Henry Cavill was one of the many notable names to lavish praise on Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with the four-hour epic effectively banishing all memories of the Superman star’s distracting upper lip that plagued the theatrical edition to repeated and increasingly hilarious effect.
However, some fans will have been left disappointed that The Witcher star still hasn’t shed any light on his immediate future as the DCEU’s Big Blue Boy Scout, with the rumor mill having remained in a state of near-constant overdrive since it was first announced that J.J. Abrams was rebooting the iconic superhero with a script from Ta-Nehisi Coates, making it pretty clear that the next solo outing for the Kryptonian is going to feature a new actor in the role.
Since then, there’s been a barrage of speculation swirling around Cavill’s time as Superman, with insider Daniel Richtman offering up the report this week that some Warner Bros. executives remain firmly in the 37 year-old’s corner, and he might not be done as Kal-El just yet as they’re fighting for him to stay on board. Obviously, the DCEU’s canonical Clark Kent is currently under contract with WB having inked an extension to his deal last summer, so he was hardly out in the cold to begin with.
That being said, Man of Steel 2 looks less likely than it ever has, despite the hugely positive reception to the Snyder Cut. Cavill wants to play the role for years to come, but unless the studio bites the bullet and pays off his contract to get rid of him, which would be guaranteed to generate massive backlash, then they find themselves in a potentially sticky situation. After all, once Abrams’ Superman is cast, they’ll have two people under contract to portray the same character, and they’ll need to figure out what to do with the one who got the job first.