James Gunn continues to use social media as a tool to communicate with passionate DC fans… for better or worse. Quite often, Gunn will hop onto Twitter to respond to a particular form of backlash, or clarify mistaken reports before they run rampant on a Reddit sub. Gunn is upfront and transparent with the DC fans on social media, and sometimes even lets them know things they probably didn’t want to hear. Like the fact that he had been hired to write his Superman movie, Superman: Legacy, six months ago. Or, in other words, long before Warner Bros. let Henry Cavill make a video proclaiming to fans that he was returning to the role.
Gunn took to Twitter to address an IG story that talked about two of his movies being in pre-production over at WB: the animated Creature Commandos, and a Superman movie. When fans pushed him a little on the timeline, he revealed via Tweet that he had been hired to write a new Superman movie six months ago. And that made some DC fans come to this conclusion:
I know Henry Cavill should have made sure a contract was signed before he announced his return but….This is some bullshi*** pic.twitter.com/Nr1ap7SUFSFebruary 20, 2023
James Gunn also made it clear that the Superman movie he was scripting always was meant to be separate from any Man of Steel 2 plans that Warner Bros. might have had with Henry Cavill. But he definitely clarified that he was hired to work on Superman before taking over as the co-lead of DC Studios (with Peter Safran).
It was. I was hired to write Superman Legacy over six months ago.February 19, 2023
Henry Cavill fans started to do the math (as seen above), and realize that this meant WB knew that James Gunn was mapping out a fresh direction for DC’s Blue Boy Scout, all while allowing Cavill to make an announcement that he was returning to the Superman role. This occurred after he filmed a cameo for Black Adam, which looked like this:
And DC fans, particularly those who loved Henry Cavill in the role and wanted to see him return, flooded social media with angry messages like this one:
What this means is that everything from @WBD was a lie just to get people in the seats to see #BlackAdam. Anybody who is a fan of DC should feel sickened and disgusted by this. WBD clearly does not care about anybody! We are all just pawns for profit. Henry Cavill got fucked! https://t.co/VubB5WTJ8MFebruary 20, 2023
And then there are the fans who blame not only Warner Bros., but Dwayne Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions. Some assume that The Rock and his team manipulated Henry Cavill into believing that he had a future at WB, even though it likely was known that DC Films was going to go in a different direction and attempt a reboot of the universe. Is it possible that The Rock used Cavill in order to give Black Adam a boost? Or did he also believe that WB was going to allow Black Adam to continue, and build toward that face off with Superman in a future film?
Henry Cavill if he ever sees Dwayne Johnson again: https://t.co/A3uKbHiqRU pic.twitter.com/MD8BBCEmUvFebruary 19, 2023
No matter how you slice it, this entire situation is a massive disaster behind the scenes. Key executives who likely were part of these conversations no longer are in place at DC Films, so they can be made to look like scapegoats for the uncomfortable decisions that happened at the time.
There’s no getting around the fact that bags were fumbled during this process, and Henry Cavill was made to look like a fool. There’s no doubt that Cavill will prevail, and already has some exciting projects on his horizon. But yeah, we would have loved to see him in another Superman movie… at least one. Instead, we have these Upcoming DC Movies to look forward to, including Shazam: Fury of the Gods landing in theaters in March.
