While Black Adam is the biggest movie in the country right now, the thing that most people are talking about coming out of the film is the fact that Superman has returned. Henry Cavill appeared on the mid-credits sequence of the film in his first appearance as the Son of Krypton since Justice League, and while we don’t know what the future holds, we know there is a future for Cavill as Superman, and that has fans, and the actor himself, quite excited.
Speaking with ScreenRant ahead of Cavill’s role as Sherlock Holmes in Enola Holmes 2, the Superman actor gave us some insight into his future as the big blue boy scout. While it’s unlikely even he knows what will happen from a plot standpoint, Cavill talked about the type of character he wants Superman to be going forward, and he’s clearly looking at crafting a more inspirational Superman. Cavill explained…
There is so much in the way of conversations to be had. Obviously, I have a very close connection to the character. And there is something extraordinarily special about him; extraordinarily special about his capacity to give and to love. I don’t mean romantically; I mean his love for Earth and for the people who live here, and to make people feel powerful—to make people feel like Superman themselves. I have plenty of desires for this, of course, which will be discussed more in time. But the most important thing, which I will be aiming for, is for the audience to leave the cinema and to feel like they can fly, to feel like they can protect, and to feel like they want to give to everyone else. That would be my goal.
This certainly sounds like Henry Cavill is expecting to perform a more traditional version of Superman going forward than he did in his previous DC films. Cavill’s Superman was a bit darker and more serious than the version that we saw from Christopher Reeve in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This was very much by design, but it split audiences. A lot of fans loved that new take on the character, but not everybody did.
The fate of Superman on the big screen had been a big question up until Black Adam. While there had never been any announcement of a new actor taking the role, indications were that Cavill's DC contract had expired, and there were no specfic plans at Warner Bros. to bring him back. There had been a previous attempt to bring Cavill's Superman into a post-credits scene in Shazam!, much like Black Adam, but the two sides could come to no agreement.
Of course, as Cavill says here, there’s still a lot more conversation to be had. While it seems likely a new Superman movie will be developed at some point in the future, there’s a lot going on in the DC universe before we get there, including a Flash movie that is expected to make significant changes to the larger universe. What is now clear is that the Superman of the film universe is still Henry Cavill, and fans are looking forward to whatever that means.
