Henry Cavill in Man of Steel (2013) © Warner Bros. Pictures
Those: Deadline
The chaos in the DC cinema universe, which has now become somewhat confusing, is never ending. After the news of Henry Cavill’s potential return as Superman in a future Warner DC movie last year raised hopes that the Brit, who is popular with Superman fans, would continue to play the man of steel, reports Industry Portal Deadline now that Warner is on a new one Superman-Reboot is working. It is written by the journalist and writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, most of all for his sensational articles for the monthly magazine The Atlantic is known. He’s no stranger to the comic book world either, and has written Marvel stories for Black Panther and Captain America. Of the Superman-Film becomes his first screenplay.
But while Coates is probably not known to most of you, it looks very different with another name behind the production. J.J. Abrams becomes the new one with his company Bad Robot Superman– produce film. The words “Abrams” and “Reboot” in one sentence immediately give many people a strong reaction, as he already has Star Trek and Star Wars left his mark – to the delight of some fans and to the great annoyance of others. There is one thing that Abrams cannot deny – commercially he is usually a hit guarantee and has a good sense of what the mass audience wants to see. Either Star Wars as well as Star Trek achieved new heights at the box office under him, and The Force Awakens is the top-grossing film of all time in North America even after five years (if inflation is not taken into account).
That Abrams now has a new one of all people Superman-Film produces is not without a certain irony and feels like a natural stroke of fate. Even before he was with “Lost” celebrated his big break, Abrams wrote the screenplay for Warner in the early 2000s Superman: Flyby, an origin story of the radiant superhero, directed by McG (Three angels for Charlie), later Wolfgang Petersen (The storm) and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) should take over. As we know, nothing came of it and only Bryan Singer brought Krypton’s son with him in 2006 Superman Returns back, a nostalgic bow to the original films with Christopher Reeve. Almost 20 years after his first attempt at Superman, Abrams may now get the opportunity to bring Superman to the big screen, albeit (for now) only as a producer.
It’s not the only DC project Abrams and Bad Robot are developing for Warner. Over a year ago, the planning of a series and film universe based on the Justice League Dark, an association of unusual, often occult, supernatural heroes from the DC Universe. Abrams is actively involved in creating this universe.
But where is Henry Cavill in the whole thing? Is he out as Superman for good? That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case, because Ben Affleck will soon also return as Batman in The Flash back, although Warner parallel The Batman produced with Robert Pattinson in the title role. But it doesn’t look like we’ll ever get another solo Superman with Cavill. He might appear in another film set in the DCEU, but not in the Shazam!-Sequel, as we recently reported.