In a Men's Health 's cover story last year, Cavill made it clear that he wasn't exactly ready to relinquish the role to anyone else just yet. The cape is still in the closet, he said. Its still mine. Im not going to sit quietly in the dark as all the stuff is going on. Ive not given up the role. Theres a lot I have to give for Superman yet. A lot of storytelling to do. A lot of real, true depths to the honesty of the character I want to get into. I want to reflect the comic books. Thats important to me. Theres a lot of justice to be done for Superman. The status is: Youll see.
The next question, at this point, is obvious. Cavill has lofty expectations for the character, so which DC vehicle will facilitate his return? There are a number of projects in the works, and several others that have been rumored and discussed.
Cavill has been publicly vocal and excited about the HBOMax release of director Zack Snyder's cut of Justice League , but the Variety report makes it clear that he won't be suiting back up for any sort of reshoot for that (the extra work on that film mostly would seem to stem from restoring and rebuilding the movie from unused footage, etc). Rather, he'll be making a cameo appearance in of DC's upcoming films; some speculation online has suggested that while a leading role for Cavill as Superman doesn't seem to be in the cards right now, he could be used in the upcoming slate a supporting player, similar to the way Mark Ruffalo is used as Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Below, we'll take a look and try to see what movie Cavill's Clark Kent/Superman could fit into.
Black Adam
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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is one of the most jovial and likable guys in Hollywood, but he's never seemed quite as excited about a role as he sounds about Black Adam. Black Adam is not too far off from DC's version of Venom a villain/anti-hero getting his own stand-alone film to star in. In The Rock's Instagram, he compared Black Adam's powers to those of Supes. "BLACK ADAM is blessed by magic with the powers equal to SUPERMAN, but the difference is he doesnt toe the mark or walk the line," he wrote. Wouldn't it be cool, then, to see these two face off?
In the comics, Black Adam is the arch-nemesis of Shazam!, who was of course played by Zachary Levi in the very fun 2019 movie of the same namea movie which saw a brief Superman appearance (though not Cavill) at its very end.
Black Adam was planned for a December 22, 2021 releasebut that was before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Still, this is one that's clearly in the works for DC, and would be a natural fit for a fun Cavill cameo.
The Suicide Squad
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Remember 2016's Suicide Squad? Honestly, if you don't, you're probably better off for it. But one interesting piece of that movie was the way Ben Affleck's Batman had a slightly-bigger-than-cameo role, facing off against the various baddies in early portions of the movie. If James Gunn's quasi-reboot of the franchise takes any cues, it could be interesting to see how Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Rick Flag (Joel Kinnamon) and Idris Elba's mystery character might take on the Man of Steel. The downside? Filming on the movie is wrapped, so this appearance would have to be already done, or have some sort of low-key reshoot to get it done.
Shazam! 2
A pretty obvious pick, if you've either: seen the first Shazam!, or read the above paragraph about Black Adam. The titular Black Adam (set to be played by The Rock) is Shazam!'s enemy; so this could be a movie of many cameos. At the end of the first Shazam! our hero decides to stunt on his classmates by bringing Superman to schoolthough we never see Mr. Kent's face. With the relationship between the two heroes established, Cavill popping up in the sequel here would be a fairly straightforward explanation and make a lot of sense. Almost too muchsense, in fact. There's got to be more to this, right?
The Batman
OK, fair warning: things might get a bit confusing here. The Batman is referenced in the Variety report of Cavill's return, and is clearly one of if not the biggest upcoming releases from DC. That being said, there's a giant elephant in the room: Robert Pattinson . We've already seen Cavill's Superman interact with a Bruce Wayne who looks like Ben Affleck in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, so how could it possibly be explained if he's all of a sudden spending time with the same guy, now looking like Robert Pattinson? Well, that's why these movies hire screenwriters and not writers on the internet. Figure it out, guys!
Aquaman 2
Another one that would have a pretty seamless entry point. Jason Momoa's Arthur Curry/Aquaman and Cavill's Superman already spent some time together on screen in Justice League, so no introduction would really be necessary here. The first Aquaman was the highest-grossing movie in DC history (over 1.148 billion worldwide), so juicing the sequel up with some star power would not be a bad idea.
Man of Steel 2
If this one were to happen, it would likely not be for a while, according to reports , and certainly after the Cavill cameo being announced. Still, given Warner's clear confidence in Snyder (they gave him $20-30 million in budget to finish his Justice League cut), it's very possible that they'd let him take another shot on a Superman standalone film since the first Man of Steel in 2013. Just don't expect this one any time soon.
