Just days after Henry Cavill and Dwayne Johnson announced that the DC film universe’s Superman was back in the saddle with a not-so-shocking cameo in Black Adam, Cavill hit the red carpet for the upcoming Enola Holmes 2, and was asked about his role as the Man of Steel. Needless to say, the actor had very little he was able to say, but he promised that there would be a hopeful and optimistic take on the character on the way. That, he said, is essential to Superman, and the main thing that he wants going forward. Some fans are likely to be thrilled with that statement, while others might take it as Cavill letting down fans of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which has drawn criticism for being too introspective and gloomy.
It’s probably safe to say Snyder doesn’t fall into the latter camp. He recently appeared on a video podcast Cavill guested on, congratulating the actor on his return to the Superman role.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“Right now, I can’t really talk about anything,” Cavill told Entertainment Tonight. “What I do want is hope, optimism, and joy. Those three things are essential to the character.”
You can see the clip below.
The actor was cast as Clark Kent/Superman for 2013’s Man of Steel. He reprised the role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League (both versions), with rumors and fan demands running more or less nonstop since BvS that Cavill would eventually get a Superman sequel.
“We fought for years to bring you back,” Johnson wrote on Twitter. “They always said no. But to [Dany and Hiram Garcia] & myself ‘no’ was not an option. We can’t build out our DCEU w/out the world’s greatest superhero. And fans will always come first.”
Man of Steel, from director Zack Snyder, kicked off DC’s interconnected film universe, and the trend of Snyder’s DC movies being intensely loved and intensely hated by warring factions of the audience. Batman v Superman only exacerbated that dynamic, and then Justice League turned out to be a disaster so profound it took five years and a director’s cut before Warners could move forward from it.
Even among Snyder’s harshest critics, the performances turned in by Cavill and Amy Adams as Superman and Lois Lane have mostly drawn praise. You could print out enough glib “He’s a great Superman, too bad he was stuck in those movies” tweets to wallpaper the White House. In spite of that, the former management at Warners was apparently resistant to bringing Cavill back, with Black Adam star Dwayne Johnson saying he had to fight tooth and nail to secure a cameo for Cavill.
Rumors have been circulating in recent weeks that the star’s Black Adam cameo was part of a larger push to get a new movie for Cavill. How and whether that movie will be impacted by the events of The Flash remains to be seen. At one point, rumors circulated saying that The Flash would include a sequence time-traveling into the events of Man of Steel.
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