't care about DC anymore. Stressing out over whatever they do really isn't worth it.

[Silver Nemesis]

The Cavill situation was very poorly handled by the studio. They instructed him to announce his return two months ago, which might well have influenced his decision to quit The Witcher. He's now rumoured to be up for a part in one of James Cameron's Avatar sequels (knowing Cameron, he'll probably cast Henry as an evil colonialist toxic male soldier who hates the natural world). I'd like him to get a shot at being the next James Bond, but I don't think that's going to happen. The truth is, modern Hollywood hates traditional alpha males like Cavill. They'll tolerate people like Momoa, Hemsworth and Dwayne Johnson as long as they're making money off them, but they'd much rather push scrawny androgynous actors like Timothée Chalamet, Harry Styles and Ezra Miller in an attempt to redefine masculinity as something weak, emasculated and nonthreatening.

Cavill's still in his thirties and in excellent physical shape. I reckon he could have continued playing Superman for at least another five to ten years before his age became an issue. I know that Superman's usually portrayed as not physically maturing after he turns thirty, but George Reeves continued playing the part until he was 45 and no one seemed to object. Cavill was cast as Superman back in January 2011, which means he's now occupied the role for almost 13 years. How many Superman movies has he starred in during that time, not counting cameos? Three. And only one of them was a solo film. By contrast Tom Holland has played Spider-Man in six movies since his casting was announced in 2015, and three of them were solo movies. WB squandered Henry.

So that brings us to the question of who will succeed him. The fan favourite to replace Cavill in recent years seems to be American actor David Corenswet. He's 29 years old, 6'4 and has that classic chiselled blue-eyed Superman look. He resembles a cross between Welling and Cavill.

Like Christopher Reeve, Corenswet is also a graduate of Julliard. I've never seen him in anything, so I can't comment on his acting abilities, but he has quite a few credits to his name and definitely looks the part. He'd just need to spend a few months bulking up at the gym.

However, considering the current state of the entertainment industry, I wouldn't be surprised if the studio intentionally cast an actor that doesn't resemble the Superman from the comics. If they do, we'll end up with yet another fan baiting situation on our hands. Like we haven't had enough of those lately.

Does anyone have any other casting suggestions?