Henry Cavill’s Superman Exit Just Took Another Unexpected & Worse Turn

Henry Cavill’s Superman exit turned out to be much messier than fans thought. After not appearing in any DC movie since 2017’s Justice League, Cavill made a surprise return as Superman in 2022’s Black Adam.

That moment felt like a big comeback, especially after Cavill himself announced he was returning for more movies. But soon after, things changed completely.

Not long after Cavill’s big return, James Gunn and Peter Safran were announced as the new heads of DC Studios. At that point, Gunn already had his own Superman project planned. He chose David Corenswet as the new Superman, and his version of the character has recently been introduced to strong praise from both critics and fans.

On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gunn explained how Cavill’s situation happened behind the scenes. Gunn said that he and Safran were still finalizing their deal to take over DC Studios when the announcement about Cavill’s return happened. Gunn said, “The day our deal closed, all of sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on? We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do Superman.’ It was really unfair to him and was a total bummer.”

But there was a vacuum at the time, and a lot of people were…they wanted to take on what they wanted to do with DC, and they were trying to force their way in.

According to Gunn, Cavill’s return was never something that Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO David Zaslav actually planned. Gunn explained that, at the time, different people inside the company were trying to take control of DC’s future and making their own moves. Gunn said, “This was never a part of the equation for David Zaslav.”

Gunn is most likely referencing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who attempted to take over the studios with his manager. Rumors started making rounds a while back that The Rock wanted to shake things up at DC completely. He and his manager, Dany Garcia, reportedly wanted to take over leadership and put their own production company, Seven Bucks, in charge. They even aimed to replace then-DC Studios chief Walter Hamada.

According to a report published by The Wrap, The Rock and Garcia met with Zaslav in 2022 to discuss not only adding Superman back into Black Adam but also the possibility of Seven Bucks running DC instead of Hamada. However, someone close to Seven Bucks denied that the meeting was about pushing Garcia to replace Hamada.

In the end, Garcia was not hired to lead DC, and after James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to take charge, The Rock and Seven Bucks were pushed out of the DC division. This shakeup also led to former Superman actor Henry Cavill firing Dany Garcia as his manager.

After taking over, Gunn and Safran met with Cavill. Gunn said Cavill handled the situation respectfully, calling him “an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it.” Gunn also shared that Cavill asked to be the one to announce his exit himself. Gunn recalled Cavill telling them, “The only thing I ask is that I’m able to reveal it myself as opposed to coming from you guys.”

Even though Cavill didn’t continue as Superman, Gunn made it clear that he’d like to work with him again in the DC Universe. He said, “As another character? Absolutely not a problem. I talked to him about it on that day. Yeah, I would love to put Henry in something.”

In the end, Cavill’s Superman return in Black Adam was never meant to lead to anything else. While that’s disappointing, Gunn’s latest comments suggest there’s still a chance Cavill could return to DC someday, just not as Superman.

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