Henry Cavill Should Be Furious At The Rock For Killing Any Chance At A Superman Return
Dwayne Johnson's meddling killed chances for Henry Cavill to play Superman, and the Man of Steel star should be furious.
While many people were excited to see James Gunn take over the DCU and bring it in a new direction, many were disappointed that Henry Cavill’s Superman had to be a casualty of the deal. Cavill was pretty disappointed by the decision too, but if there was another party to blame in this debacle, it might just be Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The Black Adam star pushed hard to have Cavill appear in the post-credits scene of his film, which could have very well played into Cavill being dropped from the DCU altogether.
The problem stems back to the Rock insisting on having Henry Cavill appear as Superman in the post-credits scene of Black Adam instead of Zachary Levi’s Shazam. The Wrap posted an article that cited insiders who said that Johnson went out of his way to block a Shazam cameo, which Zachary Levi himself seemingly confirmed by reposting The Wrap article on his Instagram. Maybe things could have gone a different way if Johnson had simply agreed to go up against one of his most common enemies in the comics.
Black Adam was a financial disappointment for the Rock and was met with horrible reviews, which is a fate that Zachary Levi’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently experiencing as well (to an even worse degree). Having Shazam in the post-credits scene of Black Adam instead of Henry Cavill’s Superman could have at least created a connective thread between the two movies and possibly generated some additional hype for the Shazam movie. Instead, the Superman cameo essentially amounted to nothing and ended up being little more than a bit of fan service.
Maybe if the Rock hadn’t forced Henry Cavill into the movie, Gunn and Safran could have saved him for a surprise appearance sometime further down the line. While they’re doing their own Superman movie, it’s always possible to have characters from an alternate timeline. Or, Cavill’s character could have been part of their DC Elseworlds banner aka Matt Reeves’ Batman projects.
Both the Rock and Henry Cavill’s Superman were officially booted from any upcoming fans for the DCU, and there’s pretty much no going back now. Not only did Johnson’s meddling essentially put the nail in the coffin for any future appearances from his character, but Cavill and maybe even Zachary Levi will suffer the consequences of those choices as well. Reports have said that Johnson had been trying to push his character and make him more of a centerpiece of the DCU, which James Gunn and Peter Safran obviously didn’t agree with.
As of now, it’s unclear if Gunn and Safran even have plans for a Black Adam character to appear in their DCU, and if they do it seems highly unlikely the Rock will play him. We know for sure that Superman is a major part of their plans, but they’re going for a much younger version of the character than Henry Cavill’s. That new movie is set to come out in 2025, but we’ll have more DC films on the way before then.
It’s likely that all the blame for Henry Cavill being fired as Superman can’t necessarily be placed on the Rock. Still, DC Films was in a bigger state of flux than it had ever been before, and it was a time for DC actors to lay low rather than muddy the waters. It’s tough to say whether Cavill would still be involved in the DCU in some capacity if he wasn’t in that Black Adam scene, but it probably didn’t help.
