While movies based on DC Comics characters are back on top thanks to successes like Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Joker, there are still a lot of questions regarding the future of the DC Universe on the big screen. The biggest one is just what the future holds for the Man of Steel.
We know that Henry Cavill is no longer under contract to play Superman in any future films, and back a little over a year ago it was rumored that Warner Bros. was looking at Michael B. Jordan to take on the iconic cape, and while that seemed like a bit of a surprise pick, it was maybe more real than we thought. Variety now says that Jordan met with WB to discuss the role, so there's a real possibility it could happen, though not anytime soon.
Apparently, this is because Warner Bros. isn't looking to actually make another Superman movie for a few years, not before 2023 by some estimates, and thus, with Jordan being a very busy man and a high demand actor, he wasn't in any position to commit to the role. Still, it doesn't sound like that door is entirely closed, so if wheels continue to turn, we could still see all this becoming real.
Of course, because we're looking several years down the line, we could just as easily see some very different things happening between now and when any theoretical Superman movie becomes less theoretical.
The issue appears to be that there's a general feeling that Superman is not relevant to the current world, and so many creative partners have been met with to discuss different ways to fix this problem.
I'm not sure where the problem is. Man of Steel was a solid box office success and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a bonafide blockbuster. Justice League, may have struggled, but it was the movie where Superman had the smallest role. It feels like Superman is fine and the audience is there.
This all started last year when a report surfaced claiming Henry Cavill was out as Superman, but the truth is simply that he's no longer under contract to play the character in any more DC movies. The studio certainly could go back and try to work out a deal with him if there was a desire to make more Superman movies in the existing cinematic universe, but at this point that doesn't seem likely.
All of DC's success of late has come in standalone stories, and in the case of Joker, a movie that isn't even connected to the larger universe. Batman is getting an apparently unconnected film from Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson, and so it would seem that's likely where Superman's fate lies, whenever anybody figures out how to make it work.
