DC Studios' James Gunn Addresses Major Recasting Rumors

12/19/2022 03:33 pm EST

With James Gunn and Peter Safran now at the helm of DC Studios, fans are curious to see what future movies, television shows, video games, and more will be inspired by the publisher's crop of characters. As the past month-or-so has shown, those future plans have involved some major changes along the way, beginning with Henry Cavill being recast as Clark Kent / Superman in the franchise going forward. This, combined with rumors surrounding Aquaman star Jason Momoa jumping to play Lobo instead, has snowballed into speculation that the entire franchise is going to reboot and recast other actors.

On Monday, Gunn took to Twitter to address those rumors, which have insinuated that every established DC actor will be recast, outside of those who have starred in his own The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker projects. As Gunn put it, "I keep seeing posts with this untrue theory. We're not recasting everyone except The Suicide Squad."

Why is Henry Cavill recast as Superman?

As Gunn shared last week right before the Cavill news broke, he is currently writing the script for a new Superman movie — which, while not an origin story, will revolve around a younger version of the character. Cavill confirmed his exit soon after.

"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," Gunn's tweets read at the time. "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."

Will the DC Universe reboot?

As Gunn has hinted on social media amid the rumors, the plan going forward is to tell a cohesive story servicing the DC characters — but that the decisions made to get there "are not going to make every single person happy every step of the way." Based on Gunn's new tweet, those decisions might not involve getting rid of some of the actors already in place.

In addition to the news of Cavill being recast as Superman, it has been confirmed that Gunn and Safran met with fellow Justice League co-star, Bruce Wayne / Batman actor Ben Affleck, about potentially directing a film for DC Studios. It is unclear if this meeting was also about Affleck potentially playing Batman again, with Gunn teasing that Batman will have a significant part of the main DCU, or for him to step behind the camera and have that role also be recast.

What do you think of James Gunn's newest tweet about a possible DC Universe reboot? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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