James Gunn’s Latest Superman: Legacy Reveal Has Henry Cavill Fans Upset Once Again
James Gunn continues to use social media as a tool to communicate with ardent DC fans… for better and for worse. Quite often Gunn jumps on Twitter respond to a particular form of backlash, or clear up erroneous reports before they rage on a Reddit sub. Gunn is open and transparent with DC fans on social media, sometimes even letting them know things they probably didn’t want to hear. Like the fact that he was hired to write his Superman movie, Superman: Legacy, six months ago. Or in other words, long before Warner Bros. Henry Cavill made a video announcing this to fans he returned to the role.
Gunn took to Twitter to address an IG story involving two of his films that are in pre-production at WB: the animated creature commands, and a Superman movie. With fans pushing him on the timeline, he revealed via tweet that he had been hired to write a new Superman movie six months ago. And that made some DC fans come to this conclusion:
I know Henry Cavill should have made sure a contract was signed before announcing his return but…. That’s a bullshi*** pic.twitter.com/Nr1ap7SUFSFebruary 20, 2023
James Gunn also made it clear that he wrote the screenplay for the Superman film should always be separate of any man of steel 2 Plans Warner Bros. may have had with Henry Cavill. But he definitely made it clear that he was hired to work on Superman before co-running DC Studios (with Peter Safran).
It was. I was commissioned to write Superman Legacy over six months ago.February 19, 2023
Henry Cavill fans began to do the math (as seen above), realizing that it meant WB knew James Gunn was charting a new direction for DC’s Blue Boy Scout while Cavill could announce it Return to the Superman role. This came after he filmed a cameo for Black Adamwhat looked The:
And DC fans, especially those who loved Henry Cavill in the role and wanted to see him return, flooded social media with angry messages like this one:
That means everything from @WBD was a lie just to get people to see #BlackAdam. Anyone who is a fan of DC should be disgusted and disgusted by this. WBD clearly doesn’t care about anyone! We are all just pawns of profit. Henry Cavill got fucked! https://t.co/VubB5WTJ8MFebruary 20, 2023
And then there are the fans who blame not only Warner Bros. but also Dwayne Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions. Some assume that The Rock and his team manipulated Henry Cavill into believing he had a future at WB, despite probably knowing that DC Films would go in a different direction and attempt a universe reboot. Is it possible that The Rock used Cavill to give Black Adam a boost? Or did he also believe that WB would allow Black Adam to move on and build on that who compete against Superman in a future movie?
Henry Cavill if he ever sees Dwayne Johnson again: https://t.co/A3uKbHiqRU pic.twitter.com/MD8BBCEmUvFebruary 19, 2023
No matter how you slice it, this whole situation is a massive behind-the-scenes disaster. Key executives likely to have participated in these conversations are no longer available from DC Filmsso that they stand as scapegoats for the uncomfortable decisions.
There’s no mistaking the fact that bags were fumbled in the process and Henry Cavill looked like a fool. Cavill will undoubtedly prevail and already has some exciting projects on the horizon. But yeah, we would have liked to have seen him in another Superman movie… at least one. Instead we have these Upcoming DC Movies rejoice, incl Shazam: Wrath of the Gods Landing in theaters in March.