The DCEU is a damn shit show at this point. Justice League was not good, and that’s putting it mildly. Then, you have all of the extracurricular stuff going on – Jared Leto voicing his displeasure with how they treated The Joker, Ben Affleck bowing out of the Batman role, and the pounding most of these movies have taken from critics (shout out to Wonder Woman for being the lone bright spot in all of this). Now, to make matters worse, you can Henry Cavill leaving to the list of issues.
Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:
The DC cinematic universe appears to be losing its Man of Steel.
Henry Cavill, who has played Superman in three films, is parting ways with Warner Bros., sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. The British actor, who first donned the blue suit for 2013’s Man of Steel, and then starred in 2016’s Batman v. Superman and last year’s Justice League, is said to be hanging up the red cape.
Warners had been trying to enlist Cavill, who most recently co-starred in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, for a Superman cameo in Shazam!, which stars Zachary Levi and will bow April 5. But contract talks between Cavill’s WME reps and Warners broke down, and the door is now closing on other potential Superman appearances.
That’s because the studio has shifted its focus to a Supergirl movie, which will be an origin story featuring a teen superheroine. This effectively removes an actor of Cavill’s age from the storyline’s equation given that Superman, aka Kal-El, would be an infant, according to DC lore.
Furthermore, Warners isn’t likely to make a solo Superman film for at least several years, according to another source. “Superman is like James Bond, and after a certain run you have to look at new actors,” says a studio source. As such, Cavill will join Ben Affleck, who isn’t expected to reprise his role for director Matt Reeves’ forthcoming Batman stand-alone film, as a hero on the way out.
Unbelievable. I wrote a little bit about everything that DC has done wrong so far in a piece detailing how Sony could potentially make their Spider-Verse work. But, even with all of that in mind, losing Cavill and losing Affleck is just bizarre. Batman and Superman are easily the two biggest building blocks of the entire DC mythos. How can you not have those roles on lock? How can those characters not be central figures moving forward?
What are they going to do? Go the Terrence Howard–Don Cheadle route? The new actor just shows up in the next movie and we pretend there hasn’t been a change?
I don’t know if there’s any one person that’s in charge of the DCEU the way Kevin Feige runs shit in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), but whoever that person is has to be feeling some sort of pressure at this point. How could you not? You can’t just sit there and watch negative review after negative review roll in, deal with all of these comings and goings, and still feel good about the direction of your “universe.”
At this point, just blow it all up and start from scratch.
Get a good Superman. Find you a knockout Batman (loving the rumors of Kit Harington being the guy, by the way). And, build good characters out around those two. Let’s just forget about the DCEU the same way we forgot about Ryan Reynolds playing Green Lantern.
Develop characters through good standalone movies. Don’t worry about rushing to get all the heroes together. Let’s just get the basics right. Do Superman right. Do Batman right. Then, we can start adding pieces.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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