With Henry Cavill Out, Studio Plans Indicate Superman May Be Race Swapped
Henry Cavill's Superman is out of the DCU, and according to leaker Grace Randolph, the casting call for Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen is looking for actors in their early 20s of any ethnicity.
Imagine, if you can, an alien getting shot across the galaxy to be saved from a dying planet, finally landing lightyears away in the middle of a farm in Smallville, Kansas. Now imagine — and this is a tough one, I admit — imagine that this orphaned alien from a distant world did not look like a midwestern white guy. With James Gunn kicking Henry Cavill to the curb in the Superman franchise, YouTuber Grace Randolph has revealed that Hollywood has put out a casting call for the Superman role — and the role is reportedly “Open to all ethnicities.”
Race-swapping characters in movies, shows, and plays is always the kind of thing that gets angry social media addicts screaming at each other, so if Henry Cavill does get replaced by a Superman with a darker skin tone, prepare to see the same song and dance we always see when this happens. One side of angry people will decry “wokeness,” the other side of angry people will cry racism, and anyone whose opinion doesn’t fall into either camp will be considered a woke racist.
Of course, one possible interpretation of this casting call is that DC plans to choose someone who, like Henry Cavill, resembles the comic book version of Superman but is open to choosing non-white actors for the other two roles they’re casting — Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. While comic fans will complain about any change, race-related or not (does anyone else remember people getting mad that Tim Burton chose the non-square-jawed Michael Keaton as Batman?), a changed side character will probably cause less controversy than changing up the look of a titular character who’s had the same look for more than 80 years.
This is not the first time Grace Randolph has chimed in about who will replace Henry Cavill as Superman on Twitter. Previously, she mused that White Lotus star Adam DiMarco should get the role. However, that wasn’t a prediction so much as it was an unsolicited suggestion.
Randolph, who runs the YouTube channel Beyond the Trailer, is known for movie news, reviews, analysis, and reaction videos. On Twitter, however, she reports rumors and insider information. She reported back in 2021 that Henry Cavill had cut ties with the Superman franchise, gave an inside scoop on LGBTQ representation in Lightyear, and recently reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger decided not to make Daredevil: Born Again R-rated.
Of course, Randolph does have a spotty track record when it comes to these kinds of predictions. Most controversially, she claimed that Pedro Pascal quit halfway through season 2 of The Mandalorian because he wanted to perform with his mask off — something that has proven false with Pascal continuing to star in The Mandalorian Season 3. So, while there might be an all-races casting call aimed at replacing Henry Cavil as Superman, it’s also possible that she is just spreading unsubstantiated rumors — though if it’s real, Laurence Fishburne was a perfect Perry White, so DC has shown they can race swap with some success.
