Henry Cavill Shares His Earliest Superman Photo, Pays Tribute To His Mother For International Women’s Day

You may recall the first image of Henry Cavill as Superman ahead of the release of Man of Steel. It was a static image of him in the iconic suit and cape, standing in the rubble of what looks like a bank with his hand pressed back on the vault door. This might have been the first time the world saw him as Superman but it was hardly the first time he suited up. In a new post on Instagram, Cavill revealed a sweet message for his mother on International Women’s Day and accompanied it with an image of him as a young boy, fully clad in Superman pajamas. Check it out below!

“Today is International Women’s Day and I’m dedicating this post to the most magnificent woman I know. My mum,” Cavill wrote. “An extraordinary, powerful, tough, intelligent, resilient, kind, thoughtful and caring person. That little boy on her lap learned an awful lot about what it is to be a good man from her.” Cavill has been very open about how close he is to his mother throughout his film career, previously opening up about what her reaction would have been to seeing him on the set of Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

“Definitely, the helicopter sequence,” Cavill told Cinema Blend back in 2018. “That’s one of those things where, as much as I’m a passenger on that, it was an incredibly dangerous sequence that I’m relying upon my pilot — who is an exceptional pilot — and Tom — who is also an exceptional pilot — to not kill themselves, or each other, and therefore me in the process. And… it was a journey. [chuckles] But that’s one of those things where you think, ‘If my mother was here, she would be having very stern words with people.’”

The next place we’ll see Henry Cavill suit up as Superman is in the upcoming Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the four hour extended edition of the team-up movie that will no doubt reveal full sequences of his character previously unseen on the big screen. It was previously reported that he would appear in the Shazam sequel, his presence teased in the first film’s post-credit scene, but it would appear a scheduling conflict will prevent it in the end. Cavill will return to the world of The Witcher on Netflix soon with production underway on its second season.