Henry Cavill Is Getting Romantic For His Next Movie Role, But Not With Lois Lane

Henry Cavill as Superman in superhero suit
(Image credit: (Warner Bros))

After years of being best known as the DCEU’s Man of Steel, Henry Cavill is one of the most sought-after talents working in Hollywood today. With that comes a lot of options, and Cavill looks to be fancying himself a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Coming off playing Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes and Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher, the actor has now signed on to star in a romance, but no, the Lois Lane to his Superman is not involved.

Henry Cavill will be starring in an adaptation of the 2013 novel, The Rosie Project, which has long been in the works following the source material’s bestseller status. The Superman actor is set to play Don Tillman, the story’s unlikely leading man who is a genetics professor with Asperger’s syndrome, per Giant Freakin Robot's exclusive.

Cavill’s latest role follows the 38-year-old also signing on to star in the Highlander reboot along with playing a spy in Argylle alongside Bryce Dallas Howard and Samuel L. Jackson. The actor is certainly diversing his career with his recent choices and The Rosie Project continues this. The book was an unlikely rom-com that had Don Tillman meeting a bartender named Rosie who is looking for help in finding her birth father.

Don Tillman is a socially awkward type in the book who has never been on a second date, but decides to embark on something he calls the “Wife Project,” where he uses logic to determine partners who could be “the one” for him. Amidst Don’s experiment of sorts, Rosie unexpectedly comes into his life to ask for his help with her search. The romance explores the idea of opposites attract and how Don’s logical approach to finding love doesn’t take into account how random and beautiful natural chemistry can be.

I’ll assure you, most book readers would not have jumped to Henry Cavill as their first pick for the lead of The Rosie Project. That’s not to say he won’t be a good choice, but in the book he gave the vibe of Jim Parsons’ Sheldon Cooper or Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes. It will be interesting to see how Henry Cavill decides to embody a character like this who doesn’t have the actor’s natural charms at his whim.

Back in 2015, The Rosie Project was in the works with Jennifer Lawrence set to play Rosie, a character who is a smoker, drinker and serially late, just about everything Don Tillman isn’t looking for in a woman. No word yet who will star opposite Henry Cavill in the rom-com but honestly, J-Law would still be a great choice.

Although news like this bums DCEU fans a bit more as Henry Cavill continues to take projects that will not see him reprising his role as Superman, it’s also exciting to see the actor take on different genres in his career.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.