It may be time for Henry Cavill to hang up the cape and comb back the spit-curl. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Mission: Impossible — Fallout star and famed mustache model will no longer be playing Superman in Warner Bros.’ wild world of DC superhero films. Rumors about such a move swirled last week when it was announced that Cavill would be starring in Netflix’s video-game adaptation The Witcher, and it does indeed appear that scheduling conflicts may have been the initial root of the problem.
Cavill was being courted to cameo in next year’s DC outing Shazam! and, according to one THR source, just couldn’t make it fit. However, another source said the Witcher role came after negotiations for the cameo broke down for other reasons. Either way, it would seem that Cavill is joining Ben Affleck in the “quietly disappearing from the DC lineup†club, to be quasi-replaced by Supes’s cousin Supergirl in her upcoming debut film. In general, new DC movie chief Walter Hamada seems to be bullish on a change of course for the whole enterprise (while retaining Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, at least, and possibly Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Ezra Miller’s Flash), and this looks like another case of weight being tossed off the ship mid-turn.
Update: Per EW, Warner Bros. issued the following statement about Cavill and Superman: “While no decisions have been made regarding any upcoming Superman films, we’ve always had great respect for and a great relationship with Henry Cavill, and that remains unchanged.â€