Earlier this morning, the Internet was rocked by the news that Henry Cavill will no longer play the part of Superman now that Justice League has come and gone.
Scheduling issues are largely to blame, as Warner Bros. had hoped to arrange a Cavill cameo in time for Shazam! Alas, those talks fell apart, which, coupled with the actor’s casting in The Witcher series and the decision to double down on the Supergirl origin movie, reaffirmed his decision to quit the DC Extended Universe altogether.
Or so says The Hollywood Reporter. Citing multiple sources familiar with the situation, the outlet broke the news that Henry Cavill is ostensibly finished with that iconic spandex – ditto for Ben Affleck, who is apparently close to the exit door, too.
All of this paves the way for Supergirl to take priority at Warner Bros., and based on THR’s scoop, that’s now very much the case:
The studio has shifted its focus to a Supergirl movie, which will be an origin story featuring a teen superheroine. This effectively removes an actor of Cavill’s age from the storyline’s equation given that Superman, aka Kal-El, would be an infant, according to DC lore.
The fact that Supergirl is being angled as an origin movie is fascinating in and of itself, though beyond that, there’s not much we know about Oren Uziel’s script.
One thing’s for sure: Henry Cavill is ostensibly out of the picture, with one studio insider claiming that, “there’s a recognition that some parts of the previous movies didn’t work.” And so begins a new era of DC films, and it’s fair to say that Supergirl will be hoping to take a leaf out of Wonder Woman‘s book ($821M worldwide) when the time comes for Kara Zor-El to take flight on the big screen.