James Gunn On Replacing Henry Cavill As Superman
Along with Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, the new movie marks David Corenswet's first outing as Superman, following in the footsteps of Henry Cavill, who played the iconic role for nearly a decade before him.
If you can cast your mind back to late 2022, you might remember the confusion surrounding Henry's departure from the role. For context, in October that year, he announced that he'd be returning to play the Man of Steel, and then, less than two months later, he issued a statement saying that there'd been a change of plan.
'It's sad news, everyone. I will, after all, not be returning as Superman,' he shared on Instagram at the time, saying that he'd been 'told by the studio to announce [his] return back in October.' 'This news isn't the easiest, but that's life. The changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that.'
This all coincided with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over DC Studios in November 2022, and now, James — who directed and co-wrote the new Superman film — has opened up about the 'terrible' behind-the-scenes miscommunication that landed Henry in such an 'unfair' situation.
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, James said that, despite Henry announcing his return, there were already plans on paper to take Superman in a different, younger direction. 'It was terrible…The day our [DC] deal closed, all of a sudden, they were announcing that Henry was back,' the filmmaker said. 'And I'm like, 'What is going on?' We know what the plan is. The plan was to come in and do Superman.'
James put the miscommunication surrounding Henry's return down to other parts of the studio trying to 'force' a vision for DC that was 'never part of the equation.' This, he said, was 'really unfair to [Henry] and a total bummer.'
'That was really unfortunate,' James continued. 'So Peter and I [thought] the right thing to do was to sit down with [Henry] and talk to him. And we sat down and we talked to him. He was an absolute gentleman, a great guy about it. He said, 'The only thing I ask is that I'm able to reveal it myself as opposed to it coming from you guys.''
As we now know, Henry was able to break the news himself, and six months later, it was announced that David Corenswet — who is 10 years younger than Henry — would be donning the cape next. And here we are!
You can find James's full Happy Sad Confused interview here.
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