It's been a weird day for Superman and DC Extended Universe fans. This morning, news broke that Henry Cavill is reportedly hanging up the Kryptonian cape and leaving Warner Bros, thus ending his tenure as the DCEU's Superman at three movies. In the hours since then, there's been a lot of talk about what this means for the future of the superhero franchise, but now Cavill himself has responded to these rumors in, quite frankly, a bizarre way.
Ok, so even if you just watched the video, let's recap. We have Henry Cavill wearing a Krypton Lifting Team T-shirt, looking at the camera solemnly and lifting a Superman toy as a dog barking version of "The Blue Danube" plays. Oh, and he wrote "Today was exciting #Superman." Seriously, how am I supposed to react to this? Cavill isn't confirming or denying if today's Superman news is true, but one thing is certain: it's going to get a lot of people's attention. You might as well put this video next to the word "cryptic" in the dictionary.
Debuting as Superman in 2013's Man of Steel, Henry Cavill reprised Kal-El/Clark Kent for 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League last year, which saw the character being resurrected. While there hadn't been any official word recently on if Man of Steel 2 was moving forward, unlike with Ben Affleck, who has long been rumored to be exiting the Batman role, there wasn't any indication that Cavill was bidding farewell to Superman. However, according to today's report, Warner Bros was unsuccessful in attempting to secure Cavill for a Shazam! cameo due to "schedule conflicts," and now apparently the door is closing on him reprising Superman, which is reportedly part of Warner Bros' efforts of hitting the reset on certain parts of the DCEU. Keep in mind that the studio hasn't officially confirmed Cavill's Superman exit, and the actor's Instagram video raises more questions than answers.
As things stand now, supposedly Warner Bros plans to keep the DCEU's Kryptonian mythology going with a Supergirl movie, which is being penned by Oren Uziel. The DCEU also isn't going anywhere, as Aquaman arrives in December, Shazam! and Wonder Woman 1984 have 2019 covered, and movies like Birds of Prey, The Flash and The Batman are on the way. As for Cavill, he recently portrayed August Walker in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and it was announced last week that he'll star in the Netflix series The Witcher.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on the DCEU, Superman related and otherwise. If you're interested in what other movies are in development for this shared universe, look through our DC movies guide.
