Henry Cavill Says Goodbye To Superman, And It Sucks

Recently it seemed as though Superman would once again be portrayed by Henry Cavill. With Zack Snyder's reign of the DC Extended Universe in the rearview mirror, the remnants of what he created are disappearing. After Black Adam, Cavill showed up in a stinger to show that Superman was back. Well, Superman will indeed be back, but will no longer be played by Cavill.

In charge of the DCEU now are James Gunn and Peter Safran, and they want to look to tell stories involving a younger version of Superman. Cavill is out of the role, and had also recently announced that he was leaving The Witcher series on Netflix. A few days ago he announced that he will be both producing and starring in a show based on the table-top game, Warhammer 40,000. Regarding the announcement, Paul Tassi from Forbes puts the announcement into perspective better than I could:

"That may sound random to you, or like some sort of downgrade, but it you know Henry Cavill, you also know that he is a giant nerd, which I mean as a compliment. He's the guy who almost missed his Superman callback because he was playing World of Warcraft. He builds PCs while wearing tank tops in his spare time. And he's an enormous Warhammer 40,000 fan... If there's a a Henry Cavill bucket list dream project, it's probably not playing James Bond, as previously rumoured, it's this."

So, it's good news for Cavill.  It should also be good news for those of us who really didn't enjoy the work of Snyder within the DCEU, right? Wrong. Quite, quite wrong.

While I have a history of not connecting to the majority of Snyder's work (there are a few films that I enjoyed, but not a high percentage), I felt that pretty much all of the casting that happened in Man of Steel, Batman V Superman, and Justice League were perfect. Maybe not so much at the moment of release, but as time has passed I very much appreciate the casting that took place. 

Now, that's not saying that I liked the characters or even some of the performances, which may sound confusing. Zack Snyder does what Zack Snyder does, and usually that means that I find a lack of human connection with the characters in his movies. Personally, I didn't find Cavill's portrayal of Superman to be one of hope and justice, but more of a disconnected version of an icon that we can never feel close to. This isn't on Cavill, it's on the script and the directing. Cavill, I believe, has all of the ingredients to do a proper portrayal of Superman, making him perfectly cast. The problem was simply that the idea of Superman (and most other characters) that Snyder held was one that lacked the proper humanity needed.

As far as all of the other casting decisions, from Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, to Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, to Jason Momoa as Aquaman, I loved every casting decision that was made. Each person had what it took to give proper justice to their characters, they were just hampered by the narrative angle that was taken.

As the Snyder-Verse comes to an end under the new creative leadership of Gunn and Safran, I'm not super happy. True, I really couldn't care less about some of the films that took place under Snyder, but I think all of the people selected to be in front of the camera were incredible choices. I would have loved to have seen what Cavill could have dished out under new leadership and direction, but that won't be happening, and I'm sad about that.