James Gunn Already Has a Brilliant Fix For DC's Most Brutal Firing

When James Gunn took over thenew direction for DC's superhero movies, one of the earliest decisions was about letting go of Henry Cavill as the then-incumbent Superman.In a new interview with Josh Horowitz for theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, Gunn revealed, for the first time, the painful moment in which he and producer Peter Safran told Cavill that the actor would not be returning as Superman. However, within this sad story, there's a silver lining: Gunn made it 100 percent clear he's already talked about bringing Cavill back to the DCU, as a totally different character.

While Gunn admits that it was "terrible" to have to directly let Cavill go, he did reveal that he and Safran met with Cavill in person rather than make a phone call. Speaking to Horowitz, Gunn described Cavill as an "absolute gentleman" and said that Cavill asked that he "be able to reveal it himself," meaning that Cavill wanted to be able to tell the public he wasn't coming back as Superman in a future DC film.

And thenHorowitz asked Gunn the big question: "Would it be too confusing to cast him in your DC universe?"

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Gunn's answer was clear. It would "absolutely not" be too confusing. "As another character?" Gunn said. "We talked to him about it on that day.I would love to put Henry in something."

As of now, there's already a precedent for this kind of thing. Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in six films for the now-defunct DCEU continuity,will star as Lobo in the DCU's Supergirlnext year. This isn't something that could happen; this is something that has already happened. And, in case any forgot, Momoa starred alongside Cavill's Superman in both versions of Justice League.

So, yes, Gunn could fix DC's most brutal firing by bringing Henry Cavill back as a totally different DC character. The only question now is who?

Obviously, the most hilarious move would be to hire Cavill as a new DCU version of Batman/Bruce Wayne, though that feels very unlikely. At the same time, there are plenty of villains Cavill could play in the DCU. In fact, imagining him as Brainiac or Darkseid already feels kind of awesome.

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There are also, of course, other Kryptonians that Cavill could play. For example, if James Gunn wanted to do storylines about the "Bottle City of Kandor" (a shrunken part of Krypton that Superman sometimes keeps in the Fortress of Solitude), Cavill could play the Kryptonian hero Van-Zee, a cousin of Superman who has a superhero identity known as Nightwing.

In short, there are a lot of options for Cavill to return to the world of DC movies. And with the new Supermanputting the franchise in a confident direction, it seems that anything is possible.

Related: Henry Cavill's Net Worth Is Superman-Sized

James Gunn Already Has a Brilliant Fix For DC's Most Brutal Firing first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 19, 2025