Henry Cavill has refused to rule out a return as Superman, telling Inverse he would “never say never” about playing the Man of Steel again — just two days after James Gunn and Peter Safran exited DC Studios, the regime that recast the role and ended his first run in the cape.
Asked in the interview, published on Wednesday, November 11, whether he would ever return to the role — including as an older Superman inspired by the acclaimed Kingdom Come comic storyline — Cavill said: “Look, there’s lots of fantastic storylines. There’s always a lot of opportunity. As the pigeon sang to Fievel in An American Tail, ‘never say never.’ And I buy into that. I’ve had such a wonderful time playing Superman in the past. I would never say never now.”
The door that Gunn closed
Cavill’s history with the role has had plenty of twists. He announced his return as Superman in October 2022 after a post-credits appearance in Black Adam, only for Gunn and Safran to take over DC Studios less than two months later and reboot the franchise from scratch, recasting the role with David Corenswet. In December 2022, Cavill confirmed he would not be returning after all, saying he had met Gunn and Safran and the news was not the easiest, “but that’s life.”
Now the people who made that call are gone. On November 9, Skydance announced that Gunn and Safran would step down, with former Marvel Studios executive Jeremy Latcham becoming president and chief creative officer of DC Studios on December 1. Gunn and Safran will remain involved creatively with existing projects, including the Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow, due in cinemas on July 9, 2027, but they will no longer control the studio’s direction.
A hint, not a plan
It is important not to overstate what Cavill said. He did not confirm discussions with DC Studios, endorse a specific project or suggest he would replace Corenswet, who currently portrays Superman in the DC Universe. As ComicBook.com put it, what Cavill has given fans is a hint, not a plan. The interview came while he was promoting a very different project — Mustache Protocol, a 16-bit game he built with Google, with Google donating $11 to Movember every time it is played from November 11 to 30, up to $500,000. Still, with the executives who removed him now gone, a return is no longer as impossible as it was last week. James Gunn and Peter Safran are out at DC Studios after four years, and Ebenezer tracking rises as Depp takes a $5M payday for his comeback.
