The ultimate years of the DC Prolonged Universe threw up some splendidly deranged, perplexing, and even downright tragic moments. There was the time James Gunn said “The Flash” was one of the best superhero movies he’d ever seen, just for the movie to turn out to be an uneven, janky, CGI-laden, nostalgia-bait box office disaster of superheroic proportions. Then, there was “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” which despite being a reminder that superhero flicks can be fun failed to herald the crowds, prompting star Zachary Levi to have a full social media meltdown throughout which he posted videos starting with an impassioned rendition of Journey’s “Lights” earlier than urging individuals to see his film and placing individuals’s lack of curiosity all the way down to them wanting “darkish” and “nothing however intense” motion. A part of Levi’s grievance was seemingly that Dwayne Johnson had axed a “Shazam! 2” post-credit scene, which he thought-about to be an enormous deal that may have helped his film make greater than $134 million worldwide — and that is the place issues acquired really dismal for the DCEU.
All of us certainly keep in mind Johnson promising that his “Black Adam” film would change “the hierarchy of energy within the DC Universe.” However when the movie made $393 million on a $200 million finances (not even sufficient to interrupt even when factoring in advertising and marketing prices), Johnson appeared completely incapable of accepting that his movie was not the mega-hit he’d envisioned. Then got here the really weird second when Henry Cavill, whose Superman had a cameo in “Black Adam,” introduced he was formally “again” because the Man of Metal within the DCEU. There have been a number of perplexing facets to this growth. For one factor, Cavill made the purportedly “official” announcement from his yard with a selfie video. For an additional, this all befell amid what was a dismaying state of affairs for “Black Adam” on the field workplace. As such, many DC followers who have been already troubled to see their beloved franchise flailing so conspicuously have been left confused and troubled by the entire thing — and apparently, they weren’t the one ones, as James Gunn, who’s now working issues over at DC Studios, additionally could not wrap his head round any of it.
James Gunn was extra confused than anybody by Henry Cavill’s Superman return
The downfall of the DCEU is an advanced piece of current cinematic historical past, so when you want a refresher on Dwayne Johnson and Henry Cavill’s bizarre attempts to stay in DC’s cinematic universe, we have already assembled a timeline of this complete tawdry affair. In easy phrases, Johnson appeared set on taking on because the main voice at what was then the DC Movies division of Warner Bros., and had come to blows with then-head Walter Hamada about how finest to steer the franchise shifting ahead. Once I say “come to blows,” I imply simply crammed a Henry Cavill cameo in his “Black Adam” film regardless of Hamada advising towards it.
When this cameo did not generate sufficient buzz to make “Black Adam” a industrial success, Johnson and Cavill went into “activation” mode, which basically means the Superman actor jumped on social media and introduced he was formally returning as Supes in an try to spice up the field workplace take, maybe on the behest of Dwayne Johnson, we do not know. Sadly for them, mass audiences responded with a collective shrug, and all people got here away from the entire thing very like Superman after going 10 rounds with Black Adam: confused, a bit of shaken, and probably not desirous to see rather more of Dwayne Johnson in a CGI leotard any extra.
However essentially the most confused individual was certainly James Gunn, who, throughout an look on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, revealed that the identical day Cavill introduced his triumphant return, he was inking a deal to utterly reboot the DC cinematic universe with a brand new “Superman” film — which lastly debuted in July 2025. As Gunn — who’s now the co-head of DC Studios — informed host Josh Horowitz, “The day our deal closed, unexpectedly, they have been asserting that Henry was again, and I am like, ‘What is going on on?’ We all know what the plan is. The plan was to come back in and do ‘Superman.'”
James Gunn will need to have been really bewildered by Henry Cavill’s announcement
It will need to have been really mystifying to have signed a deal to overtake Warner Bros.’ complete DC Cinematic Universe on the identical day {that a} former Superman actor was asserting he could be the official Man of Metal for the DCEU shifting ahead — particularly because it seems Henry Cavill’s Superman recasting was considered much earlier, with Gunn being approached to recast the position effectively earlier than he and Peter Safran took over as co-heads of DC Studios. However when James Gunn says “they” have been asserting Henry Cavill’s return, in actuality, “they” weren’t asserting something. That’s, Warner Bros. wasn’t asserting something, and fairly rightly, since Cavill did not have a deal for any extra Superman films on the time. It was Cavill who was publicly declaring his comeback had been made official. However this was already suspect since his social media movies weren’t accompanied by any official WB press releases of any variety.
Throughout his Comfortable Unhappy Confused look, Gunn mentioned, “It was actually unfair to [Cavill] and was a complete bummer,” which is fascinating because it implies that Cavill was merely finishing up no matter Warner Bros. was telling him to do behind the scenes. However based on Gunn, CEO David Zaslav was very a lot set on razing the DCEU completely, as evidenced by the truth that he was signing Gunn on the very second Cavill was telling everybody he was again.
As Gunn sees it, this all stemmed from “a vacuum” at DC Movies, which is a reference to the truth that Walter Hamada stepped down as DC Movies head two days earlier than “Black Adam” debuted in theaters. The DC Studios co-head continued, “Lots of people have been […] they needed to tackle what they needed to do with DC and have been attempting to drive their manner, and it simply was by no means part of the equation for David Zazlav, who was the top of WB.” The “Superman” director does not make clear who these “individuals” have been, however when you’re imagining a big former wrestler with a variety of goodwill to squander, you are in all probability onto one thing.
Following this complete sorry debacle, Gunn was put within the place of sitting down with Cavill and formally letting him go. However based on the DC Studios head, the actor was an “absolute gentleman,” and solely requested that he be capable of reveal the information himself, which, contemplating he’d informed everybody he was coming again within the first place, was in all probability a good suggestion. So, Cavill remains a great Superman who never got a great Superman movie. That mentioned, Gunn additionally confirmed that he’d be joyful to solid the British star in his burgeoning DC Universe, so his superhero days may not be over but. If he does play one other DC character sooner or later, although, it is in all probability finest to attend for another person to announce it.
